Go and do likewise Love God…Love your neighbor. Everything in scripture hangs on this! (Matthew 22:36-40) For some, saying they love God is the easy part. It's the love of neighbor that is often a stumbling block. While some neighbors are relatively easy to love, others…not so much. At the end of the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asks a lawyer which of the three people who came across the injured man was a neighbor to him. The lawyer replies the one who showed mercy. And Jesus says go and do likewise. Go and do likewise…and in doing so you reflect the true nature of God’s merciful and compassionate love. Go and do likewise…in the name of Christ who showed his love for us in that “while we were still sinners, He died for us!” Go and do likewise…in the power of the Spirit who empowers us to share in the healing and reconciling mission of Christ in this world. Who might God ask you to show mercy to this week? What are the stumbling blocks can you ask God to remove so you can be a kind and merciful person today? Blessings, Matthew+
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP p. 231) | 
