When asked where his brother, Abel, was, Cain said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer to that question is of course, “yes, yes you are!” Deuteronomy chapter 22 begins with the responsibility for people to look out for each other. Verse 1 says, “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother.”

On Thursday, September 15, 1932, in the middle of a much greater depression than any of us remember, & Lord willing, will ever experience, President Herbert Hoover addressed the leaders of the “national drive” committee for voluntary relief agencies at the White House: He said, “Our tasks are definite. … That we maintain the spiritual impulses in our people for generous giving and generous service—in the spirit that each is his brother’s keeper. …Many a family today is carrying a neighbor family over the trough of this depression not alone with material aid but with that encouragement which maintains courage and faith.”

After he told the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus said, “God and do likewise.”