Loving Your Neighbor

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  We’ve heard that one before.  Let’s look at it more closely.

First, who is your neighbor?  Who are you supposed to care about?  And who don’t you need to bother with?   Not everyone’s problem is your problem.  Who can you place outside your circle of concern?

Second, how do you love your neighbor as yourself?  Does that mean that you need to first figure out how to love yourself?  Is your capacity for concern limited by your degree of self-esteem?  Do you need to do self-care in order to be a kind person?

Finally, what is our motivation for loving our neighbor?  Is it love?  Or mercy?  Or grace?  Or is it something else, something seemingly unrelated?  In fact it is something else, something most people would never guess, that is the true motivation for loving our neighbor.

In our worship this Sunday we will answer all these questions, in our sermon, “Loving Your Neighbor.”