Loving God – with our whole person - and our neighbours as ourselves  

In Luke 10, Jesus relates the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to a question from a lawyer about how far the command to ‘love your neighbour’ extends.

It’s a passage that comes to mind when I think about the exploitation of the vulnerable, the degradation of our climate and environment, and social inequality and power imbalances across the world. How do I, and how do we, as followers of Jesus, respond to the call to love our neighbour as ourselves – a commandment intrinsically bound up with loving God with heart, soul, strength (i.e. body) and mind?

Justice is at the centre of God’s being. Attitudes and behaviour that counter the endemic injustice in our world honour God’s heart for justice. At SBC we have sought to keep Fairtrade prominent. The catering stocks of coffee, tea and sugar are all fair trade, and we have regular opportunities for members of the congregation to buy Fairtrade items that are not readily available at supermarkets, and to encourage us to buy those Fairtrade goods that are. Buying fairly traded goods is an act of loving justice for our global neighbours and of loving God with our heart and bodily strength.

In addition, SBC aims to do our part in protecting and conserving the beauty and wonder of God’s now fragile creation. Solar panels will provide a proportion of our energy needs and will witness to the community that we take seriously the duty of stewardship of the world we inhabit. Our newly planted wildflower garden will attract pollinating insects, numbers of which are rapidly declining. Recycling and the reduction of unnecessary single-use kitchenware continue to be a focus, and we can consider more environmentally-friendly alternatives to things in general use. We hope to be able to qualify for the Eco Church certification and to develop an environment policy that will help keep us on track, loving God and our neighbour – including those across the world who are already experiencing intense effects of the climate crisis.

Paul urges us, in Romans 12.1, to offer our bodies as a holy, pleasing, living sacrifice. This, together with the command to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbour as ourselves, raises for me the question of food – not only what we eat at home, but also what we offer at church. Over recent months scientific research has revealed vital information about food ingredients that have been shown to be harmful and have serious long-term health impacts. Here we are up against global corporations that have no care for public health but great concern for their profits. This in itself is a great injustice, as the products, so common on our supermarket shelves, are falsely understood to be safe, and the average UK diet derives over 50% of its calories from these nutritionally deficient ‘ultra processed foods’. This is in addition to what we already know about consuming too much food with high fat or high sugar content.

How does this, alongside global justice and care for the environment, relate to me, to disciples of Jesus, and to church? Do we see a concern for health and diet as part of loving God, others and ourselves? Or do we take the view that we accept all foods available to us (including those with ingredients known to be harmful) as blessings from God, regardless of the problems we are storing up for the future? Do we see ourselves as mainly spiritual beings and disregard the physical, when we might be hastening premature ill health and restricting our availability to God for working to reach others with his love? What about our loved ones, and hospitality to those to whom we want to show God’s love and care – is it loving to offer them what we know is harmful, even when it’s already a normal part of their diet? Do we perhaps even consider these subjects to be off-limits, and separate from our Christian walk?

As we discuss these matters in the diaconate, we’d appreciate your thoughts and ideas for how the church can grow in practical love for our neighbours near and far, seek to protect our shared earth, respond to the call to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, and understand how all this is bound up with our discipleship of Jesus.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12.1

Linda Wright