Union Church

September 7, 2008
Romans: 13:8-10

Neighbours - we all have them.
We all are one, one way or another.

There is an old saying, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Yet, the apostle Paul tells the Christians in Rome that if they are showing love to their neighbour they are fulfilling the Law.

We’ve talked about this before: We all have stories of the Ice Storm.
Remember how being a neighbour became so important.
Remember how we expanded our definition of neighbour in those days.

The question is:
Has the definition continued to be as broad or has it narrowed down again?

Blessing a neighbour or being blessed by a neighbour builds us up, makes us radiant.
It connects us to the goodness at the centre of Life.
Because being a neighbour we recognize a claim on our lives for the well being of someone outside our family unit.

Truth is, there is nothing like a neighbour when we are in need.

We all have a story from other times in our lives when some accident or unexpected incident at some ungodly hour catches us out and a neighbour comes by and helps us.
In those moments, we are on the receiving end of someone outside of our family who recognizes a claim on their life to help out.

Now-a-days, neighbours are not necessarily next door. Leisure activities, the workplace and school connections have replaced the geographic proximity of defining a neighbour.

Our scripture reading tells us that when we are loving our neighbour we are fulfilling the law.
We are recognizing a claim upon our life.
We are accomplishing the love commandments of Jesus.

Jesus acted like a neighbour to everyone.
He associated with all levels of society.
He associated with both men and women.
Jesus healed people outside his faith tradition and his ethnic group.
He touched the untouchables.
He ate with the desirables and the undesirables.
He blessed the outcasts and in fact, he blessed the every cast.

So what does this say to us?
What is the application for today?

We Christians are to treat more and more people as our neighbour.

We Christians are to look for opportunities to expand our area of concern.

We are to enlarge our area of influence beyond our comfort zone.

We do this in our day to day encounters and we also do this through our Church.

Union Church has an affordable second hand clothing and household items store, Boutique 24, which serves the needs of students and the local community. We are also a second home to a number of mentally challenged adults from the Montreal West Readaptation Group. Our offering supports the ministry and mission of Union Church as well as the National United Church Mission and Service Fund.

This past month, we opened our doors to hundreds of John Abbott students and teachers while the college deals with asbestos problems.
Before last month, many of these folk didn't know Union Church existed.
Many of them still don't know what we are about.
We have opened our doors,
now, how will we love our new neighbours?

Matthew 18:19, 20

Matthew’s gospel tells us loud and clear that Christianity is not an individual pursuit but a group activity.

Groups can be clubs or teams.

With the Olympics still fresh in our memory, let me suggest that Christianity is supposed to be a team activity.

On a team, we work together, we need each other to keep us on track.

We need each other to get the job done.
We all have a necessary part to play.

Now, being a part of a team is very different from being a member of a club.
Clubs have their purposes but they are not teams.

Much more activity and partnership are required on a team.
We need to make all the practices.
We don’t roll over in bed because we’re too tired.
We have to show up because everyone else is showing up. Everyone is depending upon us.
For a team, we are to put forth our best effort.
When the team really comes together the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

When two or three are gathered as a team and not as a club, things change.
It is the mind set, it is the intention that makes the difference.
It is the mind set, it is the intention that allows us to gather in Christ’s name.

The Church today must move from membership which is a “belonging in” mentality to apostleship which is a “going out” mentality.

What I’m talking about is a shift from belonging to engaging.

In the 21st Century, we must be a sent out people who articulate and embody God’s grace.
This means we must be a people, who know how to love our neighbour, and realize that more and more people are to become our neighbour.

For the 21st Century, it is not about bringing people to Jesus.
Rather, it is about being a team that brings Christ to the world.
The church that learns how to take Christ out to the world has a future.

When we take Christ out to the world, we get out of ourselves and we connect for a higher purpose.

When we take Christ out to the world, we transcend the sports analogy and begin to experience the audacious claim in Matthew’s gospel that “when two or more of us agree on something in this mission, God will meet us and bring it to fruition.”

This is how we experience the truth of Jesus’ words “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am among you.”