Thinking about neighbours ……. The residents on the road on which our church is built have recently started up a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme which we have been invited to join.
As well as traffic issues such as speeding and parking, the organisers seem keen to make it more like a community hub where we can all look out for each other, communicate about events and swap useful information. Hopefully it will be of benefit to all of us and help to engender trust and kindness between people who may not have anything else in common but the location they find themselves in – just like in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan!
Remember, loving your neighbour, for the Christian, is an absolutely non-negotiable core value and your neighbour isn’t just the person next door, along the street or the person most like you. But it will involve going out of your way, maybe out of your comfort zone to show love. After he told the parable, Jesus said, “Go and constantly do the same” (Luke 10:37) How challenging is that?