28 February 2006

Walter Brueggemann continues to write of the covenanting with neighbors.

It is a truism that charity begins at home. It is, however, an equal truism that familiarity breeds contempt, that those closest to us can be intensely problematic for us. And if that were not tough enough, Jesus has widened the horizon of neighborliness to include stranger, alien, foreigner, and even enemy. Neighborliness is difficult in any case, but then we must introduce into the calculus the reality of power relations between the stronger and the weaker.

There are quite a variety of folk that fall into the category of neighbor. It means we are invited to engage people that would not usually play a part in the lives we would choose for ourselves. Let me give you an example. Yesterday I was at a Walgreens buying a tube of toothpaste. The line was long and there was an announcement that the cashier at the photo lab could take check people out. I turned and started walking there. Two women were ahead of me. By the time I was at the counter the first woman had left and the second woman asked for a pack of a certain brand and size of cigarettes (only sold at the front of the store at that check out counter). The young man said I don't sell them here and I just told the last customer that. Well, with young child at her side, this woman started cursing the young man so much he walk to the front of the store, came back with a pack of cigarettes (the right kind but the wrong size - the only ones they had) to which she cursed at him again threw her gum on the counter with a $20 bill while her young boy looked on quite amazed. The guy behind the counter was flustered but he was patiently kind to her and then greeted me. Neighborliness can be real tough...real tough. And yet, it is also so important to each of us because it helps to shape our individual character and then that of the whole community.

Connection: We are not meant to be mats for people to walk on. But we are called to love our neighbor. Sometime today, we may all have the opportunity to deal with what that means for us as we encounter the neighbors around us.

In every age, O God, you create communities. No one is ever left alone. It is in the midst of others that our individual lives take shape for in the community, we experience the power of your Spirit taking us beyond ourselves. Thanks to you our God and our Lord of Life. Amen.