Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue. – Proverbs 11:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 4, 2013): Proverbs 11

Every day as he opened up his children’s show, Fred Rogers would walk into his house and take off his jacket and sing a simple song. The song was the theme of the show and it ended with a simple invitation – “Won’t you be my neighbor?” For decades this simple invitation was used to try to teach children about their neighbors and the people working in their neighborhood. And the idea behind the whole show was that neighbors were special people – and that community was important.

The story line behind one of the most famous sitcom neighbors is that Wilson W. Wilson, Jr. (Home Improvement) was, as a child, was never allowed by his parents to talk to his neighbors. So now, as an adult, he enjoys passing wisdom over to his neighbors Tim and Jill Taylor – of course, always with the lower part of his face hidden by the fence. And through their relationship we learn the same lesson that Fred Rogers had been trying to teach us – neighbors are important.

Our neighborhood is where we live. When we are away it is often the place that we long for. It is the symbol of home. It is a place where we are known and – hopefully – loved. The neighborhood is still the one place where we look out for each other, help each other, and the place where we get to simply share the joys and tribulations of life across a fence. It is also a place of protection and love. When I moved into the house I currently live in, my new next door neighbor introduced me to the neighborhood – and specifically to the neighbor that lives just across the street. Apparently, years earlier when he had just moved into his house, he had run off to the hardware store to get something. Because he was not going to be gone for long he had left his garage door open, and so our neighbor simply brought a lawn chair out onto his driveway and watched the open garage until the new owner of the house got home. After all, is that not what a neighbor does?

And there is probably nothing worse than having a feud with your neighbor. The feud changes a place that should be safe into a war zone. So the Proverbs warn us about how it is that we treat our neighbors. Only a fool would openly fight with a neighbor, but the problem is more likely to call them a fool through our own actions. The Proverbial instruction is that we should take our relationships with the Wilson W. Wilson’s living next door seriously – cultivating the relationships precisely because we recognize that the neighborhood is important.

Jesus would take Solomon’s instructions a step farther, teaching us that our reality is that everyone in the world, even those who are most unlike us, are really our neighbors. Everyone we meet is worthy of being valued by us – and that may be the only path to Peace on Earth.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 12