Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’ the Gospel says (Matthew 22:38), yet if I were to ask you who your neighbour was I suspect you would reel off the usual suspects, the sick, the hungry the dying and those in need. Yet is that a complete list?
I am not very good with things mechanical or electronic, mainly because they often seem to have a mind of their own. As I was born in an age before computers were anything more than an idea in some boffin’s mind, it is amazing to me that you are able to read this on the World Wide Web – which again hadn’t been invented at the time. I remember reading that someone once said that one day we will need four computers to run the world! Now everything seems to have a computer inside it. Yet they can be so frustrating. For example, the other day I lost all Wi-Fi connection. Not a major concern in the scale of the world’s problems, I know but frustrating and annoying all the same. Equally worrying was the strange message on screen asking me to log in to an unknown site. Don’t do that!!! How to solve the problem? My wife had an idea. She rang Sally, who used to live next door, to ask if her husband could ring sometime to advise me. No problem, Sally replied. However, Kev didn’t ring; he appeared on the doorstep before we had placed the dishes from the evening meal in the dishwasher. Now since he works in London and having finished work, travelled home on a crowded train, and may not have had a meal yet, for him to make the effort to come round so promptly was I thought going the extra mile (Matthew 5:41). He quickly diagnosed the problem and resolved it – the unknown site turned out to be essential to solving the problem, not a scam after all. A quick cup of coffee - all he would take - and he was on his way home. In a way, his kind, prompt and helpful action reminded me of the parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:2 9-37, though my difficulties were nowhere on the scale of the poor chap beaten up and left on the road, of course! Now let me ask you the question again: who is your neighbour? The clue lies in Luke 10:36-37 where Jesus asks: 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” In the same way, by figuratively crossing the road to help me, Kev is just as much my neighbour as those on the earlier list. What neighbours do you have to thank God for today? This reflection was inspired by a Daily Reflection on the website www.henrinouwen.org. Do visit it if you are not aware of Henri Nouwen’s work.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
|