Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Message Transcription

But it's good to be with you this morning. My neighbors, my friends, I'm excited to get to share this message with you. I've been thinking about it for a while now. Fred Rogers, if you don't know much about him as a Presbyterian minister, he grew up in Pennsylvania. He actually went to school for music and was studying to become to work in that industry. And he came home on a visit one weekend and saw and his parents had purchased a television set. And he said immediately, I understood the power of this medium of what might could happen if we could harness a medium like television for good. And so he combined his love of students and children and music and the arts, and he put them together and he created this incredible thing known as Mister Rogers neighborhood. In fact, he was studying to go into ministry, to study theology and and go that route. And he felt he believed, hey, God is calling me. My vocation is to make a difference in the lives of children. And so I've been inspired reading about his story. There are a couple of movies and documentaries out these days. If you haven't seen him, I'd invite you to check them out. Pretty amazing story that I think is at the heart of what we're going to be looking at today. If you have your Bible, invite you to turn over to Matthew five. Those words that Terri read for us just a moment ago about being salt and light.

We're going to think together about that. We're also going to consider a story of what it means to be a neighbor. It's our final week in the series Everyday Disciple. Next week, we're going to launch into a new series we're calling Take Five. And I'm excited for that series. I hope that you'll plan to be here with us for that. But we started off thinking together about what it means to be an everyday disciple, as Jesus gives that amazing, amazing commission on top of that mountain. And Matthew 28, that discipleship is for everyone, every person. And so each and every one of us are invited into being a follower of Jesus. But that's going to require some things of us. And so we spent some time thinking the next week about what it looks like online in our digital lives and how we treat others and how we respect and hold up and accept others. Looking at Jesus, the two things He said mattered most loving God and loving our neighbors. And then we spent some time thinking about what does it look like for for people who are different from us, who have maybe come from a different place, who have a different background, a different understanding, how do we treat those who are sojourners travelers, who are outsiders? We looked at Leviticus 19. If you haven't had a chance to go back and and listen to Spencer's message, invite you to do that, thinking about what it means to to truly live out to others, what God has done for us.

For at one time we were on the outside looking in, but someone reached out and welcomed us with hospitality. Last time we looked at Colossians 13, thinking about whatever you say or do, do it in the name of Jesus, about having a vocation of looking into the world and finding the place where our passion, our desire, our hope meets with the world's great need. And finding that place where God could use us to influence, to bring about the kingdom. And that sometimes it looks like a ministry position, but a lot of times it doesn't. It looks like being a school teacher or a student, or maybe being working in law enforcement or working on a farm. There's a lot of different ways that God combines those passions He gives to each and every one of us with the needs of the world and saying, How can we help bring the kingdom forward? Today we're going to look at what does it mean to be a neighbor, a true neighbor. As I said, we we looked at a minute ago, we heard from Terri thinking about these words in Matthew five. But but as we jump into the lesson, I want to ask you a question. Do you know your neighbors? Do you know the people who live around you? As a question we've asked at several different points throughout our time together, at least in my ten years here at Broadway, thinking about who are the people who actually live next to us, next door to us.

