< BACK TO SERMON INDEX

My Neighbor
November 15, 1998

Glory to Jesus Christ!

"And he, being willing to justify himself, asked him ‘And who is my neighbor?’"

As I read this passage from the Gospel, I couldn’t help think of the recent testimony offered by President Clinton. When asked a particular question, he responded by this request: "Define the word ‘is.’" You have to question the motive when someone asks "Define the word ‘is.’" One gets the impression that the person might be being a little evasive. Perhaps he really doesn’t want to answer the question.

Our Gospel today questions the motive of the lawyer who approached Christ and asked him, "And who is my neighbor?" The Gospel passage indicates that he was "desiring to justify himself" when he asked this question. In other words, the question was not authentic. His agenda could not be found in the literal meaning of his question. There was something else going on. His real motive was to be found elsewhere. He was not simply confused about who was his neighbor and who was not. Rather, the Gospel is pointing out that he was concerned to justify his own correctness. He desired to show himself before the group assembled there with Jesus as an astute interpreter of the Law. His question, then, had really nothing to do with his neighbor and everything to do with himself. In fact, the very moment that he posed the question concerning his neighbor, he was actually evading his neighbor.

What do I mean? How could he be evading his neighbor by asking a question about him? There are several reasons that make it clear he was actually being evasive, evading his neighbor, evading the real impact of Christ’s words.

One way he was doing it was by turning it into a theological discussion. Perhaps you’ve met people who seem to have a boundless capacity for theological discussions. As priests we certainly do meet people who are willing to go on and on and on discussing religious questions with very little interest in actually doing the Lord’s will. Perhaps this is what our lawyer was up to. He wanted to turn the issue of loving one’s neighbor into a theological question - "Who is my neighbor?" He wanted to indulge in an academic exercise: "And so, Jesus, let’s explore the concept of neighborliness. What is the meaning of ‘love’ as we hear it in your words? Let us discuss the essence of community. What are the limits of diversity and tolerance?" Of course, all these are very deep, very profound questions that can be discussed in an academic sense.

We use an expression in the English language when discussing a matter that has become irrelevant: "it’s academic." To be academic is to be irrelevant, to turn an issue into a purely theoretical discussion with very little impact on real human action. One way of being evasive is to turn a directive of Christ that is focused on doing into a purely theoretical discussion. So fundamentally, then, if this Scribe could lure Jesus into a merely intellectual discussion, he would have been able to walk away with a smug satisfaction that Christ had verified his theological acumen - without ever having his comfort level challenged, which is precisely what Christ was doing, challenging him and his hearers.

I think it is easy for us to agree that this is not Christ’s approach. In the Gospels, Jesus is never interested in indulging in idle theoretical or theological discussions. You can’t find it. Neither is it the approach of the Orthodox Church. Do you want to know who your neighbor is? It’s almost like the saying, "if you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it." If you have to ask who your neighbor is, do you really want to know?

If you want to know who your neighbor is, Orthodoxy teaches, first find your closest neighbor. That is God. He is closer to you than anyone at any time. Find him through prayer. Secondly, learn from the Son of Man. Open the Gospel and hear the word of Christ. And third, open your eyes to the need around you. Then you will know who your neighbor is. You won’t need to become a theologian to figure it out. You won’t need to put a person through a certification process to determine that he, indeed, is your neighbor and, therefore, deserving of your attention. You’ll start by simply showing kindness to those whom God has placed in your path, just as he placed that wounded man in the path of the priest, of the Levite and of the Samaritan.

That’s the first evasion, turning a directive of Christ into a matter of theological discussion.

The second evasion, the second way of getting out of what Christ is getting at, is like this: "Well, Jesus, just tell me the rules. Make some rules for who is a neighbor and who is not. Love your neighbor? O.K. Define who my neighbor is. Set up some rules." So in practice it turns out to be something like this: If he lives within one block of you, he is a first-degree neighbor. You’re responsible for medical, financial and emotional support. If he lives within one square mile, then he’s a second-degree neighbor - up to $100 of financial aid, supplies if you have them in stock, and all the sympathy you can muster. If he’s outside one square mile, then he’s not really your neighbor. Your sympathy will do.

This may sound silly, but the Rabbis in Jesus’ day did exactly this kind of thing. They asked questions like "who is my neighbor" and they came up with very precise definitions and obligations. That’s how they came up with laws that defined leading an ox to water on the Sabbath as work, a violation of the commandment of God. But as we all know from the Gospel, Jesus totally rejected this approach, an approach that sought to turn the dynamic communion of love into a list of rules.

That’s why our Orthodox Church has never embraced that approach, turning Christianity into a matter of merely making and obeying laws. Rather, Jesus’ way, and the way of the Church, is this: not making a list of rules, but becoming so closely identified with God that one becomes a manifestation of his compassion to others. Loving your neighbor can never be a matter of following a list of rules. Again, it is a matter of becoming so closely identified with God that you become a manifestation of his compassion to those in need around you. That’s what it’s about. Rules are a means of constricting your sense of obligation and thus ultimately, are an evasion of what God really desires of us.

There is one more evasion, my brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s closely tied into the second one, and it’s about setting limits. "Who is my neighbor?" The very question "who is my neighbor" implies that there are those who are not. "Who is my neighbor? Who is not my neighbor? These are my neighbors. These are not."

In the time of Christ it was very clear. A fellow Jew was a neighbor. A Samaritan was not a neighbor. For some people today it’s the same thing. For some white people today, fellow whites can be neighbors, but black people cannot be neighbors. For some Christians, fellow Christians can be neighbors, but a Moslem can never be a neighbor. In other words, we set limits, we define very distinct limits, often times based on race, creed, ethnic origin, social status, or similar considerations, as to who qualifies for the exercise of mercy on our part. The attitude runs like this: "For the right kind of people, my people, I will do everything. For others, they are not my neighbors. I owe them nothing." It’s an Us and Them division of the world. We divide our fellow human beings into very distinct categories: Us and Them.

What’s wrong with this approach? What’s the problem here? Christ obliterated such distinctions. He told this parable in which the man who came up and showed mercy was one of the unworthy, one of those who did not qualify, one of the outcasts of society. This unworthy outcast was the only one to show mercy, while a priest and a Levite simply walked by. Thus, there are no more limits. There are no more categories. There are no more distinctions once Christ sets foot on the earth. There are, as the Apostle tells us, no more Jews, no more Gentiles.

All such distinctions are ways that justify limiting our love. And as such, they are evasions. They enable us to restrict what in God is limitless and boundless.

This Gospel, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is not about working out a theology of your neighbor. It’s not about setting rules about how and what you do for your neighbor in every particular circumstance. And it’s not, certainly, about setting limits as to who qualifies to be your neighbor. It’s about letting the very love and compassion and energy and life of God become yours. It’s about spreading that same love, compassion, energy and life to all those who cross your path, whether they are worthy or not. It’s about renouncing every qualification, restriction, or evasion so that God might be who he is through us.

May God grant us as true Christians to love our neighbor as he loves us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

< BACK TO SERMON INDEX