The Canadian Lutheran July/August 2020

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?

by John Arthur Nunes

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s if the loneliness of isolation weren’t enough, now we are gripped by the fear of anarchy and what feels to some like the collapse of western civilization. As tough as these times seem, I believe that the Holy Spirit relentlessly is present to help the Church navigate with confidence and hope these difficult days: “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:39).

The twin crises of COVID-19 and rising mainstream awareness of racial injustice have tested our faith and rattled our settled ideas of normalcy. From Port of Spain, Trinidad to Uranium City, Saskatchewan life on our continent is challenged. Yes, I say stretching from the Caribbean, because people from Panama to Greenland geographically-speaking are our North American “neighbours.” Our current moment—whether because of social distancing or social unrest—retrieves for us an ancient question with biblical precedent: “Who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10).

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THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN July/August 2020

REIMAGINING NEIGHBOURLINESS When I attended Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary (CLTS - St. Catharines, Ontario) in the late 1980s, Dean Roger Humann led a spiritual retreat based on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s work Life Together. How can communities of faith ground our lives together in the place where grace is funded? Humann proposed, only with Christ at the centre! I remember our discussions including this volume’s cautionary note: that there was a destructive power when humans wrongly love even good things. For example, lovers of community, and nowadays, lovers even of diversity end up destroying what they love. Those, on the other hand, who reserve their love for Jesus Christ fortify community.

That principle has stuck with me and worked for me everywhere I’ve been in the ensuing thirty-plus years.