photo by Regina Bryan

Monday, July 5, 2004
Lovingly Living Together
John 21:14-18
by James Washington

In Luke 10, we see Jesus sending out seventy people to share the peace of God's love, and after that their joyful return. It was at this point that the lawyer stood up to ask Jesus questions about eternal life. It seems as though every time you are praising God for what he has done or is doing in your church or life, someone will always stand up and say, "Ya but!" and then say something that has nothing at all to do with praising God. This lawyer did just that, asking Jesus what he needed to do to be saved. Jesus, knowing that he knew the law of Moses, said to him, "What does the law say?"

In the Mosaic Law, the Hebrews had counted up to 613 commandments, and so there was always speculation as to which of these 613 was the greatest.

The lawyer joins a quotation from Deuteronomy about loving God with your whole heart and soul to a quotation from Leviticus saying love your neighbor as yourself. But when Jesus told him that he had the answer right, the lawyer tried to justify himself by asking the question, Who is my neighbor? Many of us here may have been asked or have asked ourselves that same question, Who is my neighbor? Today we have that same question before us. But first let's ask ourselves the question, Why is it so important that I know who my neighbor is? After all, these are the people that we are supposed to love, to help, and to do all kinds of good things for. We need to know who they are. We work very hard at trying to find out who our neighbors are. When we are ready to buy a house, we look for a place were neighborly people are living. We like to eat were neighborly people eat. We go to places were neighborly people go. After all, these are the people that we are supposed to love.

Prayer: Lord, I hope you're not too busy.
God: I am Alpha and Omega.
Prayer: Ah, OK.
God: I am the Lord your God and will hear you.

Prayer: I have a problem.
God: I am the Lord your God and will hear you.

Prayer: OK, I seem to have lost my sermon and there are a lot of people here who came to hear me preach.
God: I am the Lord your God and I will hear you.
Prayer: My sermon is about who is my neighbor, so I need to know who my neighbor is. I mean, I know already, but these people need to know who their neighbor is.
God: What does it say in the scriptures?
Prayer: Jesus said that everyone who needs help is my neighbor, but that doesn't say much. Do you have another meaning?

God: You missed it! You are to love your neighbor the same way you love yourself. So everyone who needs love, care, even if they just need a friend—they are your neighbors.
Prayer: But that would mean everybody is my neighbor.
God: Now I think you've got it.
Prayer: But there has to be someone that I can hate.
God: Love your neighbor the same way you love yourself.
Prayer: OK, hate is too strong a word. I mean there has to be someone that I cannot like, someone that I don't want to sit next to and eat with, or live next door to, or let my son or daughter marry. You know what I mean. There are some people who are not like us. I mean they are good people, but, well, you know what I mean.
God: James, all people are created equal, and you are to love them the same way I have loved you.

Prayer: Well, I've got all of these people wanting to hear what I have to say. Let me get back to you on that neighbor thing.

Jesus used stories to make his point to help people understand what he wanted them to know. Sometimes the story was humorous, but with a powerful meaning. Sometimes it was a bright story with the same meaning, but the message was always clear for all to see. I have learned many things in life, some good, some bad. At this point in my life, there are some things I struggle to remember and some I struggle to forget, but there is one thing—I pray that I will always remember and I pray that you will remember it too: "Nothing is ever universal until it is first local."

We pray for world peace. Justice. We want to stop world hunger. But do we expect God to hear our prayer for world peace when we are at war with people in our own family, in our church, even in the commissions where we serve. Yes, I said war!

I know when we hear the word war we think of the military, but let's see what Webster says about the word war: 1. a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism, a struggle between opposing forces for a particular end.

When we, in an attempt to get our way in the church, privately call people on boards or in commissions to get them to support us and our ideas, this can be seen as an act of war.

In John 21, Jesus and Peter are eating and Jesus asks Peter, "Peter, do you love me more then these?" Peter's answer is "Yes, Lord"—the same answer that all of us would give. How many of you here today love the Lord? Jesus wasn't asking Peter if he loved him; Jesus had a way of saying something or asking a question that seemed to have a simple answer but required much thought. Jesus was asking Peter, "How much do you love me? "It wouldn't be fair to ask someone that, unless there was a way to measure love. My granddaughter and I were talking one day, and she said, "Pa Pa, I love you." So with that, I said, "I love you too." Then she said with both hands stretched out, "I love you this much." Pretending to be surprised, I said, "Man that's a lot." But then she said, "I love you more than that, but my arms are too short."

In John 21, Jesus is telling Peter, the only way that you know how much you love me is to see how much you love others. If the question was, "Do you love me?" the answer would be yes without thinking. Jesus did not ask Peter, "Do you love me?" He asked Peter, "Do you love me more then these?" Now Peter has to stop and think, What or who are the these that Jesus is talking about? Jesus more than likely was pointing to what he was talking about, but the point is that Peter had to stop and think. We should never say we love the Lord without first stopping to think. We can't praise God with our mouths in gear and our minds in neutral. Every time we sing "Our God Is an Awesome God," our minds should engage our emotions and take us back to the time when we had nowhere to turn and God stepped in right on time, giving us his peace when we were troubled, changing our lives and making us feel good about ourselves. Yes, God is an awesome God.

I don't love God the way I say I love him.
I love God the same way I love you, and you, and you.
I know who my neighbor is, but I don't know who your neighbor is. Only you can answer that question.