Love Your Neighbor As Yourself...No Exceptions

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus said, "The most important one is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.^' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."(Mark 12: 29-31) Simple, right?

It really does sound that simple. He basically told everyone to love God and love everyone else. All this time since his death has passed, and I would say many of us still have a lot to work on. Loving your neighbors is easy when you like your neighbors. However, loving your neighbor is not as easy when he or she is not particularly likeable. I think everyone has a story about their "bad neighbor" that no one could get along with, but we are called to love that person as well. We love to justify why it is okay to not like that person, but when Jesus spoke, he did not include any exceptions. He never said love everyone except for so and so.

Just this past week, I spent some time talking with a friend about funeral arrangements for her mother. Her mother and father lived in one state. She lives on the opposite end of the country, and the arrangements were being made in their hometown, which is in a third state. We were talking things through when she told me her dad wanted to have the mother's celebration of life in a pizza parlor. For the life of me, I could not understand why a pizza parlor. I thought perhaps her mother loved pizza, but she told me that was not the case. Her dad was not able to make arrangements with a church or church people in their hometown because she is transgender.

I could not believe what I heard. No one would help them. Where was the compassion? Shame on those churches and those who call themselves followers of Christ, but refused to help them in any way. When you choose hatred, discrimination, and intolerance over compassion, you are clearly on the wrong path. It breaks my heart that their family was turned away.

The hallmarks of our faith are supposed to be love, compassion, kindness, and acceptance. Yet, there is a pretty substantial amount of Christians who do not live this way. We should be about building longer tables, not taller fences. Unfortunately, experience tells me there are far too many fence builders out there. When a church stops welcoming people in and focuses on keeping people out, it is no longer a church, it is nothing more than a social club. This is completely unacceptable.