Loving Our Neighbours

²⁵ An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

 ²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”

²⁸ And Jesus said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” Luke 10:25-28

Dear Friends,

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to preach on the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. The punchline of the parable is that the despised, unclean, good-for-nothing Samaritan is the one who is an example of what loving one’s neighbour looks like (instead of the “holy and righteous” priest and Levite).

As I reflect on this last Sunday where we put on our cowboy paraphernalia and had a Stampede lunch, it strikes me that we were doing it with some new neighbours… We are two weeks into our new relationship with Green Pastures Christian Fellowship. Because of some unfortunate circumstances, this group of Chinese Canadian Christians were no longer able to worship at the church where they had been worshiping for several years. Several of them came to some of our worship services (beginning with Eileen and Mark) and felt that FLC could be a place and a congregation where they could have a worshiping home.

Beginning the first Sunday in July, we agreed to rent them the use our gym for their Mandarin language service. But the use of the gym is only part of why they wanted to come to FLC. Though many of the adults have Mandarin as their original tongue, most of their children now primarily speak English. Their real concern is that their children and youth have a place where they can be nurtured and grow in the faith. That is why there are 10-15 children who come up for the children’s message. Their older youth are also with us participating in our FLC worship because it’s easier for them to understand the scripture and message in English… AND they like the more upbeat music!

Instead of a rather sleepy summer, it has gotten very exciting. There are 40-50 additional people who are with us on Sunday mornings! With this many new folks joining us, one can expect things to be a little chaotic. At the luncheon, we had to get a lot more tables and chairs out than usual. Already though, Green Pastures has volunteers helping us out with all the children and they are quickly coming up to speed on how to make the coffee. The plan is for their whole congregation to join our worship on the first Sunday of the month so that together we can share holy communion. Isn’t that great?!

Also, don’t be surprised if you go into the gym after worship and find them sharing a meal… Their habit is to gather for a meal every time they worship. And… YES, you are invited to join them.

This is all to say that God has given us a wonderful opportunity to put into action our loving-our-neighbour-ness. This is right smack in the middle of our comfort zone since we are an uplifting, connecting, inviting and dynamic group of people! Please enjoy getting to know them and to help them feel welcome!

Peace,

Pastor Phil