If I say that I love my neighbor, what am I actually doing to help my neighbor succeed?
Jesus was once asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He answered with the story we now call the Good Samaritan. A man had been beaten, robbed, and left beside the road. Respected people passed him without stopping. The person who finally crossed the road to help was a Samaritan—someone the original listeners would have been taught to distrust.
I do not believe Jesus chose the Samaritan by accident. He made the outsider the hero because He wanted the question to become personal. It is easy to love people who think like us, vote like us, worship like us, look like us, or share our history. The real test comes when the person who needs us belongs to a group we have learned to fear, resent, blame, or ignore.
Neighbor is not a label. It is a responsibility.
We often speak about loving our neighbors as though love were simply a feeling or a polite attitude. But the Samaritan did more than feel sympathy. He stopped. He listened to the need in front of him. He used his own time and resources. He made sure the injured man was cared for, and he accepted responsibility for what happened next.
That is the question Hometown Together asks of every community: If we say we care about one another, what are we actually willing to do? Are we helping a young person find a mentor? Are we opening professional doors for someone who has never had access? Are we helping a small business owner learn what we know? Are we supporting families, improving neighborhoods, and standing beside people when life becomes difficult?
Conversation alone will not solve every problem. But honest conversation can create the relationships that make shared action possible. We cannot help people we refuse to know, and we cannot understand people if we are only waiting for our turn to defend ourselves.
Listening is one way we cross the road.
Listening does not require us to abandon our convictions or pretend every idea is equally right. It asks us to believe that another person may have lived something we have not lived and may see part of the community that we cannot see from where we stand.
Black and white neighbors do not have to assign all blame to one another, and we do not have to ignore history. Republicans, Democrats, independents, and people who want nothing to do with politics do not have to agree on every policy. Christians can be honest about the faith that calls us to love our neighbors while welcoming people who do not share that faith. Every person can still enter the conversation with dignity.
Hometown Together is built on that invitation. Come to the table. Listen to learn. Speak honestly without turning a neighbor into an enemy. Look for what we can do together. Leave knowing another person better than when you arrived.
We do not gather to win arguments. We gather to win neighbors.
The Good Samaritan did not begin by asking whether the injured man deserved his help or belonged to the right group. He saw a person in need and chose to become a neighbor. Our hometowns will become stronger when more of us make the same choice.
— Brent Roberson