Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 66

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach

Transcript

Jeff Klein  0:11 

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Monday, December 2. This is Jeff Klein, reminding you to take your faith Beyond Sunday and into the week.

Jeff Klein  0:20

Among the Jews, the question of, who is my neighbor?, caused endless dispute. Jesus always sought to broaden the definition beyond those who were the same as us. He included enemies, those who persecute and those with need. Today, our definition of neighbor lines up well with Jesus teaching:everyone you meet is your neighbor. Being a neighbor means not ignoring someone across the world anymore than someone right next to us. Yet ironically, this good, broad understanding has somehow also simultaneously weakened our definition of neighbor. Neighbor has become too metaphorical. If everyone's our neighbor, no one really is in a very concrete way. No one is actually really responsible for anyone anymore. A broad understanding of neighbor has permitted us to ignore our literal neighbors. God has put each one of us in a literal location, in a neighborhood with literal neighbors to literally love and serve. Paul says this in Galatians 5:14: "For the whole law can be summed up in this one command, 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" So who is your literal neighbor that you're called to love?

Jeff Klein  1:32  

Let's pray. God, as we live our lives, help us to open our eyes this week and see the neighbors that are literally right next door. And Lord, help us to find a way to love them during this Advent season. In your name Jesus we pray, amen.