“Won’t you be my neighbor?”
Those famous words were earnestly sung by Mister Rogers on every one of the 895 episodes of his show. Have you ever stopped to consider how profound Mister Rogers’s question is? How many people would you ask to be your neighbor? The circle is probably pretty small, I bet. How many people do you know that you would want to live next to you? Before you throw out a number, remember what being their neighbor will entail. They will expect you to do dinners together, have game nights, and of course you will be the first person they will call for that emergency babysitting need.
Rogers invites us to come near so that he can treat us as his neighbor. And he means it. This is unnatural.
WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?
Two thousand years ago a lawyer engaged Jesus in conversation. “Teacher,” he asks Jesus, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25).
Jesus asks him to answer the question. He complies, “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” (Luke 10:27). Jesus tells him it’s a good answer.
The lawyer isn’t comfortable with just how wide the net of neighbor might be. And so, “desiring to justify himself,” the lawyer responds, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).
“What is the absolute minimum I can get away with, Jesus?” That my natural heart. Our natural heart is a heart of self-justification and of minimizing our responsibility to others.
“THEN UNFRIEND ME”
This is the heart of the world, of narrowing our circles, of cutting people off. I’ve read far too many Facebook posts lately that end with, “If you don’t like this, then unfriend me.” I get it. It’s easier to shrink your circle to a band of the like-minded, to find your neighbor in the one you agree with. But this isn’t how Jesus thinks. This isn’t the type of love Jesus calls us to.
Jesus responds with a story you’ve heard before, a story of a man in desperate need of help. He’s been beaten up and left for dead by robbers. One by one, passersby excuse themselves out of the uncomfortable task of caring for this man. Until one, the least likely of the lot demonstrates mercy on his brother in need. This is the man who understands who his neighbor is, Jesus explains.
THE MAXIMAL CALL
“Won’t you be my neighbor?”
In those honest and simple words Mister Rogers profoundly exposits and applies Jesus of Nazareth’s declaration that we are to love God and love our neighbor. Rogers maximizes God’s call to our neighbor by inviting all to be his neighbor.
My natural impulse is to minimize that call. But if I truly understand the power of God’s love for me, that God loved me when I was unlovable, that God invited me in when I was undeserving, then my heart ought to soften toward my neighbor.
When my heart begins to understand God’s love for me, then I get a glimpse of God’s love for my neighbor. And that calls me to action. It calls me to maximize, not minimize who God calls me to love. It gives me an urgency to share the rescuing love of God with those around me.
Let me not be the one who asks, with furrowed brow, “And who is my neighbor?” Instead, let me speak with the heart of Jesus the invitation of Mister Rogers, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
NEIGHBORING AT NEW LIFE
It is my prayer that New Life is a church that asks the maximal, not minimal question, that we are looking for anyone we can call neighbor. That is why “God loves you and your neighbor” is our fourth cultural statement that we hang our hat on as a church. We long to be a community that swims against the currents of our heart and culture and maximizes our responsibility to our neighbor, no matter how different they may be from us.
So, dear reader, I ask you, won’t you be my neighbor?
New Life’s Culture Statements:
2. The gospel changes everything
4. God loves you and your neighbor
5. We are contributors, not consumers
6. Character outlasts charisma
Photo credit: Rollins 360