"Who Is My Neighbour?"

This past weekend, I attended a conference, dubbed, “Cross the Street”, organized by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The conference is meant to be the “show” part of a twin "show-and-tell" evangelical tool designed to tell the world about the love of God.

The “tell” part is another conference, called “Ignite the Light”, aiming at defending the faith… in short, a conference on apologetics.

I was invited to attend as a news correspondent for ChristianWeek, a bi-weekly Christian newspaper. The privilege was all mine as conference speaker after speaker spoke viscerally and inspirationally on how to proclaim loudly God’s incomprehensible love for each one of us... not with empty words, but with come-from-the-bottom-of-the-heart love decisions and actions.

St. Francis of Assisi taught, “Preach the gospel to the world by all means. Use words, only if necessary.” I am at once humbled and shamed by that gentle reminder that how often I simply talk the talk, but, seldom do I walk the walk.

As a purported believer and follower of Jesus Christ, I ought to begin to “cross the street”, leave my comfort zone, and go the extra mile for anybody, particularly those who are in need, as Jesus would have done.

Why?

“Why not?” would be a better question.

Do I deserve Christ’ immeasurable love when He chose to become a mere man so that He might die a horrific death in order to rescue me?

He was the God-turned-one-man SWAT team who stormed the gate of hell to get me out of there.

What did I do to deserve that?

Zilch! Nada!

But, Jesus did it anyway, even were I the audience of one!

That’s how much He loves me (and all of us)!

Crossing the street to love my neighbor, the poor, the helpless, the sick, the weak, the maimed, the hurt, the handicapped, the distraught, the undone, the fatherless, the widowed, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the enslaved, the captive, the hostage, the down-trodden, the discriminated, the prejudiced, the maligned, and the seemingly unlovable is what my Lord and Saviour would do.

He did it and continues to do it for me. I didn’t and do not deserve it. That’s why it is called grace.

Is it difficult to love others as Christ loves me? To extend grace and love to others as Christ does? To simply love as He does?

Pastor Mark Hughes of Church of the Rock calls that the “Titanium Rule”, a higher standard by which to live a victorious life in Christ: “Do unto others as Christ does unto me.”

A story that Claude Houde, founding pastor of New Life Church in Montreal, the largest French-speaking evangelical church in North America, told at the conference raised every hair on the back of my neck (and the back of everybody else’s neck as well).

Claude, as a young pastor several years ago, was late arriving at a pastors’ meeting at a church. It was a particularly bone-chilling morning, with severe wind chill whipping the crisp frigid air. As Claude rang the door bell for what seemed like eternity, no one came to the door. He was so uncomfortably cold that he was about to return to his car and warm up for several minutes before trying the door bell again.

Just as he was about to turn around from the building, the door opened a sliver. A big burly man behind it asked who he was. Claude identified himself, and, just at the corner of his eye, he saw behind the burly guardian of God’s dwelling, a group of pastors having a jovial time enjoying fellowship, warm aromatic coffee, and honey dripping donuts.

Both the warm air and the aroma of food and drink on the other side of the door were at once comforting and welcoming to this half-frozen young pastor.

As Claude was about to step inside the door, out of nowhere, in charged a little woman and her tiny boy of about 5 years of age, both were in thin tattered layers of garment. To this day, Claude could not forget the distressful look on their faces. They were frost-bitten with whiteness around their cheeks, noses and ears. The woman could hardly utter a frozen word. She begged to be let in. They were severely exposed to the elements and famished.

The little woman sobbed and begged the big burly custodian to have mercy and allow them inside for warmth. The man sternly said, “No! You can’t come in!”

Claude, already inside the door, intervened and spoke on the pair’s behalf, but, to no avail. The man refused to budge his position.

Finally, the big burly custodian raised his loud voice and yelled at the unfortunate pair, “We cannot help you. THIS is a church!”

At the last syllable of the concluding sentence of the story, the entire congregation of conference attendees gasped collectively with utter disbelief and strong emotions.

Claude, who was in tears by now, said with an uncontrollable shake in his voice, “THIS is not the church Christ has in mind! We’ve got to undergo a paradigm shift. We’ve got to change. We’ve got to repent. And, we’ve got to be different than that!”

Tony Campolo, a sociology professor and author, reminds us to see in the eye of the poor and downcast, the very eye of Christ. He further stresses that “the church ought to be the only club in the world which exists for the benefit of non-members.”

That’s what “crossing the street” is all about: Show to tell (not so much show and tell) the love of God in our own sacrificial love for others as Jesus has sacrificially loved us.

David Macfarlane, an evangelist and the Director of National Initiatives of the EFC, puts it another way: people would not come to know the truth unless they see faith, expressed in love, that cannot be explained any other way.

Dutch Sheets, an author and a teaching pastor, echoes those sentiments when he said, “God is not so much concerned about us going to church as He is about we be the church wherever we go.”

God has the final word on His kind of love in the famed "Good Samaritan" parable, entitled "Who is My Neighbour?", and in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails…”

1 Corinthians 13 : 1 - 8