Love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27
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Ottawa Lake in Whiteford Township is a unique place. It is a place where a traffic jam is when one is caught behind a tractor hauling hay – where kids and old adults wear Caterpillar ball caps – and where the township supervisor wears bluejeans and suspenders to work. It is a place where people can still get two hot dogs, fries and a root beer float at the Mayberry Cafe for under 5 bucks.Ottawa Lake is a place where the whole town shows up when their high school football team goes to the big city to play for the Michigan State Championship and wins or when their school puts on a Christmas concert and actually sings some Christmas carols. Don’t be surprised to see the gym filled for a basketball game on a Friday night or when a township siren goes off when a person needs a helping hand or where church bells ring when a person passes away.
It is a place where the spirit of Mr. Rogers still lives on. A recent article in the Washington Post highlighted Mr. Rogers: “I think everyone longs to be loved and longs to know that he or she is lovable,” he said in the 2003 documentary, America’s Favorite Neighbor. “And consequently, the greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they’re loved and capable of loving.”
Mr. Rogers’ theological messages could be traced to the biblical notion of “neighbor” and Jesus’ parable about The Good Samaritan
As Jesus tells it, a Jewish man was mugged and left for dead, and his body was ignored by the religious elite who passed by. But a man from a despised country of Samaria stopped and showed kindness. This was Jesus’s roundabout way of answering the question “Who is my neighbor.”
Jesus’ point – that the Samaritan and the Jewish man were neighbors in a spiritual sense, if not a physical one – feels right at home on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, where Rogers greeted you with a daily “Hi, neighbor!” as if the whole world lived in the same close-knit community.
It may sound old-fashioned, but Mr. Roger’ theology was radical in 1962 when his show debuted, and it remains radical today. That’s why it resonated. That’s why it’s still necessary.” – Tyler Huckabee, Toledo Blade, 2/3/18
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus saying “love your neighbor as yourself.” What a precious mandate for communities and individuals to DO!
Rev. Terry Rebert is Pastor of Historic Zion Lutheran Church in Ottawa Lake, MI. and weekly devotional writer of Words of Faith for Transformation Ministries.
Contact: Rev Terry Rebert at tjrdet@aol.com;
