Luke 5:27-32
These two scriptures point out to us that Jesus gets a lot of mileage out of surprising people. He can take a neighborhood block party on the side of a hill that has no food available and create enough food for everyone, just by getting someone to share. And no one is more surprised when he makes that happen than his disciples. Go figure!
He also surprises people by not being particularly discriminatory about who he parties with. He does not seem to put labels on anyone, the way everyone else seems to... and this scripture shows us that we have been labeling one another for a VERY long time now. He just eases right into an unknown neighbor's house, a house filled with people of ill repute some say, and makes himself at home, much to the chagrin of the religious leaders.
What do we learn from these stories? We learn that Jesus cares about his neighbors and will do whatever it takes to feed them when they are hungry. We learn that Jesus does not discriminate. He considers everyone his neighbor and is willing to spend time with them on their turf, no matter what the religious leaders say.
We also learn that it doesn't take much to make a miracle happen. In the Loaves and Fishes miracle, a small child has a small meal and Jesus makes it feed 5000. Translated to neighboring principles: We may only need to give a minute of time to make a big impact on someone's day. And we learn that when we offer what we have, it often multiplies in ways we didn't expect. We also learn that children are often on the front lines of our miracle-making possibilities.
Once I was assisting the pastor in teaching confirmation class and we had a young girl of 11 who wanted to bring her best friend, whose family was non-practicing Catholic. We could have said "It's Methodist confirmation class and she shouldn't come if she's not planning on being Methodist." But the pastor and I told her to bring her friend. And guess what? The little girl ended up wanting to join the church and become Methodist and thankfully her parents allowed her to do so. This was over 20 years ago, but for all I know she's still a good Methodist somewhere in South Carolina or beyond. A small gesture. A changed life. A Catholic willing to give Methodists a chance. A pastor willing to allow whoever wanted to be part of class to be there. See it doesn't take much, does it?
What kinds of little neighboring steps do you think we should take as a congregation? As individuals? As Christians?
Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment on the link below.
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