Thursday - Act On It - Neighbours to Acquaintances
Time and availability allows us to get acquainted with those near us. You may be discouraged, thinking I’m talking about adding things to your already busy schedule. Sometimes that’s necessary, but usually it’s just about making intentional choices to Love God, Love Neighbour in the midst of daily life.
Think about your downtime – how can downtime connect me with neighbours?
First, be interruptible. I used to have a retired neighbour who was often outside, and always up for a chat. His availability meant I could ask him for a ladder, to get the mail while we were away, etc. My availability to stop and chat meant he could ask me questions about the theology of the church he grew up attending.
You can also make other choices. Stick around on weekends instead of going away. Play in the front yard instead of the back. Putter around your garden, walk the neighbourhood, and read on your porch.
Ask questions, talk about the weather, laugh about something that happened. Ask for referrals – who did your driveway/kitchen/landscaping? Ask about the neighbourhood – how’s X doing? Share something – let someone park in your driveway for a party, or share newspapers.
As you do, get to know their name, and then a bit of their story.
Challenge: Look at your calendar and see how you spend your time over the last two weeks. Reflect on how this compares with your priorities. How can you spend more time with your neighbours, to get acquainted?
Jesus always has the Pharisees, or religious lawyers, in mind as he teaches.
Pharisees were essentially seeking a checklist of laws they can work through.
Jesus says that wasn’t the point of the law. Look back to the beatitudes, the content that we started this series with. Jesus was always expanding the law to look at our motivations, not just outward actions we can check off our do/don't do list.
It's a good thing, because we know life isn’t like that. Life throws stituations at all of us that we never anticipated, and could never have listed in advance.
Jesus describes keeping God’s law with this line: So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
He goes on to recognize, this is no checklist, this is very difficult: narrow gate to pass through.
Baggage doesn’t fit. All your religious background, credentials, money, power, etc. all get left behind if you want to go through this gate.
Every human can go through this door if we are willing to let go of all the sin baggage that keeps us from God.
The narrow path – or the cramped path – does not allow us to take with us the things we can carry on the broad path. What are those things?
Our failure to live this way, to go through Jesus’ narrow door, is due to our self-centeredness.
We are instinctively self-centered, self-loving. Fall.
40% of millenials say that "being self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is helpful for succeeding in a competitive world."
Almost 80% say that their friends use social media for those reasons.
So Jesus uses that against us. Uses our self-love to love others. He redeems our self-love.
Self-love is powerful. Usually our guide – now Jesus says it’s for others, too.
Jesus calls us to an awareness of others as God’s beloved children, too.
We’re not the only ones.
Prevents need for endless rules for every situation. Put self in other’s shoes.
Question: Describe the most self-centered person you know. What do you have in common with them? What characteristics do you share? Why is this so hard to admit?
Challenge #2: Try to complete the second part of grid: one fact you know about them. Not sure what we mean? Click here: https://www.redeemthecommute.com/2013/09/18/strangerstoneighbours or look under Extras.