Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Make-Believe
March 25, 2009, posted by Jeff, under Practicing Church Stories, The Practicing Church | | 1 Comment
This article was written by a good friend about a practicing experience she had this week:
For the last two & 1/2 years we have been living in the bottom floor of a 3 story apt. complex. We are literally surrounded by neighbors. It turns out that “loving my neighbor as myself” was much easier for me when we had a garage and fenced back yard to hide in.
Simple Command
This seemingly simple command is actually the hardest of all. Why? Because if you let your neighbor in you open yourself up to constant disruption. It’s very close proximity for too much familiarity, right?
Last night
Last night we had settled in for a little conversation time before my husband was off to a meeting when we got the knock. Our neighbor directly above us is a single mom. She has two kids 13 and 9, and works hard for her living – driving semi-trucks. I drive her kids to school, feed them breakfast, listen for them at night when I know they are home alone and complain about the whole situation with the condescension only a married woman in a two-parent household can.
Past Asking
She has asked for me to
and on and on.
I say to myself, “Boundaries must be set! I have kids with learning issues and a husband in grad. school working two other jobs. I’ve nothing left to give.”
Doesn’t she see this?
What about me? This is what I think. This is what I hear from friends like me.
Safe. Fed. With futures. How did we get so self focused?
Justice In the Burbs
In Will and Lisa Sampsons’ book Justice in the Burbs I read a devotional by Claudia Mair Burney that just blew me away. It changed my heart.
Jesus lives next door. He’s an eight year old girl and her three year old brother. The Son of Man looks like those starving Ethiopian children. He only gets breakfast and lunch at school, when he makes it. His mama is a crack whore. Nobody knows where his daddy is. I heard his mama lets her “johns” do things to him. Poor King of Kings.
Jesus is two houses down and has six children. Now he’s pregnant with the seventh. I don’t know if he hasn’t figured out what birth control is, or what, but how does he expect his husband to feed all those babies on that salary? and you know with all those kids the Lord of Lords can’t work. That means hardworking taxpayers’ money has to go for Christs’ food stamps. He needs to get fixed!
The Lord is a crazy man-paranoid schizophrenic. If he doesn’t take his medication he walks up and down the street cussing and spitting on everybody he passes. He’s homeless. Nobody knows where his family is-if he’s got one. Digs out of the trash cans for food. Somebody ought to get him off the street.
Jesus is nothing but a nuisance. I’m starting to see the Son of God everywhere I go. He’s always crying or begging or looking pitiful. Why doesn’t He pull Himself up by His bootstraps? This is America, makes me so mad. He’s ruining our neighborhood. Somebody ought to do something about him. Somebody.
Least of These vs. Self-Preservation
This just brings me to my knees. Jesus reminds us that if we’ve cared for the least of these we’ve cared for Him. My own self-preservation is strong, it wants to focus on me and mine. God and Jesus ask what about your neighbor?
This very principle – the God has put you in my path way of living – is the cornerstone of faith and service, one we hide away from, scared of the real cost. I’m learning that hiding from needs isn’t living at all but rather defending a world that isn’t real anyway.
I saw Jesus eating from a garbage can outside a convenience store in my neighborhood (seems like he gets around, doesn’t it?). He was drinking what was left in plastic bottles and munching on the last couple bites of a Taco Bell burrito as he dug deeper for more. I asked him if I could buy him some food inside, and he said yes. Cost me $11.00 to feed him. I’m thinking I might see him again sometime soon.