September 2026
From the Pastor: Luke 10:27-28 “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
“Love…Do this and you will live.” This is the answer given to the lawyer who asks Jesus the question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This is the scene where we see Jesus tell the parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable is a popular one because we all want to know who exactly is my neighbor that I am supposed to love.
When I was growing up in Southern California we lived in what is known as tract housing in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Meaning that all the houses on our block were real close to each other. Maybe not being able to pass the sugar across the kitchen windows close, but pretty close together. This was great! It meant that we knew our neighbor’s names, addresses, phone numbers, shoe sizes, occupation and how many kids and grandkids they had.
As fun and great as that is, it can also be a bit of a pain. Why? Because they… know our names, addresses, phone numbers, shoe sizes, occupation and how many kids and grandkids we have. There wasn’t a whole lot of secrets when your homes are so physically close together. At times, you felt like everyone knew your business… whether you told it to them or not.
Jesus relays the idea that our neighbors are not only our geographically close ones (and for some of you that can be quite a distance away… you know who you are!) but also anyone we come in contact with. Jesus knows that loving our neighbor is key to building our relationships with one another. Loving our neighbor means that we want what’s best for them. We want them to be a part of a church family like we are.
The statistics are staggering to see how many people are missing from church on Sundays. Not just our 2 congregations at St. Peter’s and Zion, but all Christian churches. Jesus at the end of the parable asks the lawyer who was a neighbor to the man beaten up. The lawyer said… “the one who showed him mercy.” Jesus’ response: “You go and do likewise.”
There is a saying that God wants heaven to be crowded. I envision it to be much like my neighborhood growing up. What an amazing gift that would be! May the Lord help us all show our neighbor mercy, check in on them, encourage them to come or return to church, and most importantly pray for them.
In His Service,
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