Crossing Invisible Boundaries: What is a Neighborhood Series

There are all kinds of social, economic and political boundaries in any neighborhood.  A government doesn't need to erect a wall for there to be a boundary that divides people through labeling and categories that define how people treat and interact with one another.  City neighborhoods are fascinating social landscapes where one street can house upper middle class residents and the very next street display abject poverty.  The line between these two neighborhoods is not monitored by soldiers or check points but the people living there will not interact or relate to one another. 

Jesus was aware of boundaries in his social context.  There were boundaries between Jews and the Romans, the poor and wealthy land owners, religious leaders and the people they served, those with leprosy forced to live outside the walls of a town and the rest of the inhabitants.  For Jesus every person was a creation of God who bore the image of God even if that image was distorted by social conditions, illness or sin.  In Jesus the fullness of God dwells so that God is filling our humanity with God’s self to give abundant life.  Through Jesus the fullness of our humanity is brought into the presence of God.  Jesus embodied this reality that restored the image of God that’s distorted by social conditions and sin by healing the sick, loving the rejected, and giving life and significance to the outcast. 

One day Jesus encounters a group of lepers who were forced to live outside of the town because their disease made them unclean; not only for health reasons but having leprosy meant you were rejected religiously.  The proper etiquette in such an encounter would be to keep the lepers away from you so that you’re not tainted by their disease and become unclean too.  Instead Jesus allows the lepers to touch him as they beg for healing, lays his hands upon them and restores them to life.  The result is that they go to the priests to be pronounced clean and are restored to society. 

The persistence of boundaries, such as the one with lepers in Jesus’ day, degrades the functioning of a neighborhood.  It’s not that one with a contagious disease doesn’t need to be careful so that there isn’t an epidemic, but that the social stigma and religious condemnation distort the image of God in the person.  We need to dismantle the social, economic and political divisions in a neighborhood so that people can come together to solve the ills of society, but also to be one, to be united in the life that God intends and desires for all of Creation.  The social barriers erected in a neighborhood increase our alienation from God and one another.  In Christ these barriers are overcome to restore us to unity with God and each other in divine love.  

Neighborhood Character: What is a Neighborhood Series

Neighborhoods are many things, displaying different personalities and character.  Some neighborhoods have a communal character where people know one another, share their resources and help one another in times of need.  Other neighborhoods have a cosmopolitan character with a myriad of possibilities for entertainment, art, music and a diversity of culture.  The sad reality is that many places where people live today do not function as neighborhoods because the person next door is unknown, a stranger, maybe even someone feared for unfounded reasons.  Our social networks are spread out and made possible through transportation and social networking sites but the person living next door is non-existent unless there’s a conflict. 

Neighborhood exists where people have a shared belonging and togetherness in the daily happenings of life.  If a person’s grass doesn’t get mowed because of their schedule or illness a neighbor will take care of the yard; no questions asked, without charge.  A neighborhood is where people will serve a family whose struggling financially due to a death, unemployment or illness by fixing a broken window or some other home repair the family is unable to do.  This is in stark contrast to a neighborhood where a moving trunk halls away a family’s belongings while they’re on vacation.  Nobody realizes the family’s been robbed because nobody knows who they are or what’s happening.  They’re neighbors that don’t function as a“hood”, a community of belonging and togetherness. 

A healthy society is one where neighborhoods have a holistic character that provides for people’s relational and physical needs.  We are communal in nature so that even the most rugged individualists desiring isolation needs some human interaction for comfort, love, and relational connection.  The Christian faith believes people are made in the image of God who exists as a Trinity.  The Trinity consists of three Persons, the Father, Son and Spirit, who in complete self-sacrificing love given to one another are totally one.  The Trinity is an icon of community, love and unity that doesn’t destroy the integrity of the person but manifests love.  It’s this image of God that we call communion which necessitates the need for social systems where people are authentically connected.   Social networking sites are great resources, but don’t and can’t replace real, physical, human contact where people tell stories, listen to one another, and interact with each other.

A healthy neighborhood is more than creating a safe place to live that doesn't have any crime.  It’s where the various systems of culture that provide the framework for living, such as food, economy, housing, social interaction, etc. are functioning in a sustainable manner.  Neighbors are not necessarily best friends but neither are they strangers.  They are people through and with whom we live life.  A neighborhood is the place where everybody knows your name which is to say you belong, this is a place of purpose and life for you.