Sermon for Sunday, June 29, 2025 || Proper 8C || Galatians 5:1,13-25
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
St. Paul says that this commandment sums up the whole law. Jesus says that this commandment, along with the command to love God, makes up all the law and the prophets. The command to love one’s neighbor as one’s self is central to the daily lives of Jesus’ followers – from his first disciples all the way down to us. So let’s talk about this commandment today, about what it means for us and how we might live it out in our own lives.
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Last Saturday, I was standing in line at Sift at 6:57am. There were a handful of people ahead of me, including about half a dozen folks all dressed in cycling clothes. I was doing chess puzzles on my phone when I heard someone cry out in distress. I looked up and saw a woman of advanced age had fallen on the sidewalk in front of the big yellow building next to Sift. Immediately, every one of the cyclists rushed to her aid. The rest of us in line watched, knowing that there wasn’t much we could do beside crowd the first responders. A minute or so went by as we watched, and then one of the cyclists came back to the line and reported that the woman was okay…just some bumps and bruises. Turns out all the cyclists were doctors.
In this act of emergency response, the cyclists were loving their neighbor. This type of loving action is easy to call out as an example of the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. We even call people who engage in such selfless emergency service “Good Samaritans,” a name taken from Jesus’ parable about the Samaritan who helps the man who had been beset by bandits on the road. We’ll hear this story in two weeks, but here’s a quick reminder. Jesus tells the parable in response to a lawyer questioning him after Jesus offers the summary of the law. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus says, and the lawyer asks, “And who is my neighbor?”
I’m pretty sure Jesus rolled his eyes at this question because the parable has nothing to do with the lawyer’s question. Jesus has no energy to engage the question, the answer of which is a fairly obvious “everyone is your neighbor.” Rather, the story teaches the harder lesson about how to be a neighbor. Thankfully, the lawyer gets it at the end. The neighbor is the one who shows mercy, the one who takes the time to see the needs of the injured man.
The Good Samaritan type of neighborliness is easy to spot and easy to commend. But we don’t often find ourselves in the kind of situation that calls for a Good Samaritan, so how can we love our neighbors as ourselves all the time, in both subtle and overt ways?
We start with ourselves. We love ourselves. We take mercy on ourselves and take the time to see to our own needs. We rejection perfectionism. We embrace self-compassion. We rejection mindless consumption. We embrace simplicity. We reject envy of others. We embrace our own giftedness, our own limitations, and our own paths toward growth. When we love ourselves, we align ourselves toward God and the other, not from a place of exhaustive self-sacrifice, but from a place of outpouring that is balanced by a grace-filled inpouring. This love of self springs from an attitude of abundance that in turns springs from the truth that all love, including self-love, pours forth from the eternal love of God.
(Let’s be careful here when we’re talking about love of self, because the self-love we’re contemplating sounds like it might be narcissism. But it’s actually the opposite. Narcissism comes from an incessant self-hatred that then rebounds on others, making the narcissist crave the praise of others because the they cannot locate their self-love within.)
When we love ourselves, we recognize the neverending river of God’s love flowing through us. This love irrigates our self-esteem and helps us embrace our own dignity. But, and this part’s super important, this love is a river, not a lake. The love of God flows through us and spills into the lives of others, even as the eternal river continues its course through our lives. We love our neighbors as ourselves because the love we have for ourselves and the love we have for our neighbors is all part of the same love – the eternal love of God.
And this is why we cannot make a distinction about who is a neighbor and who isn’t. The river flows through us and will not be dammed or diverted. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus says as much: “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven.” And just to make his point as clear as possible, Jesus continues: “[God] makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous.”
So, if even our enemy is our neighbor, how does the imperative to love work? Loving someone – even a class of someones – does not mean condoning or excusing their behavior when it is morally repugnant. Loving an enemy means continuing to recognize their humanity when their actions are inhumane. Loving an enemy means holding them accountable for their actions without seeking revenge. Loving an enemy means allowing our self-love to shine through, offering them an example for discovering their own love of self.
This week, I invite you to pray with the great commandment to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Where do you find yourself damming the river of God’s love within? Is it in trying to love yourself? Trying to love neighbors who are actually close to you? Trying to love those who are far away? Trying to love enemies? As you ponder these questions in prayer, ask God to open you to be a channel of God’s eternal love. Remember that loving one’s neighbor means showing mercy and meeting needs. Each of us has the opportunity to show this love forth in our lives as we feel the river of God’s love flowing through us.
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