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GROUNDED QUOTE
All of the world’s religions make neighbors the central concern of spirituality and ethics. Love of God and neighbor are absolutely intertwined. . . If we understand that neighborly relations are woven into divine love, then we can grasp that God is a near- dwelling God. We know God through our neighbors. (p. 197)
SCRIPTURE
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
— Leviticus 19:18
Jesus said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
— Matthew 22:37–40
REFLECTION
In many ways, it is easy to agree that we should love our neighbors. The harder — and more controversial — question comes next: “But who is my neighbor?” Is it the person who annoys me? The one who has broken the peace of a neighborhood? Someone from a different culture, a different religion? A person who might frighten or threaten me? Indeed, neighbors are not necessarily likable nor like us. The call to neighborliness is not a call to dwell safely in gated communities, but instead it is a call to go over fences and boundaries and treat other human beings with dignity.
PRAYER
Forgive me for not loving my neighbor as myself and help me to practice neighborly compassion when it is most difficult. May I remember that love for others is intimately bound with divine love.
INSPIRATION
Following a Chesterton quote about neighbors, I share with you two English poems — one about a quiet neighbor, the other about noisy people next door. “The Quiet Neighbour” is from the 16th century poet, John Heywood; “Next Door” is by contemporary poet, Helen Dunmore.
We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour.
— G.K. Chesterton
A Quiet Neighbour
by John Heywood
Accounted our commodities,
Few more commodious reason sees
Than is this one commodity,
Quietly neighbourèd to be.
Which neighbourhood in thee appears.
For we two having ten whole years
Dwelt wall to wall, so joiningly,
That whispering soundeth through well-nigh,
I never heard thy servants brawl
More than thou hadst had none at all.
Nor I can no way make avaunt
That ever I heard thee give them taunt.
Thou are to them and they to thee
More mild than mute – mum ye be.
I hear no noise mine ease to break,
Thy butt'ry door I hear not creak.
Thy kitchen cumbreth not by heat,
Thy cooks chop neither herbs nor meat.
I never heard thy fire once spark,
I never heard thy dog once bark.
I never heard once in thy house
So much as one peep of one mouse.
I never heard thy cat once mew.
These praises are not small nor few.
I bear all water of thy soil,
Whereof I feel no filthy foil,
Save water which doth wash thy hands,
Wherein there none annoyance stands.
Of all thy guests set at thy board
I never heard one speak one word.
I never heard them cough nor hem.
I think thence to Jerusalem,
For this neighbourly quietness
Thou art the neighbour neighbourless.
For ere thou wouldst neighbour annoy
These kinds of quiet to destroy,
Thou rather wouldst to help that matter
At home alone fast bread and water.
(You can read more about Heywood and this poem HERE)
Next Door
by Helen Dunmore
is the same as ours, but different.
Back to front stairs, and a bass that thuds
like the music of demolition
year after year, but the house
is still standing.
When we have parties they tense into silence
although they are good at fighting.
After the last screech and slam, their children
play war on their scab of a lawn.
We're mirrors of one another,
never showing what's real.
If I turn like this, quickly,
and look over the fence, what will I see?
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: APRIL 11, 5PM eastern
The next ZOOM to the COTTAGE will be a special Holy Week live gathering with John Dominic Crossan about his new book, Render Unto Caesar.
You don’t need to sign up. The link will be sent to everyone in the paid community.
Look for the link NEXT Monday about two hours in advance of the live Zoom event. The conversation will also be recorded for those of you who can’t make it.
All the “grounded quotes” in this series are from my book, Grounded: Finding God in the World. First published in 2015, and the winner of numerous literary awards, Grounded is still available in paper, e-versions, and audio. Here’s the Amazon link, but you can also special order it through independent booksellers. It works particularly well as spring or beach reading book. Your reading group may find it a good way to “reground” as pandemic restrictions continue to be lifted and people are trying to connect with the world again.
Several comments --
First, "ALL the law and the prophets". If we do not view the entire Old Testament through this lens, we are misinterpreting it.
Second, it is remarkable how often we are told to include "the sojourner within your gates", which pretty well covers immigrants and refugees.
Third, I see an interesting progression within Scripture. It starts with one family, then expands to one tribe, then to all of the tribes of Israel, then to nations, and finally to include not only the Jews, but the Gentiles -- which in turn includes the entire human race.
God's love always expands, and God expects our love to do the same.
Hi Diana. A timely piece. I’m presently at Oxford where our son is doing his PhD at Magdalen engaging Kierkegaard’s thot re “the greatest commandment.” Question for you, based on your thots here: If, as I understand you to be saying here, it is virtually impossible to decouple the second commandment from the first, how then are they two or, different commandments? Is it possible, or not, to love the Lord your God with ALL without reference to neighbor? If so, what does that look like in daily living?