“And Like a Good Neighbor…”

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

It’s a beautiful day out today.

One of the joys of coming here to Highland each month is walking outside at night, looking up, and seeing the vast uncountable sea of stars, billions and billions, so bright and clear and twinkling. Each point of Ursa Major so well-defined the constellation makes sense as a big bear and not just as the big dipper I can still see in New York. How bright they must be that I see the dipper even over the artificial glare we’ve made that hides them from us. There are so many blurring into the Milky Way that I can take off my glasses and still see it stretching across the sky from end to end. What a promise God made to Abraham! “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. (Gen. 22:17-18)

Zechariah, when his tongue was loosed after the naming of John, later to be called John the Baptist, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: the promise is being fulfilled. 

[72] to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
[73] the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
[74] that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
[75] in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

[78] because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
[79] to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:72–75,78–79)

…

Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, writes,

[16] yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

[7] Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. [8] And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” [9] So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

[10] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Galatians 2:16, 3:7-9)

…

[25] And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25)

Do?

Out of faith Abraham obeyed God’s voice, and kept his charges, his commandments, his statutes, his laws. Out of faith a blessing has been given all the nations. Now comes this lawyer seeking a quid pro quo, an exchange, this for that. But it’s a trick question: an inheritance is not earned; it’s undeserved. No matter how obsequiously attentive we are to the rich relative, an inheritance is a gift. The lawyer should know this.

And he’s a good lawyer. He knows the law. He knows the answer to his test. He quotes Deuteronomy and Leviticus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

“Do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:29)

This answer is also not new.

Moses laid out blessings and curses before the people of Israel.

[26] “‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

[1] “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. (Deuteronomy 27:26, 28:1)

[58] “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, … [then] Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 28:58,62)

“Choose life.”

It’s an open book test. Everyone has the answers right in front of them.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life? The same question is asked by the rich man in Luke 18:18. The rich man who knew and kept the commandments, or thought he had, save one: his wealth came before God.

“Do this, and you will live.”

That’s impossible! How could anyone perfectly comply?

The lawyer putting the test is a good lawyer. He attends to the details. And so, desiring to justify himself, that is, to save himself, to seek acceptance from God on man’s terms, on his own merits, by his own work, asks, “And who is my neighbor?”

There’s always an out, some easy way to comply — and yet not comply. John Calvin notes in his commentary on this text that “the hypocrisy of men is detected by means of the second table [of the Ten Commandments] — for, while they pretend to be worshippers of God, they openly violate charity towards their neighbors.”

“Who is my neighbor?”

The lawyer wants to know, to whom is he obliged?

In English we clarify neighbors by their distance from us: our next-door neighbor, the neighbor down the street. The Greek word used in the text is an adverb meaning near. The Hebrew word means, if I understand correctly, to associate, more or less closely, and as a noun can vary in meaning from another to lover. So it’s not exactly inappropriate to ask “Who is near to me?”

And so a parable is told. The two who know the Law cannot bring themselves to help the dying man. They stay far, far away. But the enemy of the people, the Samaritan, traveling in the land of his enemies, does. He shows compassion for the dying man, tends his wounds, gives generously to pay for lodging, and places himself at risk to do so.

“Which of these,” Jesus asks, “proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (Luke 10:36) Another translation gives this as “Who turned out to be next to the man who ran into the bandits?” It could be rendered as, “Who came near the man?”

In the parable Jesus doesn’t answer the question “Who is my neighbor?” He answers others: “What does it mean to be a neighbor? How can I be a neighbor? To whom?” Compassion. Mercy. Generous care. To anyone. Come near anyone in need.

“Who are the people in my neighborhood? They’re the people that you meet when you’re walking down the street. They’re the people that you meet each day.” (Sesame Street)

It’s not like we weren’t given examples. The Law and Prophets taught this in Leviticus

[9] “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. [10] And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.

[11] “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. [12] You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.

[13] “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. [14] You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.

[15] “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. [16] You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD.

[17] “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. [18] You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

[33] “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. [34] You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:9–18, 33-34)

And in the book of the prophet Micah:

[6] “With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?

[7] Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

[8] He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6–8)

Christ reiterates the lesson. As Calvin put it in his commentary, “to make any person our neighbor, it is enough that they be a man; for it is not in our power to blot out our common nature … [T]he compassion which an enemy showed … demonstrates that the guidance and teaching of nature are sufficient to show … there is a mutual obligation between all men.” 

Even the Greeks recognized mutual obligations among men: how else could a city function? But we’re inclined to limit the scope to our families, our kin, our townsmen, our countrymen. Instead of neighbors we have fellow citizens and paisanos. And many days not even that. We are divided against each other, tempted to violent hate, very little understanding and much demonization.

Today’s reading from the letter to the Galatians left off Paul’s introduction. He writes, 

[13] For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. [14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [15] But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (Galatians 5:13–15)

We love imperfectly, incompletely. Thank God there’s grace enough to go around.

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

With God’s help we shall keep this law.

For it’s a beautiful day for a neighborhood.