Knowing (and Loving) Our Neighbors

"How can we LOVE our neighbors, if we don't KNOW our neighbors?"

"How can we be Salt and Light, if we keep ourselves insulated from the world?"

"How can we imitate Jesus if our doors remain shut and we don't allow anyone in?"

"How can we LOVE our neighbors, if we view certain people as 'the other' or unworthy?"

Love is hard! It takes effort! It takes time! Love is governed by freedom, not by law! It embraces things that are difficult. Love means stepping into situations we'd rather avoid. It involves forgiveness. Love requires movement! It means going! Love takes courage! It means embracing those we'd rather turn our backs on! Love helps us conquer our fears.

If we don't know our neighbors, I believe we can't truly love our neighbors the way we should or could!

Love goes way beyond typing "I love you" on a keyboard, it means getting out from behind that screen and going deep into the trenches. It requires getting dirty! It’s risky. It's dangerous. Love is painful, but it's also beautiful and rewarding. Love takes us to places we never thought we'd go. 

My life has been and still is a journey of learning how to love! It has to go beyond just theory! Love requires facing the many obstacles and barriers that stand in the way. To truly love requires I go beyond only my friends and family, but it also requires loving my enemies, neighbors, and the "least of these". To me, love means following the ways and life of Jesus, so he can teach, guide, and empower me to boldly venture into wild and risky territories. I need to saturate myself with ongoing prayers to truly attempt to love my neighbors, or else I will be racked by my own guilt, fears, social anxiety disorder, and lack of motivation. 

Love requires a courageous leap of faith! It says "leap into the unknown!" It's a leap into a life that's risky and unpredictable. It's knowing we may not receive anything back. It's the knowledge that we may be persecuted and shamed. It's knowing that we will make mistakes and will fail. It's the knowledge that we may be mean-mugged and hated in return. Love crosses barriers, and when we do that, we will piss people off! It violates rules. It contradicts laws. It creates chaos. It smashes the mundane. It won't allow what's sensible and "within the rules" to hold us down. It disrupts! It shatters our plans and helps us move into freedom! 

Love helps us courageously say, "forget the rules, let's bamboozle the opposition, and who cares about the consequences, I need to choose love." Love is never an easy way out, but it will have results!

Love will agonizingly turn our world's upside down while simultaneously giving us blessings and comfort at the same time. Jesus lovingly embraced beggars, tax-collectors, prisoners, refugees, foreigners, and prostitutes, but don't forget, because of his courageous love, the religious gangsters and political thugs brutally murdered him on the Cross. He never let fear cripple him. Remember, loving your neighbors, loving your enemies, is not a symbolic gesture, it is action, it's a lifestyle, it's a journey that caused Jesus to be mocked and laughed at. The love Jesus chose to give made him a criminal, and a bloodied and tortured victim of the State. 

But, remember, we must always remember...

His story didn't end in the grave, he conquered death and rose again. His resurrection gives us hope in His Loving Kingdom that makes all things right. His resurrection means that the abuse of power we witness daily won't reign forever. His resurrection won't let us sit on our butts and let hate have its way. His resurrection calls us to action in our communities. His resurrection calls to know our neighbors and to love them as ourselves...

• Love embraces the "least of these" and provides hope to those that most people reject. 
• It does not forget about those who are being oppressed and finds ways to lift them out of the miry clay.
• Love embraces perseverance and does not allow fear to limit the journey.
• It embraces the hungry and does not forget to give them something to eat.
• Love embraces those seeking asylum and does not forget about refugees. 
• It embraces those experiencing homelessness and does not forget those living in tents.
• Love embraces those struggling with mental illnesses and does not forget them when they're “having an episode”. 
• It embraces those struggling with addiction and does not forget them when they go through their roughest patches. 
• Love embraces those who are transgender and does not forget them when they are bullied and criminalized.
• It embraces those who are grieving and does not forget all who are victims of the empire's violence.
• Love embraces those young men standing on the corner and does not forget them when they're vilified.
• It embraces those who are victims of violence and does not judge them in their never-ending struggles to escape.
• Love embraces the prisoner and does not forget them when they're no longer behind bars. 
• It embraces those who are sick and does not forget to visit those who are shut in. 
• Love embraces those with disabilities and does not forget to support and include them. 
• It embraces courageous love and does not keep silent in the face of all the unrighteous cowardly bullying. 
• Love embraces all who are ignored, forgotten, and criminalized by our power-tripping elites
• It does not forget all who are victimized, rejected and displaced by our money-hungry politicians.

How can we truly love, with revolutionary love, if we don't know our neighbors? 

Instead of hiding from reality, we need to look around us, see who's in our communities, and venture out to get to know these neighbors! Wherever we live, we have something to offer, so let us embrace the revolutionary love Jesus displayed!

