Love

 

Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill           The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling

It’s easy to forget that Jesus was a faithful and orthodox Jew. He knows his scripture and refers to it specifically and frequently when confronted by members of his own religious party. And when it comes to love, Jesus “refuses to identify love of God with rigid religious requirements or to identify faithfulness to himself with loyalty to a particular community of people,” wrote Tim Beach-Verhey. ((Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol 4, p 216 ) Said another way, it’s all about God and God’s love, not about me or my party, Jesus taught.             

You may also remember that St. Paul, like Jesus, was a faithful and orthodox Jew and a member of the Pharisees, who rigorously applied the Jewish law to everyday life. Better than lawlessness, wouldn’t you say? However, Paul had been so zealous about his religious beliefs that initially he had actively pursued Jewish Christians, persecuting them for their belief in Jesus as the Messiah, even to the point of killing them.

Paul thought he was doing God’s work; that he was being a faithful minister in God’s holy name. It was on the road to Damascus, in hot pursuit of other Christians, that our Lord spoke to him and not only corrected his thinking, but also changed his behavior. Soon after that intervention, Paul became a follower of Jesus.

Terrorist groups and individuals, not necessarily members of any particular religious community, country, or party have caused mass murders that have been inflicted in various ways around our globe, and most recently in Israel and Maine this past month. Brutality and cruelty, and a seeming indifference to the sanctity of human life, appear evident. Words like “evil” and “heinous” are used to describe their actions.

Haters and zealots come in all colors, cults, and countries and they have traveled down the centuries throughout our history. These people are given to unconscionable behavior, and surface unexpectedly with stunning violence. They arrive on foot, in the sky, on land, and at sea. They use various weapons and justify their actions. In “almost 3000 years of history there have been less than 130 years where there has not been a war raging somewhere” and the recent Maine shooting raises questions once again about gun violence and mental illness in America. (Mark’s gospel, Barclay, p357-8)

Hate crimes are on the uptick, pundits say. Sometimes inflamed by our social media or disinformation, people will speak and act without knowing the full truth, often the first casualty of war. Hiding behind masks and going underground, these bad actors often have no accountability. Filled with anger, they may feel justified in lashing out with violence. Filled with hate, they’ve lost their moral compass. Sick, they wound others.

Hate is love that arises in people who have despaired of a solution. It surfaces in people who are so filled with rage about a situation that they resort to violence. And hate is love that has grown so stone-cold that it results in actions that seem unfathomable to most human beings. Instead, the opposite of love is “indifference.” Those words “I don’t care” can cut very deep, and can lead us to tolerate the intolerable. It eschews consequences for bad behavior. It avoids action because of the chaos and confusion.

Who said love would be easy? In truth, love is complicated. Love is multidimensional and multi-generational. Love is incarnational; showing up in our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls, and shared in various languages. Love can be taught! So too can hate.

Our Presiding Bishop is known for his frequent refrain that God is love. Such simple statements can roll off our tongues with ease, as if saying it will change our behaviors. But you and I know that it’s not that easy.          

Love God first and foremost above all else, Jesus told the lawyer. Quoting their scriptures, he recalled the first commandment given by God to Moses and then he tacked on the Levitical law, to love your neighbor as yourself. You’ve been liberated for a reason, Jesus said! Do these three things and you will not be far from the kingdom of God.

Easier said than done. And so we quibble with definitions, like the man who once asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? How does someone offer love when they are attacked by their neighbors? How do we destroy evil without harming the innocent? How do we forgive and forget, when memories cannot be erased from our harddrives, and praying for our enemies seems like an anemic response?

 Many years ago, Brian Doyle, wrote an article about loving our neighbors. He wrote, “Aw, it’s easy to love Mr. C., as he’s the guy who cheerfully lends his tools to everyone on the street and gives away handfuls of fresh redolent tomatoes from his garden. It’s just stone-cold not easy to love the guy down the street who parks his huge vehicles in front of everyone else's house and was caught dumping motor oil in the creek.”

“Or what about those arrogant thugs like Osama bin Laden, who murdered three of my friends (after 9-11)? The man who roasted children on the airplanes, fomented murder, and was responsible for thousands of innocent people being blown apart? How can I love a preening twisted coward like that guy?” Doyle demanded. (Christian Century, Jan. 22, 2014)

How do we love our neighbors in the midst of such faceless acts of evil, brutality, and immorality? How do we love the current day versions of those very same people, only now with different names and coming from different countries? Or indeed from our very own towns? First and foremost, we can turn our hearts, souls, bodies, and minds to God, Jesus reminds us. Point yourself in that direction first, he told the lawyer.

It’s like taking that first step, admitting that we are powerless over people and things, including even ourselves at times. We can hand over our “big emotions” and turn to God for guidance before we speak or act. Practically, we can write a check for humanitarian aid. We can bring food to Fuel and build Habitat houses. We can support someone who is struggling or grieving or lonely with words of comfort and encouragement. We can teach the next generations about God’s love. And they can teach us.

And so, once we have dumped our own crude oil of anger and hate into God’s lap, and filled our empty tanks with God’s love, we can remember to share that love with others. “We cannot love God without loving what God loves. We cannot love God and oppress or exclude any of God’s creatures - even one’s enemies,” wrote Tim Beach-Verhey. (Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol 4, p214)  “That is the incredible illogical unreasonable genius of it. Christianity is about loving those people you hate and would happily imprison or execute. It is about knowing that they are your brothers and sisters (because God created them like you and me in God’s own image) and you are not at all like them, with murderous splinters in your own hearts.”

God commands us to love, period. And Jesus reminds us that Love calls us to take action. To sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others, which sometimes may even mean joining the military, or giving ourselves in an act of sacrificial love. Love means that we confront the evil and immoral actions of others, standing up or standing down when it is required, despite the personal cost. It means we uphold our civil, moral, and religious laws that protect and benefit human lives. It means that we stay in the game, when we most want to quit; and we forgive when we most want to punish. It means we can pray for our enemies without condoning their behavior.

As Christians, we remember that Jesus loved Judas despite his betrayal. He loved Peter, despite his denials, and even his friends and family who deserted him. He loved the political and religious authorities who condemned him to death and the crowds who yelled “crucify him.” Beaten and bleeding, feeling abandoned and forsaken, he suffered a most violent death and yet even upon the cross, he testified to the breadth and depth of God’s love.  Pray for your enemies, he said, and “forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica, soon after he had “suffered and been shamefully mistreated in Philippi.” In spite of great opposition, he did not respond to them with hate. Nor was he indifferent to them; but rather he faithfully carried on his own mission of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Despite what he had endured, St. Paul continued to offer himself “like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.” Apparently he had been transformed by the love of Jesus.

Yes, Jesus was a revolutionary leader, and a threat to the Roman government and the religious hierarchy. Yes, Jesus was a prophet and teacher in his own right like Mohammad and Moses. And Yes, He was the one upon whom all the laws and the prophets would hang their hats. But Jesus, in the  end, was so much more than that.

As Christians we claim that after his resurrection Jesus became our Messiah, whose Father in heaven said, “Come, sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” For those words, I hope that God’s love and God’s power will ultimately prevail.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8      Matthew 22:34-46