We are thankful for our neighbors - and a chance to love them

from a sermon on October 26 by the Rev. Keith Patterson

Who is my neighbor that I am to love just as much as I love myself?  That is the question that is hard to answer.  I know for myself that there is no easier answer just more questions.  Do I love those who are like me, who have the same education and background?  Can I put myself and all that I love about myself into the place of the stranger that passes me on the street?  How do I love someone else as much as I love myself in a world that advertises “it’s all about me?” 

Sometimes when I am working in the thrift store or the food pantry it is easy to love my neighbor as myself because I really don’t know any of the people.  They are strangers to me.

All of that changes when I know who my neighbor is.  When someone I see on the streets of Concord who comes to ask for food, I know that person also wants a decent meal just like I do.  I am eager to meet the needs of the other because I recognize that the stranger, the other, is me.

Here is a poem written by Jan Richardson that speaks to love being the oldest law and the oldest blessing.  She asks that we become open to it, that we pursue it and that we spend it.

Love Is the Most Ancient Law
A Blessing 

Open to it
and you will know it
how love is
its own blessing
and most ancient
of laws.

Pursue it
entirely
with everything
in you—
your heart
(all)
your soul
(all)
your mind
(all).

Spend it
all—
this love
so generous
this love
that goes out
to each
it finds
this love
that gives itself
in lavish and
unimagined measure
everywhere and
to all—

yourself
not least.[1]

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[1] Jan Richardson, The Painted Prayerbook, http://paintedprayerbook.com/2014/10/23/love-is-the-most-ancient-law/#.VEvY5-l0zIU