Loving Your Neighbor...across the aisle

 “It is easier to love humanity than to love your neighbor.” Eric Hoffer

 Back in the 1970s, Pauline Kael was a theater critic for The New York Times and in 1972, she uttered one of the most interesting political statements of the 20^th century. When Richard Nixon was elected president, reelected by a landslide in 1972, Pauline Kael was said to have said that it could not have happened. Why could it not have happened? Because Pauline Kael said she didn’t know anyone who voted for Richard Nixon. That tells us that as far back as 1972, the theater critic for The New York Times didn't know anyone who voted for Richard Nixon. Remember Nixon didn’t squeak by in that election. He won by an overwhelming landslide.

Those words, that “it could not have happened,” actually say much more about the person who said it than about the people of whom it was said. Yet, Pauline Kael wasn’t speaking from say Wichita, Kansas. She was speaking from Manhattan. It’s safe to say that Manhattan in 1972 was overwhelmingly Democratic and thus voted Democratic.

Philip Bump writing for The Washington Post (09-18-20) said that “Three-quarters of Americans know only a few people who support the candidate they themselves oppose.” According to new research by the Pew Research Center, 75% confessed that they knew at most a few people who supported the candidate that they didn’t and about 40% knew no one at all who supported the other candidate.

Over the past few decades, Americans have increasingly self-segregated politically, to the point that today most Americans live in “landslide counties,” where the people in their area vote overwhelmingly in favor of one candidate or the other. As a result, many get the impression that their preferred candidate is not only winning but dominating.

As David Wasserman, one of the nation’s top election forecasters wrote in reference to the 2016 election: “If you feel like you hardly know anyone who disagrees with you about Trump, you’re not alone. Chances are the election was a landslide in your backyard.”

How does all of this relate to us? While those with political loyalty and worldviews can be isolationists, you and I are disobeying Scripture and the words of the Lord Jesus if we are. In Luke 10:27, Jesus commanded us: “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” It’s not optional. To fail to love our neighbor is a sin. But you can’t love your neighbor if you don’t even know your neighbor.

It’s tempting to think that Jesus doesn’t know what we’re experiencing in contemporary America. But He illustrated what He meant with a story, the parable that we know as The Good Samaritan. Jesus didn’t make the ones that His audience thought would obviously be the hero – a priest or a Levite. Instead, this hero was from one of the most despised groups of His day, a Samaritan. He used shock value to make sure they didn’t miss His point, loving your neighbor isn’t optional or when it’s convenient. In our culture, the Samaritan might be a Gay Muslim. It would have the same shock value.

It boils down to this. If you’re a Christian, love your Republican neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your Democrat neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your pro-choice neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your illegal immigrant neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your atheist neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your addicted neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your gangbanger neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your skateboarding teen neighbor. If you’re a Christian, love your neighbor who calls you horrible names. That also includes loving them and demonstrating Christ’s love on social media.

Yet, we can’t love people we don’t know. It begins then by being their friend, no questions asked. Aren’t you thankful that Jesus chose to love you and me, even though He knew what a mess we were? If I’d been Jesus, I wouldn’t have loved me and I certainly wouldn’t have died for, as Amazing Grace author, John Newton so aptly described me, “a wretch.”

Those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior must be more likely than other Americans to come into contact with people with different worldviews and beliefs. Jesus was “the friend of sinners” (Luke 7:34). His followers are to imitate Him. It should be normal for us to have those who consider us a close friend yet dramatically differ from us in our worldview.

You and I have a wonderful opportunity to show a watching world what love and grace looks like. We have a wonderful opportunity to show what a community of believers looks like where allegiance to Christ transcends political differences in the current moment. We must push back against the trend of making nearly everything in life political or of reducing people to their political views. The commission we have from our Lord doesn’t distinguish between party affiliation. We are called to make disciples—and not only of Republicans or Democrats or Independents. It’s sin for us to only love and befriend those who are like us.

Jerry Bridges in his book, The Gospel for Real Life writes that loving our neighbor means…You cherish your neighbors with the very same love that you have toward yourself. In your dealings with them you never show selfishness, irritability, peevishness, or indifference. You take a genuine interest in their welfare and seek to promote their interests, honor, and well-being. You never regard them with a feeling of prideful superiority, nor do you ever talk about their failings. You never resent any wrongs they do to you, but instead are always ready to forgive. You always treat them as you would have them treat you.

The bottom line is this: What is my relationship with Christ doing for my “neighbor”? What is my Christianity doing for the people that God has placed in my path? In my neighborhood? At work? In my family? Do I even know my neighbor? Can I truly say that I love them?

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.