Who is my neighbor?

I had an interesting conversation last week sparked by my family's upcoming mission trip to Peru. A family member was asking my wife and I questions about it and I appreciated her honesty in the middle of it. She said she thinks we should help people in our country before others. She even stated that she refuses to give to any offerings at church that support foreign missions. I told her I understood that opinion but deep down I was saddened. That thinking seems to represent much of the United States. And while I do think I am to care for my family and neighborhood and co-workers and city, I believe the Bible raises the benchmark.

Read Revelation 5. Note the song being sung in verse 9: "....and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."
This is a scene in heaven where there are apparently a lot of diverse people. So who is my neighbor?

Read Matthew 28: 16-20. Jesus instructs his followers to go and make disciples of all nations.
So who is my neighbor?

Read Genesis 12:1-3. Abraham is going to be made into a great nation (Israel). And God tells him that he will be blessed and he will be a blessing and all peoples on earth will be blessed through him. He is going to be blessed, not to kick back and enjoy it and keep it to himself and his nations, but to bless others. Blessed to be a blessing. So who is my neighbor?

And now the big one. Read Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10: 25-37. Notice the very question of "who is my neighbor?" is asked by an expert in Jewish law in this story. But for the story that Jesus tells to make any sense you must understand who a Samaritan was. They were second class citizens. Jews of Jesus' day would not associate with them. Remember the Israel that Abraham was the father of? Well at one point in history they separated into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The kingdom or nation of Israel left Jerusalem and set up shop in............Samaria. So Jesus tells a story to answer the question and uses a second class citizen as en example of being neighborly. So do you have an prejudices? I do. And I believe that if Jesus told us this story today, the one we hold prejudice against would be Jesus' example of a Good Samaritan:

....but an illegal alien, as he traveled, came where the man was......

....but a man with a turban on his head, as he traveled, came where the man was.....

....but homeless man, as he traveled, came where the man was......

....but a citizen of the state of Michigan...........okay there's no way anything good came out of ......oops, I was born in Michigan.

So who is my neighbor?