From the Pulpit: Good fences make good neighbors, or do they?

Good fences make good neighbors. I’ve heard this phrase in many different situations over the years. More recently, though, I discovered that the phrase comes from a poem written by Robert Frost called “Mending Wall”. 

We’ve picked out that one line, “Good fences make good neighbors” and used it as a mantra for living. 

Too often we respond quite fast in fear of the what ifs when we feel at risk. 

We don’t offer hospitality and welcome and then see what happens; we just jump into our fence building. Instead of acting out of fear from what we hear on the news or from rumors, Jesus is encouraging us to take down the fences. 

Jesus came to redeem everyone. You and I. And also those who frighten us, and those who are different. 

The Kingdom of God does not put up fences or draw lines. God’s kingdom includes all of God’s beloved children. Everyone. 

I wonder where in our lives, we can start to take down the fences we have built around us. Fences that we may have intended to keep us safe, but instead are keeping out the possibility of new friends, new relationships, new opportunities, new growth. 

Like many others around town, part of our fence went down in the storms last spring. As we lived for a while with part of the fence missing and worked to repair it, I had more conversations with neighbors and people walking by than I ever had in our time we lived there.

While the most famous line in Robert Frost’s poem is “good fences make good neighbors”, the poem is actually about the struggle and regret of building fences. He mourns the loss of seeing his friends walk by because of the fence he has built. He regrets the lack of diversity, when the pine trees are on one side and the apple trees are on the other. 

What do we miss because we so hastily put up a fence? 

We miss the full Kingdom of God, Jesus says. 

Our God is a loving, merciful God who has come to redeem all people and all of creation. That leaves no room for fences.