Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Place of Good Neighbors”.
A racially motivated mass shooting took place in Buffalo, NY that left at least 13 shot and 10 of them dead. Later on the next day, another shooting took the life of at least one and left at least four others wounded at a place of worship.
These violent acts are some of the latest to be reported of our lack of love and respect for our neighbors. Buffalo’s city motto is “City of Good Neighbors”. Even if all the citizens of Buffalo don’t always behave as good neighbors, it is a wonderful idea to aspire to and the only one that will cure the world of the violence, cruelty, insensitivity and indifference we have for one another in this world.
The concept of neighbor needs to be expanded to those far beyond our streets, community, towns and cities to the global community of all humanity. As the recent pandemic and resulting supply chain problems and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and many other evens demonstrate, we are interconnected like never before in human history.
Distance is no longer the limiting factor as it once was in determining who we could call a neighbor. We are able to be almost anywhere in the world in a matter of hours and speak to and see anyone anywhere in a matter of seconds. These advents in travel and communications have made our planet very small and intimate so that every place is in our neighborhood.
The problem is and has been our inability and refusal to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the command God gave to Israel and Jesus repeated. We have allowed others to exploit the things that make us different for their advantage by manipulating us into thinking these differences should be reasons to separate us, keep us apart and even hate one another.
When we look into the face of others, God said we should see ourselves. Instead, we see someone we don’t love because we have been conditioned not to. True Christianity involves a reconditioning that overcomes all the centuries of conditioning to kill, steal and destroy our neighbors.
If there was ever a time for Christians and other people to demonstrate love for our neighbors, now is the time. We still have time to change the course of human history to one of a better life for all of our children and our neighbor’s children and all their posterity.
It begins with each of us beginning to refuse to let others turn us against our neighbors with all of our differences and instead loving our neighbors and seeking the common good for everyone in our neighborhood.
Knowing that we all share a space on this tiny planet that is not ours and we can’t be good neighbors to each other by insisting everything go our way and sharing and being good stewards of the limited resources of this world.
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Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School study. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
