Love Towards the Neighbour (Charity)

a sermon by Rev. Michael Gladish

Dawson Creek, BC, February 11^th, 2007

Twice in the Gospels, as we noted last week, the Lord referred to "the two great commandments," the first being to love the Lord, God, with all of one's heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second being to love the neighbour as oneself (Matt. 22:37-40 & Mark 12:29-31 also Luke 10:27). And it is of more than passing interest that the reference in Luke comes in response to a lawyer's question, that is from a man skilled in the laws of Moses. For the second great commandment first appears in Leviticus, as just noted, and in a most interesting and curious chapter.

There we can easily see why the lawyer asked what he did: "And who is my neighbour?" The verse in Leviticus clearly identifies him as one of "the children of your people." Curiously also, that chapter contains a whole series of "statutes" and "judgments" that appear to be on an equal level of priority with this law, including such things as not wearing a garment of mixed linen and wool, not shaving around the sides of your head or the edges of your beard, and so on. It is, in fact, an odd mixture itself of seemingly basic principles and seemingly trivial ones.

How, then, would the lawyer have so clearly known that love toward the neighbour is the second great commandment?

Well, for a start, most of the other statutes listed in Leviticus 19 bear on respect for the neighbour, so this one line is a sort of summary or encapsulation of them. But more than this, the Jewish Rabbis were not stupid, and they could easily see that the basic rules, the 10 Commandments, clearly relate to our dual obligations - to God and to other people. The only question was, what is the difference, if any, between "the neighbour" and anybody, so to speak, off the street?

And the Lord answered the question beautifully, of course, by pointing out in the parable of the Good Samaritan, that "he who showed mercy," that is, he who does what is good is the neighbour - not the victim of abuse, but the one who gives aid. So He laid the foundation for understanding the spiritual meaning of the word, neighbour, throughout Scripture, and for organizing our own thoughts about our neighbours, and about how to be good neighbours to them.

We are taught, for example, in the book, True Christian Religion, that "Everyone individually is the neighbour who ought to be loved - but according to the quality of his good" (TCR 406). Thus in the parallel passage in "The New Jerusalem" #85 we read,

This isn't obvious from the parable of the Good Samaritan, who evidently helped the poor man on the side of the road without regard to the quality of his life. But after all, that was a matter of life and death.  The teaching makes perfect sense and is clearly necessary lest "in doing good to the evil we do evil to the good" (AC 8120) by enabling them or even equipping them to hurt themselves or others. When, for example, you harbour a criminal you prevent him from coming to justice. When you support a drug addict without good judgment or conditions you support his addiction. When you give a child what she wants regardless of her disorderly behaviour, you condone the disorderly behaviour. And so on.

In the spiritual sense, of course, the help offered by the Samaritan to the robbery victim signifies the help anyone of goodwill can give to a person who has been robbed of his faith or emotionally beaten up. And what is that help? Specifically the Samaritan poured oil and wine on the man's wounds, set him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, then left some of his own money to pay the bill. It's all a perfect picture of how we can all help other people spiritually, as the oil corresponds to the goodness of love, the wine to the truth of faith, the donkey to the reasoning process that can help a person understand spiritual things, the inn to a place of instruction, and the money to the knowledge itself that will provide for spiritual life.

In fact, if you want to go even deeper with this you can see how the Samaritan and the robbery victim are BOTH representative of states or attitudes within our individual minds, for there's a part of each of us that is the victim and a part that is the helper, and the point is that the helpful part (conscience, perhaps?) can rescue the pitiful part by helping it out of the gutter, showing it love and wisdom, leading it, teaching it, and giving it time to heal.

But we're speaking today about love toward the neighbour, and by "the neighbour" here in general we mean an individual or a unit of society outside of oneself, and specifically the GOOD in that individual or group that we can serve. Again, we mentioned this briefly last week with a reference to the Arcana #2023 and in today's third lesson where the idea is that the Lord loves all people and wants nothing less than eternal happiness for each and every one. And anyone who loves the Lord shares in His love, which means he can't help loving the neighbour.

But the question, how to love the neighbour introduces a whole new dimension to the life of any person who loves the Lord. For the way we love God is simply to do what He teaches. In Matthew we are told, "Let your yes be yes, and your no no (5:37), and in John we are reminded simply to "abide with Him," keeping His commandments. In this regard our intention is everything. The Lord looks on the heart. But when it comes to loving the neighbour, some judgment (or discernment) is involved. We have to think about it. We have to figure it out. We are advised to be as wise (or prudent) as serpents, and as harmless as doves (10:16).

The difference in the two loves is all the difference between what is called celestial and what is called spiritual.

