Won't you be my neighbor?

 7/10

Fred Rogers

With General Assembly, in ZOOMland, finally done, I went to Good Shepherd Faith Church

Good Shepherd Faith 

 live and in person to be met by my friend Elder Michael and lead worship and administer communion..

Elder Michael

.this was my reflection, with Korean translation added by Chris Kim.... 

Mister Rogers cardigan

So last week I went back to my hometown, Pittsburgh. And for the first time after many years I went to visit the Heinz History Center.  There are many special exhibits there like the Heinz “57 varieties” itself and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum but this time I spent some time in the Mister Rogers exhibit.


Fred Rogers is one of the very special people to come from Pittsburgh and even more important for us, Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister. Pittsburgh Presbytery endorsed his television show, Mister Rogers Neighborhood, as his ministry.

I like the fact that Fred Rogers gave us a different model of what it means to be a man. And a faithful daily Christian witness without ever using explicit Christian language. His show had a very clear theology….the theology of neighbor….and that’s what we’re talking about today.

Our text is the old familiar parable of Jesus we call the Good Samaritan. About an unfortunate person set upon by thieves and left “half dead” along the road and the various people who pass by including two significant religious leaders, perhaps a tall steeple preacher or Presbytery exec or one of the Trustees, passers by, who do exactly that, pass by. On the other side. Maybe they even cross the street when then see him.

In the end it’s the  unexpected one, there's one who’s not like us, the one who’s one of them, one of those people, maybe an undocumented immigrant, maybe a Muslim, maybe…that’s the one who responds who takes care of the person in need. (Maybe precisely because they know what it’s like to be excluded ,unseen or mistreated…) That’s who, in Jesus terms, proves neighbor. 

Remember, the context for this conversation began when a lawyer asked Jesus about inheriting eternal life and when they’ve agreed on the most important commandment, to love God with all your soul and strength and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is to say it’s inseparable, you can’t love God with all your soul snd strength and mind unless you love your neighbor as yourself, the lawyer, as they will do, decides to quibble with Jesus around, well who is my neighbor? And what does Jesus do? Like always, he flips the question. It’s not who is my neighbor? The question is who proves oneself to be a neighbor? That is the question. Go and do likewise, Jesus says.

We can see this neighbor issue in both the macro and micro perspective. In the global scene, Ukraine has clearly been set upon by robbers and thieves. Looking for a neighbor. And we struggle with how to respond. And along that same  road we find Yemenites, and Sudanese and Syrians and people from Western Sahara…that road to Jericho is crowded with victims of robbery and oppression. And who is proving neighbor? 

Our neighbors have literally picked themselves up and walked their way to our doorstep. How do we respond?

(I can tell you that starting next week, I’ll be traveling to Spain and Italy to help our Presbyterian Church figure out how to be in partnership with our sibling Christians from the Spanish Evangelical and  Italian Waldensian Churches in their work of being neighbors with people on the move in Southern Europe).

But there’s the micro, the close at home.  I face the Jericho Road every time I go to Penn Station, all the people sleeping there. It’s not uncommon for me to find someone on the street right outside my door. How do we respond? What do we do?    

When I lived in Tulsa, a Catholic priest friend I knew had started a project he called “Neighbor for Neighbor.” He insisted that it was not a charity but an adult education center. After starting with fixing broken dow cars so people could have transportation for jobs, they  developed a food cooperative. Later medical and dental clinics were added. 

It was completely open as to clientele. The ethic was unconditional love, and my friend Dan, the  founder meant exactly unconditional love.  What was not completely open or accepting was who could volunteer. Only those who understood that this was not charity, but only what neighbors do for one another because they are neighbors  were welcome. The result was it became considered a badge of honor to be accepted as a volunteer at Neighbor for Neighbor.  The very best doctors and dentists in the city vied to share their skills at the Neighbor for Neighbor clinics. Dan believed that the poor deserved only the very best. 

The program became the model for others and Neighbor programs spruced in various places around Tulsa. 

That’s the theology that Fred Rogers exemplified through his TV show. The word is a neighborhood. We are neighbors and belong to one another. One night locking myself out of my apartment led to several unexpected hours of enjoying hospitality of Yemenis from the deli next door, in their home. As I thanked them, they said, No this is our culture, We are there for you, you wink be there for us. We are neighbors.

We are living in challenging times. Times that can lead to lead to despair.  Issues about which we seem powerless...But what gets us through are our neighborhoods...communities of care, concern and acceptance. We have the capacity to create and sustain them, ikf we choose,with Jesus' help.

Friends, Jesus is clear …we live in a neighborhood and are called to be neighbors.

Fred Rogers put it like this…

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

 

It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
A neighborly day for a beauty,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

 

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So let’s make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we’re together we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won’t you be my neighbor?
Won’t you please,
Won’t you please?
Please won’t you be my neighbor?

Let those with ears to hear, hear….

 

Luke 10: 25-37

25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."