Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 5:05pm
What makes a good neighbor?
Column: New Houses from Old Bricks
Our congregation grew out of our worship and office spaces a long time ago. With our tiny plot of land downtown, our expansion options are limited, but over the past few years (before I arrived at the church), our congregation has made plans to add on, first a bigger sanctuary, then a second story on our offices next door.
Our neighbors aren’t happy. Our church sits right on the edge of a residential neighborhood, which is already stressed by the growth of downtown in our direction and the accompanying issues of parking, speeding, and transient people who are more visible here, to name just a few. In the months-long discussion about our church’s building project, people who live nearby sometimes name our church as a contributing factor to these issues. They’d be perfectly happy with us as neighbors — if only we didn’t hand out food weekly, if only we didn’t host 12-Step addiction recovery groups in our building throughout the week, if only our ministries didn’t draw more traffic into the neighborhood.
Call me cynical, but sometimes I think, it would be fine with the neighbors to have a church on this corner, if only we didn’t insist on acting like a church — as we have been doing on this street corner for over 50 years. Last night I attended a public meeting between church members, neighbors, and representatives of the city. Our neighbors raised very real and sensible concerns about possible effects on their quality of life, property values, neighborhood character, etc.
As I listened to a few NIMBY (“Not In My BackYard”) suggestions that we find a “more appropriate location” to help people in need of food and support for recovery, I thought, “But the church and local property owners are not each other’s only neighbors.” The church sees people in need as our neighbors, too — whether they own property nearby or not.
In the New Testament, a “neighbor” is defined by need, not by proximity. “Who is my neighbor?” a lawyer asks Jesus in Luke 10. In reply, Jesus tells him the story of a man robbed and beaten and left for dead at the side of the road. A priest and a Levite pass him by. (As an effort to look at the plank in my own eye rather than the speck in someone else’s [Matt.7:3-5], I notice this detail: Religious people are not automatically good neighbors by the sake of their religiousness.) Then a Samaritan, an outsider, comes by, and takes care of the man. Jesus asks, which of these people was a neighbor to the injured man? “The one who showed him mercy,” the lawyer replies.
Throughout the discussion of our building project, the idea of “being a good neighbor” has been a part of the argument, but without being defined. As far as I can tell, from both sides that means, “You’re being a good neighbor when I’m not bothered by what you’re doing, and you don’t interfere with what I’m doing.”
But are “good neighbors” really defined only by the ability to ignore one another’s activities? If good neighbors never created or tolerated inconvenience for one another, the Good Samaritan would certainly not have changed his plans, put the man on his own animal, taken care of his wounds, and paid an innkeeper to care for him.
From this perspective, our church is not a bad neighbor just because we don’t always do what our neighbors want us to do. Our local neighbors are not bad neighbors just because they are raising questions about our project. That much I know.
The rest, I’m not sure about. Having been at the church only a year, I don’t know much of the 50-year history of being good neighbors up until now, and the ways there might be more to it than peaceful coexistence. But I do suspect, if indeed true neighborliness depends on some kind of mutual need, then we might have some work ahead of us. We all appear relatively self-sufficient in this equation, and from the discussion it seems that mostly what we “need” (or want) is to be left alone to do what we do.
No wonder people mourn the decline of neighborliness across the country. For those of us who have achieved relative self-sufficiency in our lives and organizations, we don’t need much from neighbors on a regular basis. If we lack the proverbial cup of sugar, we usually go to the store ourselves.
Perhaps that’s why personal tragedy or collective disasters often bring people together so noticeably. While I’m not hoping for such a thing in our neighborhood, the principle does seem to hold true: Need creates neighbors.
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com. © copyright 2008 by Rebecca Schlatter
Our neighbors aren’t happy. Our church sits right on the edge of a residential neighborhood, which is already stressed by the growth of downtown in our direction and the accompanying issues of parking, speeding, and transient people who are more visible here, to name just a few. In the months-long discussion about our church’s building project, people who live nearby sometimes name our church as a contributing factor to these issues. They’d be perfectly happy with us as neighbors — if only we didn’t hand out food weekly, if only we didn’t host 12-Step addiction recovery groups in our building throughout the week, if only our ministries didn’t draw more traffic into the neighborhood.
Call me cynical, but sometimes I think, it would be fine with the neighbors to have a church on this corner, if only we didn’t insist on acting like a church — as we have been doing on this street corner for over 50 years. Last night I attended a public meeting between church members, neighbors, and representatives of the city. Our neighbors raised very real and sensible concerns about possible effects on their quality of life, property values, neighborhood character, etc.
As I listened to a few NIMBY (“Not In My BackYard”) suggestions that we find a “more appropriate location” to help people in need of food and support for recovery, I thought, “But the church and local property owners are not each other’s only neighbors.” The church sees people in need as our neighbors, too — whether they own property nearby or not.
In the New Testament, a “neighbor” is defined by need, not by proximity. “Who is my neighbor?” a lawyer asks Jesus in Luke 10. In reply, Jesus tells him the story of a man robbed and beaten and left for dead at the side of the road. A priest and a Levite pass him by. (As an effort to look at the plank in my own eye rather than the speck in someone else’s [Matt.7:3-5], I notice this detail: Religious people are not automatically good neighbors by the sake of their religiousness.) Then a Samaritan, an outsider, comes by, and takes care of the man. Jesus asks, which of these people was a neighbor to the injured man? “The one who showed him mercy,” the lawyer replies.
Throughout the discussion of our building project, the idea of “being a good neighbor” has been a part of the argument, but without being defined. As far as I can tell, from both sides that means, “You’re being a good neighbor when I’m not bothered by what you’re doing, and you don’t interfere with what I’m doing.”
But are “good neighbors” really defined only by the ability to ignore one another’s activities? If good neighbors never created or tolerated inconvenience for one another, the Good Samaritan would certainly not have changed his plans, put the man on his own animal, taken care of his wounds, and paid an innkeeper to care for him.
From this perspective, our church is not a bad neighbor just because we don’t always do what our neighbors want us to do. Our local neighbors are not bad neighbors just because they are raising questions about our project. That much I know.
The rest, I’m not sure about. Having been at the church only a year, I don’t know much of the 50-year history of being good neighbors up until now, and the ways there might be more to it than peaceful coexistence. But I do suspect, if indeed true neighborliness depends on some kind of mutual need, then we might have some work ahead of us. We all appear relatively self-sufficient in this equation, and from the discussion it seems that mostly what we “need” (or want) is to be left alone to do what we do.
No wonder people mourn the decline of neighborliness across the country. For those of us who have achieved relative self-sufficiency in our lives and organizations, we don’t need much from neighbors on a regular basis. If we lack the proverbial cup of sugar, we usually go to the store ourselves.
Perhaps that’s why personal tragedy or collective disasters often bring people together so noticeably. While I’m not hoping for such a thing in our neighborhood, the principle does seem to hold true: Need creates neighbors.
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com. © copyright 2008 by Rebecca Schlatter