Today at church our exploration led us to that famous passage in Mark 12 where Jesus is asked the question about the greatest command. “Of the 613 laws, Jesus, which is the greatest?” You don’t even have to be a Christian to be at least vaguely familiar with how Jesus answered that question: “Love God with everything you have. And love your neighbor as yourself.”
I didn’t spend very much time unpacking the neighbor bit as I assumed that we all know that neighbor represents everyone in the world not just the folks next door or across the street.
What I did speak to was how difficult this is for us. From an early age we are taught a very important rule: Don’t talk to strangers. And wisely so. However, as an adult I’m constantly having to retrain myself that I, in fact, should talk to strangers for they are my neighbors. And when Jesus quoted that Levitical law that I should love them he was, in essence, saying that I should take the needs of my neighbors (the world) seriously. I can’t do that unless I listen.
So listen to this: Did you know that 1 billion people don’t have access to clean water? Did you know that 1 child dies every 15 seconds due to illnesses obtained because of infected water? Did you know that 25,000 people die a day because of dirty water?
CCFB is listening. These folks are our neighbors. We will do something. More on this as the week unfolds.
Filed under: CCfB, church, preaching, sermon series, Uncategorized
Great post! I think it is important to help all of those around us.
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