Now the Writings for the New Church often mention the celestial heavens and the spiritual heavens, referring to them as two "kingdoms" and comparing them to the kingdoms of the heart and lungs in the human body or the will and understanding in the human mind. In short, the celestial kingdom is all about the will, motive, intention, affection and so on, with thought, reason, understanding, judgment and wisdom being used to confirm and accomplish its desires. The spiritual kingdom, on the other hand, is all about thought, reason, understanding, judgment and wisdom being the first priority leading to the realization of some new love or affection. Can you see the difference? In the first case, the heart rules. We do things from pure passion - though not without thought to support the passion. In the second we do things from thought (conscience, really) based on what we have been able to learn about right and wrong, good and evil. A spiritual person can become celestial by doing what he knows to be right, which allows the Lord to create in him a new will, a new attitude, a new passion for what is good and true from the Lord. But a celestial person is warned not to turn from this higher plane of life back to the lower one lest the joy and freedom of pure love be lost in the doubts and difficulties of the reasoning process (see Luke 9:62 & AC 5895:5, or Matt. 6:3 & AE 600:4).

At one time in the history of the human race (the Writings call it Most Ancient times) all men and women were celestial. But after the fall represented by the loss of paradise and the story of the great flood, human minds - indeed, human BRAINS - were altered so that we are no longer controlled by our passions, but can learn independently of our passions what is good and true, and can discipline ourselves to act accordingly, thereby gaining a NEW WILL in the understanding.

And this is where love towards the neighbour, or charity, figures as the key to our attainment of that new will and indeed true love to the Lord. Remember, it's a process, not an event. We begin our lives - all of us - immersed in the loves of self and the world. This is not just because of our hereditary evil but it is for self-preservation. Babies have to compete with many other things - including their own parents- selfish loves and pre-occupations - for the attention they need to survive. But as they grow, as we all grow from infancy to maturity we need to learn NOT to be self-centered, and instead to be willing to give, and share, and take responsibility without thought of reward. How does this work?

Well, as in any ordered process there are means to the end. In this case the Writings say a lot about "mediate (or intermediate) goods," that is, good loves that are intermediate between what is just selfish and what is truly selfless. One "mediate good" is the desire for reward. A kid being asked to clean up his room will naturally ask, "Why? I like it this way. It's my room, what's in it for me?" So if you say, "well, when you do it I will give you a treat" (whatever appeals to the kid), you will likely get his co-operation, and after this has happened a number of times the hope and plan is that he will develop a habit of keeping his room tidy and learn to like it that way. Then you can "up the ante" and move on to more important things. The appeal to reward is not evil, but it is not purely good either; it is a means to the end.

The Lord certainly used this approach with His disciples, promising them "great reward" in heaven if they would make sacrifices, possibly even the supreme sacrifice, for Him in this world.

And so He also said "Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them," and again, quoting Leviticus, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Matt. 22:39).

In these and other passages He appeals directly to the love of self and says, effectively, if we can just begin by loving others at least as much as we love ourselves we will be OK. But the larger plan is that as we discipline ourselves to do this, like the kid cleaning up his room, we will learn to like living that way and then the Lord can "up the ante" and take us to an even higher level, namely, love for the genuine good in the neighbour, and finally, pure love for the Lord.

So, then, who is our neighbour, and how can we truly love him - or her?

Well, again, we have to think about it. We have to weigh the circumstances in every case, and we have to KNOW what is genuinely good for human life - on this planet and in the spiritual world.

For example, whereas we might feel pity for, and have compassion on a poor beggar in town, if his eyes are glazed over or he smells of alcohol we might think twice about giving him a hand-out. On the other hand we could buy him a sandwich and a cup of coffee. Or what about the larger neighbour, a unit of society like the community, the church or the nation? These, too, we read, are our neighbours according to the quality of the good in them. So to BE a good neighbour to them is to serve them by promoting what is good in them. This can be done by dutifully paying taxes, helping to enforce the laws, voting, attending city council meetings, investing money in the community and so on. It can be done by volunteering, contributing, attending services and so on, not just for ourselves but for the sake of others, to enhance the whole experience for everyone. And it can be done by taking strong stands against what we know and understand to be wrong!

So, most of all, loving the neighbour is about doing what is good - good for us and good for others, not just for the short term but for the long term health and welfare of all. And ultimately this means what is good for the spirit, for eternal life in heaven.

How do we know what is good for the spirit? We learn it from the Word, and especially from the revelation of the spiritual meaning of the Word in the doctrines of the New Church! If we would just read the books we would have a treasure-house of knowledge and information we could share on the spot with people of all kinds about all sorts of vitally important things! We could help them with insights and encouragement about the real nature of the Lord, real marriage, real freedom, responsibility and use, the real meaning of the Bible stories, the laws of His providence, regeneration and much more.

In fact, sharing these things would be a form of charity to ourselves as well, since doing so would help us clarify and organize our own understanding of them, thereby improving our own lives at the same time as others', bringing us all closer to the ultimate goal of a passionate, happy life of pure affection for the good and true, in other words, for the Lord.

Everyone is, indeed, our neighbour, but every one in a different way. Let us therefore learn to serve them all well by serving and promoting the good they have from the Lord, and by adding to that good in our relations with them.

Amen

Lessons:

Leviticus 19:1-4 & 9-18

Children's talk on v. 14 - on being truly kind to your friends

Matthew 7:7-12 (or Luke 10:25-37)

Arcana Caelestia 2227 (most, not all)