Please, Won’t You Be My Neighbor: Good Neighbors See the Need and Respond

The format of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was the same in every episode. Mr. Rogers arrived home singing an invitation, “Please, won’t you be my neighbor?” The very first time Fred Rogers asked that question it was of his next door neighbor, Mama Bell Framton. He was a sickly child and when he was about 5, as he was recovering from another bout of staying inside in bed with breathing difficulty, his mother let him sit on the back porch. From next door wafted the most wonderful smell, and young Fred followed it – into the kitchen of Mama Bell – where she was making toast with butter and jam to eat with her tea. She invited Fred to join her and showed him how to cut the toast into 4 long toast sticks. When they finished, Fred thanked her and said, “Papa and Mama are always talking about what a wonderful neighbor you are to them. Will you be my neighbor too?”

Who is my neighbor? If there is a central theme to Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, it is “Who is my neighbor?” Every episode features lessons from Mr. Rogers about what we, his television neighbors, mean to him and introduce us to a neighbor in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

The very first episode aired on February 19, 1968. In it, Mr. Rogers goes out onto the porch to check the safety of his new swing. He talks about strength and growing strong, and he sits down to swing and as he swings, he shares this song:
I like you as you are
Exactly and precisely
I think you turned out nicely
And I like you as you are
I like you as you are
Without a doubt or question
Or even a suggestion
Cause I like you as you are
I like your disposition
Your facial composition
And with your kind permission
I’ll shout it to a star
I like you as you are
I wouldn’t want to change you
Or even rearrange you
Not by far
I like you
I-L-I-K-E-Y-O-U
I like you, yes I do
I like you, Y-O-U
I like you, like you as you are

That song was sung in 19 episodes, but the theme ran through every episode. There is good in you. I see it; it is the image of God in you. Fred Rogers believed that “It is God who inspires and informs all that is nourishing and good in this world” and he believed that neighbors look to find that good in one another.

And he was taught from a young age that his neighbors were not just the people who lived in his neighborhood. He was born to a wealthy family in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles from Pittsburg. Latrobe is a small town along the rail line, the home of the very first banana split 24 years prior to his birth, Latrobe even today has fewer than 10,000 residents. Fred Rogers’ parents could have shielded him from the events of the world. And yet, he recalled a conversation he overheard one summer evening in 1932, when he was just 4. His father and grandfather were listening to the radio and then his father commented, “What will become of all those poor families now that the fathers are gone?” And his grandfather lamented, “I don’t understand how things could be so bad that a man would jump out of a window. That’s no solution to the problem. Now their families will only suffer more.”

Fred Rogers remembered leaving the parlor and going to the kitchen, looking for his mother. When he walked in she exclaimed, “Why, Freddie, you are as pale as a ghost. Darling, what’s wrong? Don’t you feel well?” He climbed up in her lap and asked, “Papa won’t ever jump out of a window and leave us, will he, Mama?”

His grandmother gasped and his mother exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, no! Whatever gave you that idea?”
When he shared what he had overheard, his mother rocked him in his lap and assured him that would never happen in their family. And his grandmother observed that sometimes she just wanted to take all the radios out of the house because there was nothing but bad news on them. But his mother offered a different point of view, “I know, Mother,” she said, “I really just want to listen to the programs that make me laugh, but then we wouldn’t know about all of the suffering in the world, and I think it’s important that we remember those who aren’t as fortunate as we are.” And then she turned to Freddie, curled up in her lap, “Just remember this, sweetheart,” she told him, “When you hear things that frighten you, look for the helpers. You’ll always find people who are willing to help you.”

One day, Jesus was asked about the helpers…well, not directly. The authorities were trying to trick him, so an expert in the law asked, “When you say, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ who are you including in neighbor?” And Jesus answered with a parable about a man who was travelling alone along a dangerous stretch of road and was robbed and left for dead. A priest and a Levite, one of the people who assisted the priests in worship, both passed by and instead of looking over, averted their gaze, and passed by on the opposite side of the road. A Samaritan passed by, – now, remember, Samaritans are ethnically impure Jews – they are from the Northern tribes and when the Babylonians invaded, their ancestors intermarried and now they are a mixture of cultures and ethnicity, and to be avoided. So, this Samaritan saw the man, and went over to him and bandaged his wounds, put him on his animal and took him to an inn where he paid the innkeeper to take care of him until he recovered AND let the innkeeper know he’d be back through to check on things in a few days.

As he finishes his story, Jesus looks at the expert in the law who asked him the question and asked his own question, “Which one was a neighbor to this man who was robbed and beaten?”

He is caught. He would like to ask why this man was travelling alone on a dangerous road anyway. Surely the man must have been up to no good – he wasn’t travelling with a caravan, he had something worth stealing, was he a Jew or a Gentile…who was he and why was he by himself? Why would he let a Samaritan help him? He would like to know so that he could point out the reasons that the priest and the Levite are exempt from assisting. But, Jesus didn’t say. We have come up with reasons why the priest and Levite might not have helped. Perhaps it is because they would be ritually impure if they touched the body of someone deceased, but the law allows an exception for corpses that are neglected. Perhaps it is because robbers often created a “set up” and they were afraid they would be tricked and robbed themselves. Perhaps. Or perhaps Jesus wanted us to take a good hard look at ourselves.

Rev. David Kalas, the son of J. Ellsworth Kalas, who authored more than 35 books for Bible study, Rev. David Kalas says of Jesus’ parables that we need to approach them the way that the evil queen in Snow White approaches the mirror. You remember the mirror and the question, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all.” Except our mirror is on the shelf, “Mirror, mirror, on the shelf, which one reminds me of myself.”

Jesus is holding up a mirror – for the authorities who are trying to trap him with his own words, for the crowds who follow him to learn his way, for the disciples who are being formed and shaped to carry on his mission, for us…”Mirror, mirror, on the shelf, which one reminds me of myself.” Would you cross over to the other side? Would you look away? Perhaps the priest and Levite prayed for the man when they reached the Temple, but the neighbor is the one who has mercy and shows it. Who sees and responds.

Mr. Rogers said, “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”

I invite you this week to consider the heroes in our neighborhood. Maybe you baked for your neighbors last week – or you can make a double batch this week and catch up – and take some cookies to your local firehouse or police station. Maybe you are on the Germantown Facebook bulletin board or have heard about the effort to fee the staff at Germantown Methodist Hospital – they are nearing 200 nights of feeding the staff in the ER and in the COVID19 Unit and ICU because those workers can’t leave to get dinner and the hospital dining room is closed before dinner time. It takes about $600 to feed the 80 workers each night, and they are always looking for helpers. Perhaps you will want to provide a dinner or a dessert or go in with some other families to help, every donation helps. Maybe you see a police SUV in the same spot every day – pull up and give the officer a brownie or a cupcake or a $5 Starbucks gift card. Make a plan to thank a hero in our neighborhood this week and tell them that the Farmington family appreciates what they do for our community.

Who is the neighbor? The one who sees and responds.

Please, won’t you be my neighbor? Hi, neighbor. Amen.