That used to be kind of a thing where you would know that. Now, what Pew Research and others have found is that the older you are, you tend to know more of your neighbors. And maybe that's why we've settled into a place and we've actually had a chance to live there a while. But what they've also shown us is that no matter where you live, whether in a city or out in the country, no matter how old you are, your interactions with your neighbors doesn't change a whole lot. Around half of us know who our neighbours are. This is an interesting study. It actually took place right before COVID began. I'm curious to see what what a study might look like today, to see what, if anything, has changed. But what does it really mean to be a neighbour, to to know someone who lives around you? Well, Jesus is teaching here in Matthew Chapter five. I think a couple of things that come to the heart of what it means to be a neighbor. He says, you are the salt of the earth. Now, remember, we're reading our West Texas version here. So when we see that you we understand that's y'all. You all, as the more sophisticated preacher might say, y'all are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Y'all are the light of the world. A town built on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on it stand and it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way. Let y'all's light shine before others that they may see y'all's good deeds and glorify y'all's father in heaven. You see, Jesus language here is very direct. It's really interesting. If you go back and look at how it was originally written, this is not a you might become this one day. This is you are you are this. You are salt and you are light. Not one day when you get your life cleaned up, you become this. Not. Maybe tomorrow when you feel better, you'll be this. It's. You are this church. Now, you may not always remember that or think about that, but every day you are salt or light. It's just, what kind of salt are you going to be? Are you going to be the kind that brings flavor into the world, that that brings preservation to the lives and the people around you? Or are you going to be good for nothing? Just being something to walk on? Are you going to be the kind of light that shines into the darkness, that brings hope and opportunity, that helps people see a vision of themselves that they can't quite bring themselves to see now, perhaps lighting the way for the kingdom to break through, or are we just a flickering light or maybe a dim bulb? He says, you are salt, you are light.

So I ask again, Church, do you know your neighbors? Do you know the people who are around you? And this morning, I want us to think beyond just our literal neighbors, the people who live next door to us, or maybe in front or behind us. But but who are your neighbors at work? Who are the people that you share that cubicle with or or share that office space with? Who are the students that sit around you each day in your classes? Who are the coworkers that you encounter in in different places in our community, the the people that you engage with at a store or at a restaurant. Who are your neighbors? As a church. One of the commitments we've made is trying to get to know our neighbors, to be salt and light in our community. And so I invite you to go check out a couple of books if you're trying to, to wrestle with How do I do this in my little neighborhood? There's a couple you may remember a few years ago, Rick Russell came and spoke to us about neighboring the art of neighboring. He he's written a book called The Neighboring Church.

It's a fantastic resource. Or maybe you're familiar with Kristen Shell and her book, The The Turquoise Table, where she was trying to make a difference in her community, didn't know how it didn't know where to begin. So she had a picnic table kind of in her front yard. She decided to paint it turquoise and just sit there and have lunch at it each day. And then anybody who would walk along, she would just say, Hello, my name is Kristen. Who are you? Do you live around here? And just start up conversations. This is an incredible resource about different, practical, simple ways to be neighbors in the communities that God has placed us. I bring this up also because we have a really significant opportunity tomorrow. It's called Labor Day. Most, if not all of us have the day off. Our office buildings are closed. Many of us will have neighbors with cookouts. Maybe we're going to be hosting a cookout. It's like Halloween. It's this it's this opportunity where you can be in the neighborhood and ask people questions and you don't come off looking weird or creepy because everybody's out doing it. Everybody's out getting to know each other. We we take advantage of this opportunity to just reach across the street, reach across the neighborhood, across the alleyway, invite someone over. Get to know them. Maybe some of you want to start your day the way that several in our city are going to start, and that's with our Habitat for Humanity blitz build.

We have a chance to literally build a house for a couple of neighbors that live in our city. We can come alongside them and work shoulder to shoulder with other believers and other folks here in Lubbock who want to make a difference in our community to be a neighbor. It's incredible opportunity for you. If you would like to know more, we have lots of other ideas. See, Jesus taught us a lot about engaging with our neighbors. In fact, maybe his most famous stories in Luke Chapter ten. If you have again your Bible, turn over to Luke ten or you can follow along on the slides. I'm going to walk us through the story about being a neighbor. It's a story that begins with a question, but the question isn't, do you know your neighbor? Actually, the question is, Lord Rabbi, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? But I want to make sure I've got this whole following God thing down correctly. Can you just clarify one last thing to make sure I can put it in the bank? Who tells us Jesus is being tested by this expert in the law, a lawyer, and so Jesus responds to him the way that he often would respond to a question like that. He responds with a question, Well, you know the law. You know the rules. How do you read it? And lawyer actually responds with a pretty good response.

