Who is Our Neighbor?

From the Salvation Army, you're listening to Wonderful Words of Life. Welcome back to Wonderful Words of Life. We are glad that you're here.

I'm Bernie Dake and I'm Jimmy Taylor. And Jimmy, it's been a real pleasure having you here. You know, traveling this far is not the most glamorous of tasks that you would do as a Salvation Army officer, but it's got to be good to be back in Atlanta for you. It is. It's always good to be back in Atlanta.

I love it here. Well, I think you need to do this again sometime. Yeah, we'll see. This is our final episode on this series by Rob and Heather Dolby called The Least of These. And I've been encouraged by it, not only just hearing their thoughts and biblical challenge to us, but Jimmy's thoughts and hearing more about the Salvation Army's work where you serve.

Any thoughts on what you've heard this series, Jimmy? You know, I think it just comes down to ministry. Ministry is dirty. Ministry is messy. Ministry is rewarding.

Ministry can let you down. But what is the end goal, right? What is the end goal? Are people's lives being transformed?

Are people's hearts being regenerated? Are people being saved? And, you know, I just echo what Paul says, to live is Christ and to die is gain. I hope that's truly what I desire, that in the midst of everything, in the midst of what I go through, the heartache, the heartbreak, that the reward is greater than my own self. And when the end of my days, when Christ calls me, he calls me faithful, and he says, well done, and you've done exactly what I've asked you to do. You've loved those unlovable people, and you've seen the least of these for what they are and what I've created them to be.

Yeah. I think for our listeners, I do want to say this. The Salvation Army doesn't believe that your faith is based on your works, but certainly faith without works is dead. So as a Salvation Army, there's so many practical opportunities for you to serve, to live out your faith in a sense, even if it's just giving an hour or a part of a day to come alongside a community where we're serving. So I want to encourage our listeners to understand that you are a child of God and that there are people that live in and around your community that are also a child of God that might look a little different.

And we're speaking particularly of homeless individuals, people that have come into our programs. We want to encourage you to just help us however you can. I want to say thank you to Captain Taylor and for his wife, Ashley, for letting him go and his children. That's right. Thank you.

So he could record this series. And we want to say, we hope that you've enjoyed this series. I know for me, it was challenging and hopefully a wake up call to many as we strive to do a better job meeting the needs of marginalized and sometimes forgotten people in our society.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this series. So send us an email at radio at uss.salvationarmy.org. And to learn more about our upcoming Easter series that starts next week, visit salvationarmysoundcast.org.

Thanks for joining us on Wonderful Words of Life and God bless you. Today, we're speaking about who is our neighbor impacting a community by getting to know who's around you. So we began this conversation in Luke chapter 10, and we talked about the good Samaritan.

Who is your neighbor? Well, that's how the story kind of ends. You know, after Jesus gives this narrative of these three folks that have a very different response to someone who's in need, someone who's broken, beaten, literally on the ground. The first guy we know walks away. The second guy looks, checks it out a little bit, kind of hovers over him and then walks away. But the third guy, the Samaritan, has a response in fullness, a kingdom response, where he not only meets those needs, but sets this guy up for success.

The kingdom shows up and changes everything. The end of that story, you know, will the religious people, when Jesus questions them, so what do you think about this? One of the questions they throw back is, who is your neighbor?

And that's a tricky question, right? Because truthfully, the parable that Jesus told, those like four dudes might not even have known one another, right? So the priest and the Levite and the Samaritan and the busted up dude, they might not have known one another. So your neighbor doesn't necessarily mean it's like the dude you grew up living next door to for the last 20 years, right? But it's this idea of what it means to be a neighbor to the world around you.

Right. And this idea of who is our neighbor, I mean, that literally is who is our neighbor, like the person that lives next door to me. But also we live in a world with so many different cultures all around us.

So when we ask who is our neighbor, you know, who, who, who's a part of the different cultures, the people groups all around us and culture not only quantify to something about skin color or what language you speak, but the culture that you're living in. So Jesus says, which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? And the expert of the law replied, the one who had mercy on him, Jesus told him, go and do likewise.

Right. So what we learn from this, again, it's not an account, it's a story Jesus told. So it didn't actually happen, but the truth is in our lives, it's happening every single day. So in every single day, we have opportunities if we will look with eyes of mercy to see people who have a need.

Sure. Because there was three different guys that saw this situation, saw this guy who was beaten on the ground, right? But the one who is the neighbor, if we want to be a neighbor in the way Jesus is talking about it and teaching about it, it's the one who saw and had compassion. And that compassion meant more than just feeling something. There was an action behind that compassion.