When I look around me and take the time to observe my neighborhood, there's plenty of people who need love! Uptown is full of people who've been ignored and forgotten. Uptown is full of people who’ve been displaced and evicted. Uptown is full of people who’ve been condemned and deemed unforgivable. Uptown is full of people who are victims of violence and live in trauma. Uptown is full of people who are bullied and alone. Uptown is full of people who are constantly in pain and need sweet relief. Uptown is full of people internally suffering and they seek rest. Uptown is full of people we need to know and love! 

I'm happy to say, I get to witness the beauty of revolutionary love endlessly revealing itself in Uptown. It hardly ever flows from those making the policies, or from those with the money, or from those dripping with power and privilege, revolutionary love flows like a fountain from those who have little to their names, yet their hearts are overflowing with compassion and concern for their neighbors. Revolutionary love flows as people find the courage to squash their fears, take a courageous leap and put the concerns of others before themselves. I am privileged to see this every day in the homeless community! It's not hatred and bitterness that rules, it's the power of revolutionary love!

In my last post, "UPTOWN: Choose Love, Not Hate!", I encouraged those who speak well to live well too. I encouraged them to stop scamming people and live in truth. Those fancy words of tolerance and compassion they eloquently speak are often a far cry from their prejudicial and discriminatory actions. What I've been privileged to observe over the years is often the exact opposite with those experiencing homelessness. The talk may not always be as eloquent and politically correct, but their actions are far more generous, compassionate, forgiving, hospitable, and non-judgemental. 

...and I know I'd rather stand amongst those whose actions speak the truth than sit in the seat of scoffers!

When I reflect on the photos I've shared here, I cannot help but see how revolutionary love continually shines in the darkness. Forgotten by most and ostracized by many, they were embraced by those who got to know them and shower them with redemption and compassion. The above photos may reek of lamentation, but if you sniff carefully you can smell the sweet fragrance of hope, generosity, community, and revolutionary love.

When Frenchie sat shivering on the cold pavement, fading away, it was those in the community that helped him come inside to CCO. Once inside, I witnessed an extraordinary display of revolutionary love, those who were homeless themselves made his bed up, cooked him food, gave him their clothes, and cheered at his arrival. They knew Frenchie, so they knew his survival was at stake, and they made sure this man who had nothing to offer was doted on and showered with acts of compassion. All this led to Frenchie eventually getting a livable income and being safely housed. 

I see this kind of revolutionary love happen all the time. People know their neighbors, know their weaknesses, know their pasts, know their struggles, know their addictions, know their reputations, know their stories, and in all this, they find strength in community to lift one another up. When people suffer and are pushed down together, they form an unmistakable bond. There’s power in people coming together - however weak, under-resourced and vulnerable the group may be! 

I see this at CCO, I saw this in Uptown Tent City. The “powers-that-be” rallied and used their money, privilege, and power to evict and control those living in tents. They wanted them out of there, but they didn’t know them, they thought it would be easy. They discounted their resilience and collective strength. The residents of Uptown Tent City knew each other! Together, they didn’t wither away! Together, they fought! Together, they sacrificed! Together, they rose! Together, they delayed the inevitable and achieved much. Together, they stood strong and many moved from tents into apartments. 

We have to remember, even though they killed Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Hampton, Oscar Romero, and so many others who rose up against oppression, the community that stood with them lived on and wouldn't surrender. The "powers-that-be" tried to suppress and eliminate, but they couldn't stop the movement. 

We have to also remember, that even though they killed Jesus, the men and women that stood with him didn't surrender to the State. They rose up as a community, despite all the Empire's efforts to suppress and eliminate, they persevered and fought as a grass-roots movement that changed the world through the revolutionary and salvific love of Jesus. The peaceful loving Kingdom of God, built out of weakness and foolishness, has and will overcome all the sophisticated and powerful evil empires of this world.

Great things happen, miracles happen when we get to know our neighbors and shower each other with the revolutionary love Jesus taught us and lived...

• Carol, who once stayed in Uptown Tent City and then in Cornerstone moved into her own apartment yesterday because people got to know her and showered her with revolutionary love.
• Don (pictured above) was chronically homeless; he lived on the streets and in CCO. While in Uptown, people got to know him and shower him with revolutionary love, so when he passed away he was housed, and at peace with those who’d once rejected him. 
• As people come home from prison, I love watching others rally around them, get to know them, shower them with revolutionary love, by letting them know all is not lost. As society cries "you’re unforgivable", through the relentless power of forgiveness and compassion, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing countless people find housing and employment. 
• When people, like Carol and Frenchie, move from homelessness and into housing, that relationship continues. Moving from an active community to an apartment can be lonely, and that is why continuing to shower our neighbors with revolutionary love is vital.
• Every Christmas season, when emotions are triggered, when guilt and depression are trying to pull them under, our homeless families at CCO receive countless blessings, and gifts, because people get to know them and shower them with revolutionary love. Every child, though homeless, is blessed with more than they could imagine. Every parent feels that weight, that burden, being lifted from their weary shoulders. 

Let us and go out, get to know our neighbors and shower them with revolutionary love!