Weekly Greeting - September 25, 2026

This morning as I was getting ready to come to the office, I was letting my phone run through Substack posts, as I usually do.  I heard a voice that was unfamiliar, so I stopped what I was doing and began to listen. In the middle of his commentary, Robert Arnold, the owner of the unfamiliar voice, said these words:                                                                                       

“Christianity without a neighbor is easy.” 

I skipped backwards ten seconds to listen to it again.  And would you believe I heard the same thing? 

 “Christianity without a neighbor is easy.”

It almost sounded like he was saying that, if we try hard enough, we can choose to be Christians without neighbors — without ever interacting with people who don’t look like us or people who don’t pray like us.  We can choose to be Christians without ever interacting with people whom we don’t easily understand. 

And I started to wonder if sometimes I try to be a Christian without neighbors.  And that stung a little.  When we surround ourselves with people with whom it’s easy to get along, we get the easy version of Christianity — the version of Christianity without a neighbor. 

It’s a question worth our attention.  Are we practicing Christianity without a neighbor?  How might the Holy Spirit encourage us to surround ourselves with difference so that we can learn to live more like Jesus? 

Grateful to be on this journey with you,

Mary Beth