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In the Gospel according to Luke, an expert of the law inquires of Jesus what must be done to inherit eternal life. As Jesus was apt to do, he answers a question with a question and the expert’s response is “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Jesus affirms the answer, but then the expert comes back with a deeply human question: “What are the boundaries of this love of neighbor? Who is in and who is out?”

Jesus was very clear about the importance of loving our neighbors and about making sure we understand that our neighbors were not people just like us. In the abstract, that sounds pretty good. In the reality of my life, one of the challenges is getting to know the neighbors who are not just like me.

In the story of the good neighbor, God uses a Samaritan - someone who is not permitted to be with the Jews, with different beliefs and traditions - as the neighbor to a Jew. A neighbor, according to Jesus, is another human being.  

On a hot summer evening two and a half years ago my daughter, Charis, and I met some of our Madison neighbors whom we never had met before.