Alumni Post: Emma Rankin
Who Is My Neighbor?
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
In this passage of Mark, Jesus tells the people that the greatest command is to love God with all of your being and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. More often than not, when people see this passage their first reaction is “Who is my neighbor?” People think that when they ask this question that it is harmless and that the answer they require is harmless as well. However, when I see this question, I don’t see something harmless but something harmful. When we ask who our neighbor is, that means there is someone in this world that I do not need to love. When we ask who our neighbor is, we get to set boundaries on who is worthy and who is not. Jesus told me that I need to love my neighbor, and if someone is not my neighbor, then I don’t have to love them.
In this passage of Mark, Jesus is not concerned with defining who our neighbor is because that should be simple. Your neighbor is anyone and everyone. To some, it may seem silly to consider someone that is in a different state to be their neighbor, let alone someone in a different country. But it doesn’t matter someone’s proximity to you when it comes to being their neighbor. This is one of the things I have learned at the Wesley Foundation and on the mission trips I have been a part of with them. I first came to the Wesley Foundation in 2013. I was a very timid and shy person, but that didn’t matter to the people there. They pursued me every day and loved me with an unconditional love. Because of that, I was able to break away from the shell I had around me and be more open. Without their love, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.
As I attended the Wesley, I also went on mission trips with them. Over the past six summers, I have had the privilege of going on different mission trips across the country and the world. Through these mission trips I got to meet my neighbors, learn who they are and, in turn, learn who God is. God is universal, compassionate, loving, forgiving, and He mourns for His people.
In the summer of 2016, I went on my second mission trip to San Francisco. While I was there, a teammate and I talked to a woman named Karen who suffered from homelessness. As we talked to her, we learned that the people in this world had abused her and used her in ways that are unthinkable. And when she turned to the church, a community that should have loved her, she was abused again. The church abused her to the point that she lost all her hope in Christ. And after our conversation, all I could do was mourn for her. I wept. Imagine if the church had loved her the way Jesus taught us. Imagine if the church had treated her as their neighbor and loved her as themselves. Her hope in Christ would not have been shattered.
In the summers of 2018 and 2019, I got to go on mission trips to Mexico. The people that we encountered there truly loved us as themselves. Even though they had little, they gave us everything that they could. They did not ask us “Are you my neighbor?” because they already knew the answer. However, the mission team had to ask them that question. As Americans, we had been taught that the people of Mexico didn’t deserve our love. We were conditioned to think that people from their country were not our neighbors even though they lived so close to us. The people that we met there knew how our country felt about them. But they did not care how we perceived them because we were their neighbors. I cried, but these tears were not the same from when I cried in San Francisco. When I shed tears for Karen, I was mourning her pain. But in Mexico, my tears were rejoicing in the beauty of their love.
As I move away from the Wesley, I hope that I can continue to love people well and that I get to continue to experience God in others. My neighbors are the people who live right next to me. But my neighbors are also the orphan children I played soccer with in Cambodia five years ago and the Mexican children who have been separated from their parents, not knowing when they will see them again. And you are my neighbor. When you read Mark 12:30-31, don’t ask the question “Who is my neighbor?” Ask yourself, “How can I love my neighbor better?” The former question is simple and easy to answer, but the latter is much more difficult. You know who your neighbor is, but it is not easy to love someone if you perceive them as other. However, if you see them as your neighbor and love them as yourself, it’s not so difficult.
Emma Rankin is still a cherished friend by many members of our Wesley community. After attending the Wesley as a student since 2013, she went on to be a missionary intern during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years. Currently, Emma is a graduate student at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina, sharing with others the faithful, humble, and generous spirit within her that we so deeply love.