From YourSITE.com
Monday Moment: August 27, 2007
By Dr. Michael Halleen
Aug 27, 2007, 12:24
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)
A telemarketer for a lawn service spent fifteen minutes persuading me of the value of aerating our lawn. He made the sale and then took another few moments trying to identify possible barriers to carrying out the service successfully. Any locked gates? . . . Guard dogs? . . . Underground sprinkler system? No, the only boundary that might interfere—my reluctance to spend money—had already been crossed.
The man who asked “Who is my neighbor?” was trying to justify boundaries with which he was comfortable. We draw such lines to help us define our perspective on the world, but they need continually to be reexamined. Immovable walls are a mark of small lives and locked doors a sign of closed minds. We benefit, on the other hand, when we take the risk of broadening our familiar paths. Friendship circles widened, denominational distinctions ignored, self-images redrawn—all can serve to expand our horizons. A high school friend whom I had not seen in thirty years encouraged me in a career change by telling me he had done it twice and each time it gave him an opportunity to grow well beyond the limits he had imagined for himself.
A story is told about some soldiers in France during World War I who brought the body of a dead comrade to a church cemetery for burial. The local priest said he was sorry but he could not bury anyone there who had not been baptized. So the soldiers sadly buried the body just outside the cemetery fence. Next morning they returned to leave some money for the upkeep of the grave but could not find it. Bewildered, they looked for the priest, and he led them to a spot just inside the cemetery wall. He had been bothered by his denial of their request, and early that morning he had moved the fence to include the grave of their friend. Old rules had established a boundary, but compassion had moved it.
Jesus told us to love our neighbors (i.e., to be kind and truthful toward them; he never said we had to like them). Such neighbors may or may not fall within familiar and comfortable boundaries of race, class, religion, nationality, etc. Anyone close enough for me to touch and who needs my care falls within the circle of “neighbor.” And once he or she gets a foot in that door—as the lawn service guy did—none of the lesser barriers really matter.
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