Fall Worship Series: Love Where You Live

We all live somewhere. We all have neighbors and a neighborhood—whether we live in a rural, suburban, or urban context. I live in an apartment complex, which means I have neighbors above, below, and on either side of me!

God is clear about how we should relate to the people and place right around us. In Jeremiah 29, God commands the Israelites to promote the common good of the city to where they have been exiled. "Pray to the LORD for it, because your future depends on its welfare" (v. 7). Even in a period of Israel's history when they were displaced from the Promised Land, God expected them to care about their neighbors. Likewise, even while we are citizens of heaven, Jesus has commanded us to love our earthly neighbors as ourselves. In the church we frequently use 'neighbor' as a theological term, rather than a geographical one - a neighbor is any person God has called us to love, which is to say, every person is our neighbor! But God has also given us geographical neighbors. Sometimes we do good for far flung neighbors to the exclusion of our immediate neighbors. But there may be people living right next door to us who could benefit from a reminder of God's love.

For the next four weeks, we will be focusing on what it means to be the church in our neighborhood(s) - the neighborhood where our church building is located, and the neighborhoods where each of us reside. The Body of Christ is both far flung and hyper-local - just like our God! We are called to help build the kin-dom of God on earth, and the best place to start is by loving the places where we live. We hope you'll join us on Sundays at 10am, in-person and online at cdaumc.org/worship, as we practice pursuing the good of our neighborhood(s).
Grace and peace,

Pastor Amanda