THE FENCE AND THE FORGOTTEN NEIGHBOR

 THE FENCE AND THE FORGOTTEN NEIGHBOR

A fence can mark a property line.
But it should never become the boundary of our compassion.

Across our cities today, fences are multiplying. Barbed wire surrounds empty lots. Gates close beneath freeway overpasses. Barricades appear where tents once stood. We often call these measures progress because they make suffering less visible.

Yet the neighbor has not disappeared.
The neighbor has simply been pushed farther away.

A fence can keep a person from sleeping in one place, but it cannot erase hunger. It cannot cure loneliness. It cannot heal mental illness. It cannot provide a home. It cannot restore hope.

When we mistake removal for resolution, we risk believing that what we no longer see no longer exists.

The Gospel challenges that illusion.

Jesus rarely remained where society drew its boundaries. He crossed them. He touched those others avoided. He ate with those others rejected. He walked beyond the city gate, and there He carried the cross—not at the center of comfort, but at the edge of exclusion.

That is where the Church must learn to walk as well.

The question before us is not whether cities should pursue safety, cleanliness, or public order. They should. These are legitimate responsibilities of every community. But they cannot become substitutes for mercy. A city is healthiest not when it simply removes visible suffering, but when it creates pathways that restore people to housing, dignity, and belonging.

Every fence asks a question.
Will it become a permanent symbol of separation?

Or will it remind us that there is still a neighbor on the other side whose life matters as much as our own?

The Gospel answers with unmistakable clarity:
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
— Mark 12:31

The forgotten neighbor is not forgotten by God.

May the Church never become so comfortable behind its own fences that it forgets to walk through the gate. For the Kingdom of God has always been built not by higher walls, but by wider mercy.

"The measure of a city is not the height of its fences, but the depth of its compassion. The measure of the Church is not the beauty of its sanctuary, but the faithfulness with which it walks beside the forgotten neighbor."

Pastor Steven G. Lee
St. GMC Corps
July 11, 2026