Middle

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself," Leviticus 19:18.

This line is sort of in the middle of the Torah, the books of the Law, half-way between Genesis and Deuteronomy. It's in a section that starts off asserting God's holiness and his expectation that his people will act holy. That his people will never behave like the nations around them. New rules of life, for a new people of God. OK. So who's the neighbor we're supposed to love so much? Jesus' answer: Anyone. anyone who passes by our way. Whose way we pass. The Good Book says this notion of loving anyone sums up everything it says. Hmm. Says who? The Holy One of Israel: Be holy for I, Jehovah, your God, am holy.

We recognize in each other the neighbor Jesus intended, brother or sister, whether we knew each other or not before crossing paths. And, together, we give thanks to God for drawing us into his holy kingdom, so different from the nations we had known.