Love Your Neighbor – Including Our Earth-kin: Lev. 19, Matt. 22

The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade (To view this resource in Spanish, click here.)

Love your neighbor is God’s primary command. What if we extended that love to our neighbors in Creation, including the land, waters, trees, animals, and human kin?

Here are ideas for reading and preaching Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 and Matthew 22:34-46. This is part of the EcoPreacher 1-2-3 series to equip preachers and congregations for engaging the Bible through an ecological lens. These texts are assigned as part of the Revised Common Lectionary for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.

Eco-Exegesis

Eco-exegesis is a method of interpreting the biblical text through a green lens using the principles of ecological theology. 

Leviticus 19:18 — You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Matthew 22:36-40

³⁶“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” ³⁷[Jesus] said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

We know it as the Golden Rule—love your neighbor as you would love yourself. It’s the ethical principle that undergirds right action and community and ensures fairness and equity. Another way to say it is: “Do unto others as you would have done to you.” When we treat others the way we would want them to treat us, we restrain our worst impulses and increase our capacity for doing good. 

 “Love your neighbor” is not just a matter of altruism.  At its heart, this principle recognizes that we are integrally and intimately connected to all beings; what happens to others ultimately affects us as well.  Thus, the harm I do to others will eventually come back to me in some form or another.  Stated in a positive way, the good that I do toward others will be reciprocated in some fashion in the future.  As many mystics have observed, the separation between “me” and “thee” is illusory at best. 

The meaning of the word “love” in this case does not involve a romantic feeling.  It is a choice followed by an action. It’s deciding to treat a person as one who is a beloved family member, spouse, or friend.  When thinking about our actions, we should ask, “If I loved this person, what would be the most loving thing I could do in this situation?” When others follow this same line of thought, the result is a reciprocity of generosity, care, and communal flourishing.

The dynamics of reciprocity are become even clearer when we consider the planet we all share. The things we do to the water, land, air, trees, animals, and fish find their way back to us. For example, when we use petrochemical plastics, they eventually end up in our own bodies by way of the oceans and landfills. Microplastics are consumed by fish and animals and make their way into the food chain and eventually to our own bodies. Researchers estimate that human beings could be ingesting up to 200,000 particles of microplastics per year. 

In their commentary of Leviticus 19:18 in Eco Bible Vol. 2, Rabbis Yonatan Neril and Leo Dee note that the concept of expanding the Golden Rule to include our other-than-human neighbors has roots in Jewish scholarship. “Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (19^th century) expands the obligation of loving one’s neighbor to considering the welfare of other living beings on the planet. Thus, the obligation can be seen as a basis for all environmental protection.  Being a good neighbor means taking good care of our environment/life support system to ensure that others can also benefit in a sustainable way” (Eco Bible, Vol. 2, 35).

In the Mishnah (the first Jewish commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures), the sages applied the “good neighbor” principle in practical ways.  For example, they stated that “someone who digs a water structure near his neighbor’s property must provide a suitable buffer zone in the form of waterproofing and adequate distance to protect the neighbor’s property,” (Eco Bible, Vol. 2, 35).  In other words, our actions must go beyond satisfying our own needs and wants.  We must take into consideration how our actions will affect others.  “Preventing this environmental injustice is an individual, community, and governmental responsibility,” Neril and Lee write.  “We are obligated to minimize our harmful impact on our neighbors” (Eco Bible, Vol. 2, 35). 

Jesus reiterated the ethical principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” in his teachings.  In Matthew 22:36-40 he reminds us that loving our neighbors has a theological basis at its core.  When we follow the rule of positive reciprocity, we demonstrate that we love God, since God is the one who created the neighbor.  Giving forethought to the wellbeing of our fellow humans and Earth-kin honors God because it shows respect for that which God has created.

In chapter 3 of my book, Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit, I describe an exercise for preachers and congregations called the “Who Is My Neighbor Map.” Through activities such as walking around the church property with an eye toward our neighbors in Creation, talking with those who work closely with nature, and listening to local environmental activists, we can get a better sense of how to best practice the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Eco-Idea is one succinct statement that tells us who God is and/or what God does in relation to Creation and how we should respond as people of faith.

God’s command to love your neighbor means acting in an ethical and loving way toward our neighbors in Creation, including the land, waters, trees, animals, and human kin.

We ask Eco-Questions to help a congregation draw out the implications of the Eco-Exegesis and Eco-Idea. 

1. Who are your “neighbors” in God’s Creation just beyond the walls of your church? What are the names of the trees, plants, insects, birds, and animals that reside on your property or pass through?  How can your congregation practice love toward these neighbors? 
2. In what ways can your church practice loving reciprocity within your neighborhood? Can you set up a “food library” where people can exchange and share nonperishable food items? Or a clothing exchange? Listen to people in your community to find out what would be most useful and helpful. 

Eco-Actions are ways that a congregation might respond to the Eco-Idea and Eco-Questions.  One of these possibilities may have salience for your ministry context.

1. Watch The Story of Stuff, a short internet video about where our resources come from and where they go.  Discuss how your congregation can interrupt the cycle of pollution through practices such as composting, eliminating the use of pesticides and herbicides, and refraining from unnecessary purchases of “stuff.”
2. Consider ways your church can provide shelter and food for your Earth-kin neighbors such as the birds and pollinators. Erect birdhouses, plant pollinator gardens, and put out food for migrating birds.
3. Gather youth and adults for a series of “Who Is My Neighbor” activities.  Work through the exercise and take pictures of your neighbors in Creation.  Create a slideshow to share in an educational forum. Or make a collage that can be put on display in the gathering area so that everyone can see that the “congregation” worshiping here extends beyond the walls of the church.

*Credit for featured image: Unsplash.