Absolutely. And it was a risky compassion. Like, we can't pretend that the story's hero who was a Samaritan wasn't a shock to the people that were listening. Like, we know with our scriptural context that the Jews felt some kind of way about the Samaritans. They viewed them as less than they viewed them as those who were beneath them.

So for Jesus to make a Samaritan, the hero of a story where their own cultural heroes, the priests and the Levites fell short, that would have been shocking. Right. So, you know, we have literal neighbors, people that literally live next door to us.

Those are our neighbors. But we also live in a world and engage all kinds of different cultures. I mean, as the world is more and more connected, I feel like we have the opportunity to know more and more people in different kinds of people. And so when you think of that Samaritan was someone who maybe was a little bit misunderstood. The way that they lived, the way that they chose to worship, the way that they viewed God didn't quite fit with the religious establishment and people struggled on how to reach out to them. So they were kind of excluded, kind of, you know, out in the wilderness. And I wonder in our own culture, are there people groups who are kind of placed in that same category a little bit in the wilderness?

They don't quite line up with what we believe. So it's kind of easier just to leave those people groups, those cultures that are different off to the side and not necessarily find ways to build bridges. That's right. And so I love how Jesus here, He doesn't make the response about who was doing it, their nationality, where they were born, what they did. He was just looking for those who would walk in mercy. That was the example He was holding up to His people. It wasn't just enough to say you were Jewish, to say that you followed Moses. It wasn't enough. It was that you need to walk that out with hands and feet.

You needed to have love in action. And so I feel like that could translate nowadays to saying it's not just enough to say I'm a Christian or to wear a Christian t-shirt or back in the day when we had those, what would Jesus do, bracelets. You literally need to be willing to do the stuff that Jesus is asking you to do, even if it puts you in an uncomfortable situation. I don't know what it was like for the Samaritan to stop and to kneel down next to the broken Jewish man and to minister to him. Who knows what experiences Samaritans had had at the hands of the Jews and that oppression or the degradation, but that that person made a decision in their heart to do what was merciful and what was right. And that is an example to us.

Right. God, God moved them in that moment, right? His Holy Spirit came in the fullness of compassion and created a response because that person was open, you know, and the Jews then they lived in a very polarized world. There was nationalism and there was political arguments. There was a lot of political tension in the air as you walked through that area in this place where Jesus was telling the story. And I can't help but reflect in the world we're living in today, all over the world and the news cycle, there's so much political tension and all of that just really oftentimes builds walls.

I heard this quote, you know, that we need to invest in building larger tables to fit more people on than building taller walls. And I think there's something to that. Sure. Well, you know, this whole parable kicks off because a teacher of the law just wanted to test Jesus and mess with him.

Right. And be like, well, what do I do to inherit eternal life? Like, how do I guarantee my spot in heaven or how do I know that my life is going to be meaningful? And Jesus takes that moment, you know, a fellow asking a sarcastic, sassy question and he flips it into a teaching moment. And he says to treat people mercifully. That's his heart is to treat people mercifully, not just your own people, your own kind, but anyone that I bring into your midst. So how do how do I do that in my everyday life? You know, it's great to minister to the person, my coworkers and whoever God places in front of me.

But how do I intentionally go out into the world, into the culture that I live in and find my neighbor? Yeah, I think that some of the answers we've discovered along the way look like staying close to Jesus. Looks like keeping in step with his Holy Spirit. Looks like when we go out, we recognize that it's not just the stuff we have to give away, but the testimony and the experiences that Jesus has done in our own lives that can bring about transformation and also that he doesn't need us, but he invites us to be a part of that.

Sure. We also talked about counting the cost. So maybe part of counting that cost is I have to choose to be in convenience to put myself in situations or respond differently in situations that make me uncomfortable so that I can be a part of God's kingdom purpose, not only in understanding my neighbor, but in being a good neighbor.

You know, we can talk about all the scriptures and come to a great theological understanding of who is our neighbor. But that doesn't answer the question of go and do likewise, right? Like that's not a philosophical theological thing. It is.

But there's an action step to that, which is go. Absolutely. So as we go, what do we bring with us? We bring our salvation testimony. We bring the gifts and the talents that God has placed in us. And we bring the opportunity to choose to be inclusive and to serve and to disciple others.

Sure. And as we reach out, what are we inviting people back into? It's been good to be with you and have this conversation around the least of these. And as we've asked today, who is our neighbor and how are we going to go and do likewise? We hope that we get to answer that question together. These have been really good conversations to have, and this stuff is really worth talking about.

But these are the kind of conversations that we continue to have as we grow in our faith and in our revelation of who Jesus is and what he is inviting us to and redeeming the whole world for him. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support.

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