Love, God, love your neighbor. He's clearly read Deuteronomy six, Leviticus 19. He understands all the concepts that are going on in this and and he answers correctly, love God and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. But sensing the test, or rather Jesus responds then to Him with. That's right. You've answered correctly if you live this way. If you will do this, you'll live. Now the expert in law quickly realizes the test is getting off the rails. And so he's trying to bring it back around again to to make sure his point comes across. And so he says, well, who is my neighbor? Now, just who is my neighbor? It's a common question. Maybe, in fact, one that you asked yourself just a minute ago when I asked you, do you know your neighbors well? Who is my neighbor? You see, the lawyer illustrates how we often connect Jesus instruction to our discipleship, right? If Jesus gives us a command, we want to know exactly how to fulfill it, how to live it out so that we can be right. And maybe I'm just showing you my my Church of Christ card here. But that question carries a lot of weight, right? We want to be right. We want to do the right thing. We want to say the right thing. So I've got to know what are the rules? What are the parameters? What's the criteria? Who is my neighbor? Because I want to make sure that I know who that is.

Right. Because I know if I know that well, then I'll be the neighbor I need to be. Because Jesus told me to. I mean, isn't that right? As long as we know we recognize them, they will know. But we also recognize once we realize who is our neighbor, it comes with some implications, doesn't it? It comes with some obligations that if you're going to be my neighbor, if I'm going to consider you that way, then that means I owe you something. There's a little transaction going on here. So the question rather the answer to this question, it's it's going to determine a lot about how my life goes. I mean, think about the implications of this question in our day when it comes to people who've been displaced from their home countries by war or famine or disease. Are they? My neighbor. I mean, if so, then that means something about me and how I respond to that. But if not, there's somebody else's problem. I don't have to worry about it. I mean, think about the implications to to all the different groups in our culture this day. Different race, different gender, different orientation. Are these people my neighbors? If so, does that require me to or obligate me to something to live a particular way or or can I just say, no, they're not my neighbor. That's not my problem. That's a you problem, not a me problem. See, we have this advantage too often.

I like this lawyer. I try to come up with an answer to who is my neighbor in a way that helps build up and keep in place maintain strength in my social, economic, political, religious structures. Right. Because I know there's a lot at stake. If suddenly more people become my neighbors, it costs me more. And I like my stuff. I like holding on to my way of life. It's comfortable. It's convenient. See, we have an advantage to keeping things a particular way. So this question is not just a simplistic one. That person literally lives next door to you. You and I both know that doesn't make a neighbor a neighbor. I've lived next door to a lot of people. That hadn't made them my neighbors. You see, that was certainly the case in this story with this lawyer, with this culture that Jesus was living in. The answer to that question was significant. So Jesus answers the lawyers question with a story again. One of the things he often would do. But it's a story about a man who's on this road and he's traveling down it and he's assaulted, attacked by a group of robbers and bandits. And they beat him up and they take his stuff and they literally strip him naked and they leave him on the side of the road. And Jesus says a couple of people come walking by a priest and a Levite, and these are men with status who are important, who recognize if I stop to help this person, it's going to cost me something.

And they do a little cost benefit analysis just like we all do. And they decide to pass by on the other side, but then comes along this Samaritan, he's the outcast of all the people on the planet who should stop and help. This is not the person to do it. And he does it. And not only does he stop and help, but he bandages his wounds, he clothes him, he puts him on his donkey, takes him to the hospital to be cared for and watched over, and then says, if there's a bill, I'll pay it. A powerful story that you can imagine. The air was thick. With curiosity, how is this going to land? How will this lawyer respond? Then Jesus ends with a question. Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? He knows how Jesus changes the question. That no longer does he define neighbor by some external quality or characteristic meaning. You have to meet certain criteria for me to consider you a neighbor instead, he says. Who was the neighbor? You see his followers of Jesus. If we're going to be disciples every day disciples, we have to wrestle with the reality that neighbor is not a term that applies to someone else.

