It seems like while I was growing up, the words “neighbor” and “neighborhood” were pretty important. Mom and Dad would always talk about the other “kids in our neighborhood.” We’d have over friends, “from the neighborhood.” The church would get excited if a new family moved “into the neighborhood.” You’d bake cookies for the new addition to the “neighborhood.” You’d even hear some folks great a stranger, “Howdy, neighbor!”
The idea of being a neighbor was pretty important on TV too. Who can ever forget Fred Rogers in “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood?” Each episode began the exact same way: Mr. Rogers would come home singing, “Won’t you be my Neighbor?” as he changed into his trademark slippers and zipped up his cardigan, which by the way, was knit by his own mother.
And then of course, there is Bob McGrath, who popularized another of my childhood favorites: “Who are the people in your neighborhood?” On many a Sesame Street Episode, Bob would sing
Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day
Today, I don’t hear the word “neighborhood” as much, do you?
• I been informed that I do not live in a neighborhood; I live in a development
• Others even in our development go further in their distancing from the concept of neighborhood. Instead, they say that I live in a “swim/tennis community.”
But community is a funny thing too. Just a quick search on Google turned up
• Webshots community
• Sony’s online entertainment community
• The Google Earth community
• Facebook, MySpace, and eHarmony promote relational community.
• Even eBay says that they are in the business of building community. “More than buying and selling, the electronic emporium is about posting messages on bulletin boards, discovering new friends, and launching relationships at the eBay Cafe. One user said, ‘eBay is bringing people together to do a lot more than trading goods. We are trading our hearts.’” (Leonard Sweet, “The Quest for Community” quoted in The Search to Belong, by Joseph Myers, on p. 31)
I am convinced that we have lost an understanding of the true meaning of neighborhood and society.
German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies distinguished between two types of human association: Gemeinschaft (usually translated as "community") and Gesellschaft ("society" or "association"). In his 1887 work, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, Tönnies argued that Gemeinschaft is perceived to be a tighter and more cohesive social entity, due to the presence of a "unity of will."[3] He added that family and kinship were the perfect expressions of Gemeinschaft, but that other shared characteristics, such as place or belief, could also result in Gemeinschaft. Gesellschaft, on the other hand, is a group in which the individuals who make up that group are motivated to take part in the group purely by self-interest. He also proposed that in the real world, no group was either pure Gemeinschaft or pure Gesellschaft, but, rather, a mixture of the two. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community)
I want to focus on this idea today:
1. The description of Society. Society is an uncomfortable association of people who barely know each other, mashed together in an artificially created hodgepodge. It is driven by self-interest. It is shallow and/or accidental.
2. The description of Community (neighborhood) Community, or Neighborhood, as I use the word today, is a segment within society that transcends self-interest and becomes intentionally intertwined collective of individuals that form a need-meeting, life-changing, wound-healing organism. It purposeful, cohesive, and intentional.
Long before Tonnies began to explore the sociology of community, a religion scholar and a Jewish Rabbi had a discussion about such matters. However, their discussion did not begin with the sociological, it began with the spiritual. If Bridgeway Church can understand the spiritual and sociological implications of this Jewish Rabbi, then we will create a collective that will cause awe and wonder in the society that surrounds us.
Let’s eavesdrop on their conversation found in
Luke 10:25-37 (The Message)
25Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"
26He answered, "What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?"
27He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."
28"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you’ll live."
29Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define ’neighbor’?"
30-32Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ’Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
36"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"
37"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, "Go and do the same."
A man with a tremendous religious pedigree came to dialog with Jesus. His life basically revolved around the study and interpretation of what we know today as the Old Testament. Apparently this religious leader had a great deal of self-confidence, and decided one day to “test” Jesus.
He came to question Jesus, but as Jesus often did, he turned the question back on the inquisitor. “What is written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?” Both of them agreed that the Law could be summed up in this: Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself.
For once, Jesus and a religious leader actually agreed! But the religious leader wasn’t done yet. He, like many in his field, were used to searching for loopholes. He inquired of Jesus, “Just who exactly is my neighbor?”
“Jesus answered with a parable—a type of story dedicated to teaching the mysteries of the kingdom to the disciples and keeping them hidden from unbelievers. He described a normal trip a person would take, seventeen miles from Jerusalem down to Jericho through a mountain pass that fell almost 3,300 feet in elevation. Herod had built New Testament Jericho as his winter palace on the same spot Hasmonean rulers had earlier built their palace. Herod included three palaces, a swimming pool, and a sunken garden. Thus, government officials frequently made the trip from Jerusalem to Jericho as did Jewish religious and political leaders. Criminals took advantage of the upper class’s need to travel this winding, crooked road through dangerous passes. They hid behind the large rocks above the narrow passes and preyed on travelers. Jesus told the story of one victim without identifying the man by race, occupation, or reason for traveling” (Trent C. Butler, Holman New Testament Commentary: Luke, p. 172)
Three members of society happened upon the scene of the beaten man. The first was a member of the Jewish religious elite. A priest. I have no idea what a priest in Jesus’ day would wear to work, but I imagine this holy man in all black. Maybe it’s just all my days living amongst a large conservative Jewish population in New York with their black robes, and squat black hats. Their long full beards and their curled braids. I can see his robes flowing in the gentle breeze as he descends down the steep winding dirt road. He spots the man who has been beaten just ahead. He does not feel compassion. Instead he feels revulsion and he quickly moves to the other side of the small road.
