SONG AND STORY 2: WHO IS YOUR NEIGHBOUR?

BY REV DR FOREST KOH

I know I will get stuck in relationships somewhere along the way, but I said to myself, “It is okay, keep on listening!” I think it was just like how Joshua got stuck by my lyrics when he composed the music. And then something deeper surfaced.

I originally wrote,

Sharing our ups and downs together,

There’s always a shelter

Celebrate our hearts for one another.

Joshua was stuck by these lyrics. He hummed the music, slowly, these words appeared…

Tell me who is the other?

How do you love your neighbour?

We need a heart for one another”

Who is the other?

Joshua explained, it is an invitation to think about who is “the Other” in “one another”

What does it mean when we say: “to love one another”? Who do we think of when we say we love our “neighbour”? This question that Jesus posed to his disciples, is still relevant today. 

He elaborated, “We need to be a little cautious when the call to “love one another” simply becomes a cliché; we lose sight of what it means, and the radical call to be witnesses for Christ today. Who is the other? Who are we called to love when we say, “love one another”? Our fellow church member? The global body of Christ? The entire human species? The world?”

I believe God has put the love for our neighbors in our heart. Perhaps, it is in our busyness that this love has slowly faded away; it is our fast-moving pace that blinded our eyes. The pandemic slowed us down and brought us closer together and back to the gospel -- the love for our neighbours. And this, is the spirit of CG: to love one another and to extend our love to our neighbours.

(To be continued…）