Throughout the course of human history, neighborhoods have constantly changed from a family-based entity, to a grouping of families, to the spacious agrarian environment, to muti-ethnic, urban communities. And with the changes to neighborhoods comes questions of what it means to be a neighbor. This Sunday we are considering the very famous “Good Samaritan” parable in Luke 10 where Jesus is asked two questions: 1) what must I do to inherit eternal life? 2) And who is my neighbor? This passage makes it clear that neighboring and eternal life are related to each other. The way we view and treat our neighbors is a reflection of how genuine our faith in God is.

One of the effects of our fallen, sinful nature is we live with great limitations. There are only 24 hours in a day. We can only spend money according to our income. And our emotional bandwidth can only manage people who share our beliefs and convictions about the world around us. Those limitations lead us to ask the question “who is my neighbor?” Because of my limitations I need to limit the number and kind of people I’m obligated to be a neighbor to. When Jesus tells the Parable of The Good Samaritan He doesn’t answer this question because it is the wrong question. Jesus concludes the parable by asking the correct question about neighboring: Which of the three do you think was a neighbor . . .? And that is the correct question we must ask ourselves as we think about how genuine our faith in God truly is. Join us this Sunday as we look at this parable and the age old question of neighboring.