Similarly, another religious man makes his way down the mountain. He hears the moans and groans of the suffering man. He sees the blood stained garments. He sees the anguish on the face of the beaten man as he extends his arms, imploring for help. But the Levite too rushes by.
Now another man makes his way down the mountainside. This time, the injured man does not reach out his hand. He buries his face in the dust. For the man coming down the mountain is a Samaritan. The Jews despised the Samaritans. They cut them off from worship. They called them “half-breeds” and “dogs.” Surely this man offers no hope.
But then entirely unexpectedly, the Samaritan stops, hops down into the dying man’s ditch and offers first-aid.
Three men were in proximity to the dying man. Only one man was a neighbor!
Three men were in proximity to the dying man. Only one moved from society to intimacy.
Three men had an opportunity. Only one engaged in intimacy.
Two men were religious. One man entered into a relationship. They had little or nothing in common except this “bold fellowship” that took them beyond the shallow, surface level contacts that define most of our day to day interactions.
1. Clean out the garage
a. The garage is a fancy modern receptacle for garbage. Why do we have “garage sales?” It’s not a recognition that the early yard sales where held inside garages. It is an acknowledgement that are garages are full of junk.
b. What junk might you have in your garage?
i. Prejudice—“You are different than me”
ii. Pride—“I am better than you”
c. Cleaning out the garage is the first step in becoming a good neighbor. Your neighbor may never see the garbage in your garage, but it will keep you from being able to love as you want to be loved
2. Tear down the privacy fence
a. Privacy fences where not designed to keep the kids and the dog in. If that were the case, we could all have chain-link fences. Privacy fences were built to keep the neighbors out
b. We zip into our cul-de-sacs, push our garage door-openers, enter through the garage, live life in the privacy in our home, and ever so seldom do we go out in the back yard and grill behind the comfy confines of our privacy fences.
c. Do you remember “ “ with Tim Taylor? Remember how whenever Tim got in trouble with his wife he would go out the back yard and be counseled by the wise neighbor on the other side of the fence? Wilson always would have some pithy advice but you never saw his face. There was proximity, but not intimacy.
d. To be a good neighbor, you have got to tear down the privacy fence that has built a wall between you and the people you come in contact with.
3. Open the blinds and shine your light out
a. To be a good neighbor, you have got to open your blinds and let your light shine out.
b. The entire back wall of my house is filled with windows. We even have a great room that has two stories worth of windows. But almost all summer long during the day, we have kept our blinds shut. You see the house has southern exposure, and it seems like the sun pounds on that side of the house all day. If we leave the blinds open during the day than all that sun makes our home into a greenhouse. We experience real global warming.
c. But at night, when our blinds are shut, we keep our light from shining out. The world that we live in is blacker than the blackest night. If you know Jesus Christ as the Lord and the Saviour of your life you have His light in side of you. Open up the blinds in your life and allow the light of Jesus Christ to shine through your life. Open the blinds, and with conviction let your little light shine.
4. Write your own Association Covenant
a. My neighborhood has an Home owners Association Covenant. It obliges me to pay a certain amount ever month for the privilege of the pool and the tennis courts. It tells me how short to keep the grass, and what Garbage disposal company to use. It assures me that if I do these things, my neighbors will do the same so that together we can protect the value of our homes.
b. It is not a contract, but a covenant. It is an agreement to mutually benefit each other. It makes us into a small group of residents commited to the mutual good.
c. If you are going to be a good neighbor, write your own association covenant. I don’t mean that you should draft a document and have some folks sign it and start charging them a monthly fee.
d. What I mean is, commit yourself to enter into a relationship with a group of others with the sole purpose of working for the common good:
i. Love one another
ii. Exhort one another
iii. Care for one another
iv. Encourage one another
v. Instruct one another
5. Community, or Neighborhood, as I use the word today, is a segment within society that transcends self-interest and becomes intentionally intertwined collective of individuals that form a need-meeting, life-changing, wound-healing organism that keeps Christ as the center. It purposeful, cohesive, and intentional.
Jesus is inviting you today to set aside the shallow relationships that our society has perfected and engage in a loving, self-denying collective.
