Neighborhood Hero

Guiding Prayer For Our Season of Fasting: 

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom,the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Myself in Truth

Holy God help me to step outside of my own nature and get to know my neigbor. Amen

Nurtured and Nurturing 

Jesus, Son of God, help us to know and love our neighbors. Amen 

                         The Gathered

Gathering God, in knowing you, you call us to know one another. Help us to live out your love to our neighbors today, and everyday.  Amen  

Challenge 

Pray for your neighbors, whether you know their names or not. Pray for those who live on your street that God might move in their lives and bring hope and healing where needed this week.

Luke 6:6-10

6 On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8 Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored.

Neighborhood Hero

Who is my neighbor. Seriously, who?  I live on a culdesac with about ten homes on each side of the street. Technically, they are all my neighbors, but I really only know the neighbors in four of the houses.  I have met the neighbors in about ten of the houses but I don't really know them all.  Most of the neighbors that I have met other than those who are literally next door, I met while looking for my dog. This dog, Mac, takes advantage of little girls who hold the door to the backyard open too long and darts our to run amuck in the neighborhood. In case you're trying to picture that, we have a storm door on the back of our carport that leads to the back yard.  Most neighbors who haven't met me personally, probably think of me as the crazy lady down the road running through yards and yelling the name "Mac"! I hope they don't think that's my husband's name.

When Jozie was a newborn, literally just days old, there was a snowstorm and our heat went out. I couldn't call our church friend Mr. Brown out to fix it because the roads would have been too dangerous. We didn't know who to call so I called my daddy. Dad called his secretary Pat, whose son lives on my street, to find out if there was anyone in Broadway who might be able to travel more safely and fix it. Pat called her son and then called us back and said that one of our neighbors was a maintenance man somewhere and gave us his number.  

Lee came right on by.  While he worked on the system, I sat by the oven trying to keep warm with Jozie and Gavin went to help our hero. While working with him, Gavin found out that Lee was also a local fireman, which explains why he came quickly; he was prepared to move to the scene of emergencies quickly and obviously a newborn in a cold house was an emergency.  He fixed the problem, refused any payment and then drove off into the sunset on his black Dodge Ram. Well, technically he drove off our driveway and about six houses down to his own yard.  Hooray for neighbor Lee!  

At least I think his name was Lee.  We haven't actually spoken to each other since.  We see each other and wave in passing, but that's been it for us in the past three years.  But he is my neighbor and he lived out the gospel to me in a very real way.

In this scripture, Jesus is showing that this man was more important to him than anything or anyone who might object to him healing the hurting.  People were important to Jesus. In fact, we know from his life and death and our own Salvation, that people were more important than anything else to Jesus.  When we make people important, when we help the stranger or initiate friendships, we are living out the relationally driven kind of ministry that Jesus had.  

Lee did not heal my withered hand, but he healed the worried mind of a new mother.  In that minute, he was the hands and feet of Christ to me.  He was our kind Samaritan.

Our challenge today is to simply consider who is our neighbor.  Who do we see everyday and not speak to? Who do we live next to and know nothing about other than their names?  Pray for these people and that Jesus might show you how to have intentionality in our lives and relationships with them.