him as a neighbor, he acted like a neighbor. He loved his neighbor as himself. In other words, he did for his neighbor what he would have wanted done for him if he were the crime victim. The Samaritan, who shared the same scripture as the Jews, had taken the scripture seriously. He had seen an enemy and looked again through the lens of Jewish religious teaching and seen a neighbor.

Isn’t this a challenge for all of us? There are people that we regard as enemies, sometimes individual people, sometimes groups of people. Can we see these people through the lens of the gospel of Christ, not as enemies but as neighbors? And once we regard them as neighbors, can we treat them as neighbors? When we renew our Baptismal Covenant, one question is “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” Can we see all persons as our neighbors? I have found this to be tremendous challenging, especially in cases where I have been hurt by people. Perhaps you share my experience. We all have prejudices against groups of people as well, and it can be very challenging to grow out of our prejudices.

What we need to know – the Christian “basics” if you will – are fairly simple. Love of God, of neighbor, and of self, in right balance. The basic guideline of right behavior is also fairly simple. As St. Augustine put it, “Love and do what you will.” Simple concepts. Love and act with love. The concepts are simple, but the practice takes a lifetime to learn.

Our challenge is to grow and become more loving human beings. We might ask Jesus, “Teacher, how do I learn to love God with all my heart and soul and strength and mind and my neighbor as myself? And how do I learn to put my love in action?” These are good prayer questions. These are good questions to remember as we read scripture and seek answers there.

Last week I read a passage from “Gathering at God’s Table: The Meaning of Mission in the Feast of Faith” by former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Shori. I’ll repeat a part of that quotation. “In our faith, in our scriptures, there’s a recurring motif about the competition between the powers of self-concern and concern for God and others…. Our fundamental problem as human beings is over-concern with self – what the church has for centuries called ‘original sin.’” Many people, perhaps most people, like the lawyer in this morning’s lesson, need to learn to love others more, to live with a better balance of self-love and love of others. I certainly believe that.

But for some people, people who give to others generously, who see themselves as helpers and as good neighbors, for people like this proper love of self is often a challenge. The commandment is not to love our neighbors and not ourselves or to show mercy for others in need and not ourselves when we are in need. Sometimes we need to have compassion for ourselves as we would for others. Sometimes we need to feed and nurture and support ourselves as we would others.

We are all God’s beloved children – you and me and every person on earth. We believe that God wants health and salvation for all. May we trust God and, in good faith, approach our Teacher Jesus to learn the eternal ways of love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.