LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS

WALLS

WALLS

Mending Wall

BY ROBERT FROST

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,�That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,�And spills the upper boulders in the sun;�And makes gaps even two can pass abreast……

But at spring mending-time we find them there.�I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;�And on a day we meet to walk the line�And set the wall between us once again…..

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.�My apple trees will never get across�And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.�He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’�Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder�If I could put a notion in his head:�‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it�Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.�Before I built a wall I’d ask to know�What I was walling in or walling out,�And to whom I was like to give offense.�Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

He will not go behind his father’s saying,�And he likes having thought of it so well�He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

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Why Walls?

Why did Jesus select a Priest, a Levite and a Samaritan in the parable about loving your neighbor?

The Story

WALLS AT THE TIME OF JESUS

• Jew and Gentile

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• Sinners and the religious elite

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• Rich and Poor

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• Men and Women

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GOD AND WALLS

• Matthew 27:51 – At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
• Acts 10:34 - Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right”
• Galatians 3:28 – “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus”
• Ephesians 2:11-22
• Malachi 2:10 - Do we not all have one Father[b]? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?

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WALLS NOW

• ?

ROCKS THAT MAKE UP WALLS

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Fear

FOUR ROCKS THAT MAKE UP WALLS

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Margin

FOUR ROCKS THAT MAKE UP WALLS

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Prejudice

An adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge

The word “prejudice” has origins in Latin for “before” and “judgment.” It describes unfavorable feelings toward individuals or groups based on preconceived notions of their ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, age, disability, religion and other characteristics.

ROCKS THAT MAKE UP WALLS

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• Judgment

Favorite Bible Verse of the unchurched – Matthew 7:1

SELF EXAM

• Have I erected walls in my life that keep me separate from those who need God’s grace?

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• What “dividing walls of hostility” might Christ want to break down in my life ? In my family? In my Church? In my workplace?

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