Created for Community: Who Is My Neighbor?

Leviticus 19:15-18, Luke 10:25-37: People often assume that the lesson of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is "Anybody could be my neighbor," which is comfortable and doesn't raise our prejudices. But Jesus chose the Samaritan precisely because "A Samaritan is my neighbor" would have stuck in the throats of his listeners. Jesus chose the despised outcast and heretic as the person through whom God is working, while the properly religious people who believe the "right" things failed the test,