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Who is My Neighbor?

SCRIPTURE TEXTS:

LEVITICUS 19:33-34; MATTHEW 25:40; 18:12-14

Introduction

Asia Sunday is commemorated annually on the Sunday before Pentecost. On this day, the Christian Conference of Asia calls upon Asian churches to remember the Asian peoples and their struggles and to pray for one another. It is hoped that this will help us to be more conscious of the reality of our Asian societies. A different theme is chosen each year. For 1991, the theme is on refugees and other marginalised people.

Today, I wish to relate this concern for the marginalised to Matthew 18:12-14. Here Jesus teaches about the parable of the lost sheep. This passage tells of how precious and important one lost sheep is compared to a whole flock of ninety-nine. The parallel that can be drawn from this teaching of Jesus is the Christian responsibility we have to seek out the marginalised and to bring them within a caring community of faith so that they might experience life in all its fullness.

A Wholistic Community

The flock of one hundred sheep would represent a unique wholistic community. It would be a community which enjoys a deep sense of belonging and harmony. There is also a strong sense of identity because together they share the same vision and direction in life. When one is lost from the flock, this community

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experiences brokenness and a sense of loss, restlessness and incompleteness. The community loses its identity, its vision and its direction as is characteristic of a broken community.

A Broken Community

There are many people scattered all over the world who make up our global society but who are like the lost one. They are the refugees, the migrant workers, the indigenous and ethnic minorities, and those who are discriminated against by race, gender, class and culture.

Our work in the Christian Conference of Asia involves identifying the Asian reality and trying to deal concretely with the struggles of the Asian peoples. Amongst the many issues, some examples of those that are concerned with marginalisation of peoples are:

- The minority groups such as the Koreans in Japan and the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

- The ethnic groups such as the tribal peoples in the mountains of Taiwan, the Moro people in Mindanao, Philippines, and the Penans in Sarawak, East Malaysia.

- There are also the people who are marginalised as a result of communal conflicts in India and political conflicts in Burma and Korea.

- There are also women and children in our societies who are marginalised through prostitution, child labour and the recruitment of children as soldiers.

All these peoples, the lost ones, are testimonies of the broken global community within which we are living.

Most of us earn well and live comfortable lives and can be considered as part of the flock of ninety-nine. Unfortunately, our concern for a good life seldom extends beyond ourselves.

We lack awareness of the reality around us. Maybe it is due to our not wanting to see the lost ones around us. Or could it be that we want to escape from being confronted by the issues of the suffering people around us. It may be that we do not wish to recognise the brokenness of our community because we want to maintain and remain in our comfortable situation.

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Who is Our Neighbour?

Jesus commanded us to love God first and foremost, and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. All around Asia, we see the suffering peoples:

- the 125,000 people in Bangladesh who have died and those who are presently suffering from the effects of the cyclone;

- the hundreds of thousands of international refugees who face the uncertainty of mandatory repatriation;

- the many human rights activists, the peace advocates, student activists and political leaders who are imprisoned without trial.

These masses of marginalised peoples are the lost ones in our broken global community. This state of affairs is a result of the political oppression, economic exploitation, cultural alienation, and religious discrimination that is happening all over Asia. These peoples are the neighbours whom we are commanded to love in the way that we want to love and care for ourselves based on our experience of God's love for us.

How Do We Love Our Neighbours?

Jesus always cautioned the rich. The story of the camel and the needle's eye which Christ used to teach about the rich ought to be taken seriously. It teaches us that we must eventually opt for the poor, both in the material as well as in the spiritual sense. Jesus always identified himself with the poor. The poor are the lost ones. To love our neighbour is to love all those who are marginalised. The understanding of neighbour is an all inclusive one and is not limited to just one particular group at the expense of another.

As followers of Christ, we are called to respond in love to these who are our neighbours, to care for their well-being so that together we may enjoy the fullness of life. When we do this to the least of these people we are doing it to Christ (Mt 5:40). In other words, when we are able to absolutely respect the humanity of any marginalised people and to concretely respond to their needs we would have exercised our responsibility as disciples of Christ.

Unless we respond to these burning issues, we will continue to experience a sense of loss and brokenness within ourselves, as individuals and as a global community. So let us respond by

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opening our eyes, our minds and our hearts to the issues of the marginalised and suffering peoples of our society and of the global community. Only then can we partake consciously in the healing of our broken community as co-creators with God.

I am sure you can imagine the joy felt by the shepherd when he finds the lost sheep. Likewise, imagine the rejoicing and the celebration there will be when the lost ones are brought back into fullness of life within the wholistic community.

The lost one is the marginalised. The marginalised is our neighbour. The neighbour is made in the image and likeness of God. God is in the neighbour. Let us go forth to love our neighbour as God first loved us. (l99l)