Won't You Be My Neighbor? - Soulation Fledge

I was asked by my good friends, Dale and Jonalyn, from Soulation to write a Fledge. A Fledge is sort of like a conversational article written to followers of Soulation. You can follow the link above to join the list and to browse their many resources. I just want to publicly thank Dale and Jonalyn for this opportunity, what they mean to Savannah and I, and their continual friendship.






Here is the article:

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Savannah and I recently watched one of our favorite movies, Cast Away. Two characters unfold the story: Chuck Noland, played by Tom Hanks, and Wilson, played by a volleyball who becomes the only friend of Noland on the deserted island. As an inanimate object, Wilson pushes us to see our deep human need –relationships. When the ball floats away during their escape at sea, I feel sad—not for Wilson, but for Noland. Wilson was the only humanity he had left, his only companion.

This relational innateness of us, made in the image of the Trinity and stated explicitly in the Creation story and the law, is why Jesus said the two greatest commandments were to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Moreover, Jesus said that these two commandments are the hooks of which the entire law hangs. The law was given to God’s people to display to humanity worldwide what it looks like to be appropriately human. The canvas for this picture is love.

Let’s focus on this neighborly love. I had a conversation with a man who had a problem with “loving your neighbor as yourself.” To love others, he thought, you must be able to love yourself. His problem was that even the seemingly most selfless part of Christianity is egocentric - "What a gross commandment!" he said. I shared that he had a valid point if that was the meaning of the verse. But it is quite possible the commandment speaks much more about who we are than how we should balance out the scales in our love for ourselves and others.

Let us look closer at what Jesus is really saying here. The Hebrew word for "as yourself" – kamokha - is better translated as "who you are" This is the same word we find when the Prophets shout out in praise, "Who is like you God?" The word focuses on your nature and not your ego - not what we talk about when we say "I", but the very stuff that make's up that I.*

With this in mind, the commandment is better understood to say, "Love your neighbor for that is who you are." The commandment is not threatening you by saying, "I know how much you love yourself and you better love others the same amount." Nor is the commandment saying we are one in the universe, as some spiritualists would have us believe, connected by the awakened consciousness. In contrast, God is commanding us to live up to our humanness. He is not asking us to add on to our humanity a love for others, but to acknowledge our shared humanity by loving others. This is Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan. God is calling us to be human because to be human is to be relational and loving.

Since I was young, I have had a psychological connection with this commandment and Mr. Rogers. However simple Mr. Rogers seems to us now, he demonstrated the practical side of Jesus' meaning of this commandment. Everyday I stared at my TV while Mr. Rogers taught that everyone is his neighbor. All who are listening get invited into the loving question: "Won't you be my neighbor?"

That loving question is the call of the Christian. Bono said, "We discover who we are in service to one another, not the self."** As we seek to love others, we will find all the more what it means to be appropriately human.
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*This interpretation is built upon the view of Dr. David Patterson, Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Memphis, in his book, Wrestling with the Angel, p12.

**Bono. “A Time for Miracles”. Time Magazine. March 2007.