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Borderless community
Does your community extend beyond your house, apartment, or “the projects”? As far as the grocery store, your hairdresser, or the gas station? What about across the border into the next country where a different language is spoken? The question of how far your community stretches can be weighty.
In the New Testament book of Luke, we hear about a lawyer who, with a legalistic fervor, challenged Christ Jesus to define the term neighbor. Jesus’ answer was hardly what the quarrelsome man expected. Essentially Jesus told him that one’s community extends well outside one’s neighborhood or tribe, and certainly beyond one’s friends at church or those who vote the way we do. And Jesus explained what he meant by sharing what is often called the parable of the good Samaritan. Jesus mapped out a more universal model of community, encouraging his listeners to embrace anyone they encountered who was in need of compassion and help (see Luke 10:30–37). That could translate into buying lunch for a homeless person, helping an indigent college student with tuition fees, or simply sharing a few kind words of encouragement as a form of spiritual sustenance.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
July 23, 2012 &
July 30, 2012
double issue
View Issue
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Letters
Steven Price, Blanche Saul, Candace Gibson
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Rejoicing together
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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Borderless community
Walter Rodgers
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How big is good?
Nancy Mullen
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A rising tide lifts all boats
Jeff Ward-Bailey
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My first interfaith experience
Bonnie Mitchinson
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Embracing communities worldwide
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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Climate change: What I could do
Elizabeth Graser-Lindsey
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Delight in international giving
Peter Dry
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Praying for a school community
Suzanne Smedley
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The grizzly bear delusion
Glenn Williams
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Salvation
Brian Kissock
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Unlimited resources
Heather Howland Kany
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Planted in a new path
Dorothy H. Thomson
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Love's leading
Tad Blake-Weber
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Seeking the way
Linda Gridley Lane
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The answer
Barbara Whitewater
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Solutions
Charlotte Bushnell
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Marjorie and the Dream
Phyllis W. Zeno
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Focused thought
Richard Albins
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God made you perfect
Megan Meehan
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What are you going to be when you grow up?
Leide Lessa
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Sign me up!
Bob Minnocci
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I shared with my professor
Bruce Matouka
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Your questions about church
Answers offered by Tim Myers and Michelle Nanouche
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'A spiritual model of life'
William Otieno
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The 'more excellent way'
Christa Kreutz
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Finding our God-given freedom
Ann Edwards
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A healing standard
Mark Sappenfield
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A summer of 'radical acts'
Jeff Ward-Bailey
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Lots of Laughs
Madora Kibbe
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Protected during a fall
Norma P. Cooper with contributions from Elizabeth Gibbons
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Chest pains overcome
B. James Jokerst
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Spinal meningitis healed
Charles O'Gorman
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Spine fracture healed
Brooks Rakos
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What makes you who you are?
The Editors