Your community is comprised of everyone you encounter daily - where you work, learn, live, and play. Jesus talks about this in the Gospels as He reminds us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Luke 10 records an incident in which a scribe, an expert on the Jewish law, tested Jesus about what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus turned the question back to the scribe (Luke 10:25–37). The scribe responded with the command to love God with all of one’s being and to love one’s neighbor as himself. Jesus affirmed the response. But the scribe, wanting to justify himself, asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

In the parable, a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest walking by sees the man but passes on the other side of the road. The same happens when a Levite travels through. In essence, two Jews, both of whom were from the priestly line of Israelites and should have known and followed God’s law, failed to show love to their fellow Israelite in need. However, Jesus said, along came a Samaritan, a person generally looked down on by the Jews because of cultural and religious differences. And it was the Samaritan who stopped to help the injured man. He cared for the man’s wounds and paid for him to stay at an inn. In short, a person whom the Jews would have considered “unclean” and outside of God’s covenant demonstrated compassion for one who would have considered him an enemy. Jesus asked the scribe which of the three passersby was a neighbor to the injured man. “The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise’” (Luke 10:37).

Our neighbor is anyone in our proximity with whom we can share God’s love. We are called not only to love those who are like us or with whom we are comfortable, but all whom God places in our path.

We believe that every person and every home has a story to tell. We want people to be real and vulnerable, and we want to be real and vulnerable as we lead and do life together. No home is perfect, when we allow God in He can do an amazing work and it begins inside your home.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” Matthew 23:23-26 Hypocrite is a Greek word that literally means an actor.

The Mill isn’t a place where we want people to have to wear a mask. Sometimes at church we are just actors, not real people. To create an authentic environment, we must be willing to be real and transparent.