By: Sydney Caron
10:25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” - Luke 10:25-29
Fred Rogers was an American television personality. He hosted a tv show for families and children. The show was called, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
At the beginning of each episode, Mister Rogers would sing: “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor — would you be mine? Could you be mine?…”
Mister Rogers always ended this little jingle with an invitation: “Oh please won’t you be my neighbor?” Then, seconds later, a greeting, “Hi Neighbor!”
When Mister Rogers asked the question, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” he wasn’t offering the type of invitation that required a person’s acceptance or rejection. Instead, he was offering the type of invitation that only required recognition.
Mister Rogers sought to recognize every character he interacted with in his show, the viewers at home, and those he encountered in public as his neighbor, and he invited each participant to do the same.
In one very simple greeting, “Hi Neighbor!” said at the beginning of each episode, Mister Rogers honored and affirmed neighborly nature and interconnectedness.
To recognize one another as neighbors. To love our neighbors.
This is a very familiar concept, is it not?
In Luke 10:25-29, we encounter Jewish law — to love our neighbors as ourselves. Yet, much like the expert of the law in the story, we often seek to justify ourselves, and even our inaction, by shrinking the definition of who counts as a neighbor.
Who is your neighbor?
Your definition might include your friends, the people who live in your neighborhood, those you shop beside at the grocery store, or the people walking past you on a sidewalk. It might be those in your faith community, or those you work with. Your neighbors might be the people who live in your city, your country, your continent.
Your definition of neighbor might include all people.
But God’s definition includes the whole of Creation.
From the beginning of Genesis through Revelation, Scripture reveals a complex, interconnected, interdependent relationship between the land, humans, and non-human animals. Animals, present throughout biblical history, have always thrived, survived, and died alongside humans.
Our neighbors are not only those with whom we share human life, they are also the creatures we encounter and exist alongside.
Slugs, bugs, cows, goats, chickens, pigs, elephants, birds, snakes, and turtles. Any creature you can name can be recognized as your neighbor.
Including fish.
Fish are not often considered neighbors. Instead, humans are likely to consider them as entertainment or perhaps a way to teach responsibility when they are used as a first pet. Fish may also be used for competition when one aims to catch the biggest and best in the sport of fishing. Most commonly, fish are a portion of the meals on our plates. Perhaps concerned humans could find it easier to reconsider buying a pet fish or fishing for sport, but what about eating fish?
Did Jesus eat fish? Should we eat fish?
I’m not sure if Jesus ate fish or not, but if he did would that give us permission to do the same? Our choices to consume fish cannot and should not be based on whether or not Jesus ate fish.
Jesus’s choice was a choice made in a particular time and place. Our contexts are different. In the Global West, our methods of sourcing, catching, killing, and distributing fish vary greatly from ancient methods, and human dependence and reliance on fish for nutritional purposes has changed. For people who do not rely on Indigenous methods of livelihood, the most common forms of food practices are rooted in colonialism, white supremacy, and industrial capitalism. Fish that are used for the sake of mass consumption are violated, dominated, and exploited before being killed. The ecosystems suffer as well, causing a disastrous ripple through oceans and estuaries. Additionally, people who work for commercial fishing companies are subject to being overworked and underpaid. They experience hazardous working conditions that include exposure to chemicals, equipment failure, and unpredictable weather, which all result in a higher than average workplace accident and fatality rate.
When one part of God’s Creation suffers, especially for the gross benefit of another, our neighborly relationships with one another become distorted.
We become unable to witness God at work in our neighbors’ lives.
We become unable to view their lives as equal to our own.
We become unable to see shared relationships.
Shared relationships as created beings begin to take an oppressive, hierarchical, speciesist form rather than being oriented to love of God and love of neighbor.
Distortion of relationship with fellows created beings immediately distorts the relationship with our Creator. Hearts become hard, souls become empty, strengths become weakness, and minds become ill. When we are unable to love our neighbors, we are unable to love God.
Regardless, God loves us. Through God’s Spirit we are empowered to live out Jesus’s call to practice liberation and mercy. God repairs. God restores. God invites us to reimagine life in relationship with God’s Creation.
How can we begin to repair our distorted view of neighborly relationships with God’s Creation?
We can begin by recognizing that fish, and all of God’s creatures, live with us as neighbors, not for us as food.
We can learn from and practice the belief that loving one’s neighbor, loving God, and loving nature are inseparable, a belief that is lived out by Indigenous communities across the globe.
With the welfare of our neighbors in mind, we can examine local commercial fishing practices and challenge laws and legislation that distort neighborly relationships.
Instead of deciding whether or not to eat fish based on Jesus’s choice, we can decide whether or not to eat fish guided by the desire to follow Jesus’s commandment: love (all) your neighbors as yourself. Even the non-human ones.
We can celebrate and proclaim that God’s good news for all of Creation includes fish! Amen