Who Is My Brother – Sunday, July 25, 1982
The scriptures teach us that we are responsible to love one another, to care for one another, to be brothers and sisters to one another. For, as the Apostle John taught, “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”1
But it may be even more difficult today than it was in John’s day to carry out such an admonition.
Through most of the world’s history, people have lived not knowing the world beyond their homes, acquainted only with the members of their community. But today we hear of the joy and suffering of people throughout the world. Publications, radio and television tell us about the living and dying of people we will never meet. Indeed, our lives are so full of information, that we may be tempted to ask, “…Who is my neighbor?”2
Christ’s answer to that question was the parable of the Good Samaritan: “Which…of these…,” He asked, “…was neighbor unto him?” Then he answered, “…He that shewed mercy on him.”3
So, it is with us. Our increased knowledge is not only an increased responsibility, but a revelation. For the first time in the history of the world, our media technologies teach us how close we are, how responsible for one another. And our knowledge of our fellowman teaches us how deeply we are brothers, how completely we share a neighbor’s responsibility’ however separated we may be by geography.
The poet Walt Whitman wrote: “In the faces of men and women I see God…I find letters from God dropt in the street, and everyone is sign’d by God’s name.”4
We are the children of God, each of us, however distant we may be. We are brothers and sisters, the whole world of us.
And we have only to believe this for the words of the prophets and poets, and the peace they promise, to come true.
1 New Testament, 1 John 4:20
2 New Testament, St. Luke 10:29
3 New Testament, St. Luke 10:36-37
4 Song of Myself, by Walt Whitman
____________________________________
July 25, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,762