Neighbor is a personal pronoun. It's not about them. It's about me. It's not. Are they living in such a way that they deserve? Are they worthy of my friendship and respect and admiration and help? It's am I the kind of person who gives help because I have been helped? Am I the kind of person who gives compassion because I have been shown incredible compassion? Am I the kind of person who gives generously because I have been given to generously? See, the truth is and research bears it out, as we saw with our Pew Research just a couple of minutes ago. It doesn't matter how old you are or where you live. Those aren't the determining factors for being neighbors. I mean, I know who my neighbor is, my wife, my kids, my family, my my friends, my inner circle, my my outer circle, my coworker. I know what they need, and yet I still struggle to do it. It's not as simple as well. If I just knew who it was, well, then I would do. No, no, no. What we find over and over again, not only in the testimony of statistical analysis. But in the testimony of our own hearts. It's not a knowledge problem. See, Jesus flips it around and says, actually, the key to life in eternity is not figuring out how to get other people right. It's how to get your heart in the right place. Sometimes I mistakenly assume that if I know who my neighbors are, then I can help them.

But it's just not true. And that's why Jesus asks us a better question, a different question. Will you be the neighbor? That's the question that exposes what's going on really deep inside of our hearts. Will we be a neighbor? That's the question that interrogates and invites us to consider a different kind of reality, a different kind of life that we might live. So it's the kind of question that a disciple of Jesus wrestles with. Because He recognizes Jesus is the perfect example of what a neighbor is. All throughout the epistles, we hear letters of Jesus followers who write and talk to us about what it means to live a life of discipleship. A life marked by love and joy and peace that comes not from. Owning something or someone. That comes by being willing to be humble. To submit your life to someone. Just the way that Jesus submitted his life for us. So I guess I need to go back and amend the original question that I asked you all at the beginning of my message. Do you know who your neighbors are? And I guess I should ask it this way. Will you be a neighbor? This week at school. When you walk into that lunch room, you see that kid that everybody laughs at. He's that kid, right? Will you be a neighbor? Teachers when you see that student struggling.

Wondering. Will you be a neighbor? When you work in an office. We're going to restaurant, whoever it may be. Will you be a neighbor? See, that's the question that that drives us deeper into what it means to be a disciple. Will we be the salt and the light that actually makes a difference in the world that shines hope and to dark situations that brings flavor to life that sometimes seems really stale. The same old, same old. Church Will you be a neighbor? Let's pray, Father. We long to be everyday disciples. Disciples who take seriously your word. Who takes seriously your call. But we take it seriously. God, not because we're afraid that you're going to send us to hell. The father because we recognize we're already living in it. If you don't choose your way. You don't have to send us anywhere for us to experience the brokenness. Of a life that's built on selfishness. And just satisfying our own desires. But, God, you offer us a different kind of life. That kind of life that's not measured by this external criteria that the world says really values really matters. And said, God, we can we can be a part of your kingdom breaking through. The kind of kingdom that can work anywhere and through any one. You can work through a young man who thought he was going to spend his whole life singing and writing music to perform. Earned lots of money and fame. Instead. Decided to take the passion that you'd given him for music and the arts.

I want to make a difference in the lives of children. In fact, he wrote that song we sang just. A few minutes ago. Because he wanted every kid who watched his show to know you have a place that you matter. You got over 50 years later, we could still sing that song. I still sing it almost 50 years later from memory. Oh, God. What work might you want to do with us here at Broadway? What difference might you want to make in our city? With our children. With our neighbors. God may begin by by us being ruthlessly honest with ourselves and listening to the question that Jesus asked so many years ago, but still echoes throughout the ages into our hearts today. Will we be the neighbor? We be a neighbor. Oh, God. Would you give us courage this week and the places that you've placed us to be? The salt and the light. Gao, would you give us eyes to see in ears to hear and compassion and courage to respond, God, whatever it may be, knowing and trusting and believing that you can do amazing things through your humble servants. Father, would you help us to be your disciple? Every day we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Church If there's any way that we can help you take your next step on this discipleship journey. Once you come, let's stand. And let's worship our great God.