We hear so often about all the negative aspects of social media and some people see these websites as being evil, but they have opened a window to me that I value. One of the groups I belong to is “Calverley Memories” the page about the village in West Yorkshire where I grew up. I find it quite fascinating as I reminisce, I can still name all the people who used to live around us on Woodhall Road and on Hollin Park Drive, even though I left the village almost forty years ago.
It saddens me that I chat to several of my neighbours in Ipswich, but don’t know the names of the majority of my neighbours. The truth is that neighbourhoods have changed in my lifetime, today, I tend to travel around by car, and we tend to keep ourselves to ourselves, and yet when I read my Bible, Jesus teaches us to love our neighbours. I like to think that I am a good neighbour to those who live around me, by and large I don’t cause them any problems and I say a cheery “hello” if I see them out and about, but that is possibly as far as it goes.
Does that sum up what Jesus wanted us to do when he said “love your neighbour as you love yourself” I wonder? We are currently celebrating the Week of prayer for Christian unity, and this is a time of year when Churches of different denominations across the country unite in our common love of God in the name of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I often feel that there is a subtle difference between unity and union. We are not attempting to all be the same, I like to think that we can celebrate our differences as well as rejoicing in those things we share in common. I love the fact that God created such a diverse world and I value the fact that I live today in a place where different cultures can, and should live in harmony, side by side. It saddens me that there are people and places where there is such intolerance that it leads to war.
Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan to illustrate what he means in response to the question “who is my neighbour?” the parable cuts right through cultural differences and recognises the fundamental message that we need to care for one another and meet them in their hour of need despite our differences. I feel very privileged to be able to chat with people who have moved to this country from overseas, I am not widely travelled, myself, but am fascinated to learn how life is lived, how faith is worked out, and something of values, practices, and beliefs.
Looking back at my life growing up in the sixties and seventies in the village of Calverley tucked between Leeds and Bradford, the people I knew back then were all very similar to me, my wife calls us “village people” my experience of neighbours was good, cosy, and I still feel a warm glow as I remember those people. Today is very different, I am surrounded by people with fascinating stories to tell and my experience of being a neighbour is vastly different and I hope that I am a better person because of the richness of that diversity.