St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Cambridge, MA
The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling
“Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn’t through love, because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple.” Beartown by Frederik Backman
After reading today’s lesson from Deuteronomy, I can’t help but think about the current situation in Israel. Moses has led his followers out of slavery in Egypt, wandering through the wilderness for 40 years, and is now on the cusp of entering into the land that they believe God had promised to them. This land is a place for them to worship their God without fear, free from the shackles of oppression and hard labor. This gift from God was not without expectations for their behavior however. Indeed, God told Moses that, because of his own behavior, he would die before he could enter the promised land.
Moses told his followers that they had a choice. They can choose life by “loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.” If you don't, that is “if your heart turns away, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.” There is a cost for choosing to remain faithful to God who promised us this land, Moses told his people.
Now, last week I mentioned the five core values that have been identified in the recent visioning process in our diocese. They are Welcome, Courage, Justice, Joy, and Love; and while last week I talked about welcome, this week, I am focusing on courage and love.
Recently, in Minneapolis, we heard of the horrific crime of a young person who killed 2 innocent children and injured 18 others as they prayed in a Roman Catholic Church before their school year began. Based upon reports of his written materials, this shooter’s core value was hate, having no love for anyone or anything, including himself. On one gun he had written, “Where is your God?”
The responses of politicians and religious leaders were immediate. Initially, the mayor of Minneapolis dismissed the call for people to offer their “thoughts and prayers” arguing that it was a time to take action. The Bishop of Minneapolis, Bishop Barron, insisted that it was an especially appropriate time for prayers. Indeed, courage is fear that has said their prayers. And, I would argue that praying is actually one form of taking action.
Violence and hate crimes take many forms. This bishop said, “"In the past seven years in our country, there has been a 700% increase in violent acts against Christians and Christian churches. Worldwide, Christianity is by far the most persecuted religion. That people are even wondering whether the tragedy in Minneapolis is an instance of anti-Catholic violence is puzzling to me," he said.
"If someone attacked a synagogue while congregants were praying, would anyone doubt that it was an antisemitic act?” he continued. “If someone shot up a mosque while the devout were praying, would anyone doubt that it was an anti-Islamic attack? So, why would we even hesitate to say that a maniac shooting into a Catholic Church while children are at prayer was committing an anti-Catholic act?" he concluded. In some ways, I think that it takes “courage” to identify yourself as a person of any faith tradition these days.
Most religious traditions claim that their number one core value is love. God promised the land to the Hebrew people as a gift of love. In the gospel stories, the first two commandments are all about love: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus was known for incarnating the Way of Love. Love others as I have loved you, He said to his disciples.
As reports continue about this tragedy in Minneapolis, it has become clear that the shooter was filled with hate. He hated all sorts of people, faiths, and groups and the only love this person professed to have was for people who killed children. When love despairs it becomes hate; and this hate-filled loathing is not only for other people but also for one’s self. It is an emotion that chooses death over life, curses over blessings. It is a passion that consumes life rather than creates it.
Conversely, his victims were filled with love. They loved God, those in their church, their teachers and priests, their friends and their families. Young and old alike, protecting others during the shooting, they revealed sacrificial love at their own expense. Prayers for the 12 year-old who remains in critical condition have been offered around the world. I think courage is a matter of the heart; it takes courage to love God, neighbor, and self in today’s world.
Now I often argue that the opposite of love is not hate but rather indifference. Indifference is a mere shrug of the shoulders. Indifference doesn’t care that innocent and vulnerable children were killed. Indifference doesn’t care when people are injured in wars and when cities, homes, and buildings are destroyed. Indifference doesn't care. It is cold blooded; it is a lack of compassion for human life and creation. Indifference doesn’t even have the energy for hate.
In his article, ‘Jesus Makes it Hard to be a Christian’ Gary Percesepe wrote, “There’s a difference between volunteerism and true discipleship, making it essential for one to count the cost. Jesus makes plain that he has set his face toward Jerusalem, where violence, betrayal, and death await. He warns all hasty volunteers that it is not a festive parade they are joining.” (end quote) (Xian Century, Sept 2025)
Here in this country, we are free to worship God and share God’s love with others. We are free to believe in one God, many gods, or no god. Sadly we are free to choose life and death; we are free to offer curses and blessings. We are free to hate or love anyone and anything. And yet, as Frederik Backman wrote in his novel Beartown, “Love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple.”
It takes courage to love.
There is a cost to choosing to follow me, Jesus told his followers. "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple,” He said.
Now Barbara Brown Taylor in her sermon entitled ‘High Priced Discipleship’ asks, “Why does Jesus say all these disturbing things about hating their parents, their children, and their lives? One possibility is that he was using a figure of speech we do not use anymore. In his day, the way you stated a preference for something was by pairing two things and saying you loved one thing and hated the other,” she wrote.
She continued, “It did not have anything to do with emotions. It was a matter of priorities, so if I said, ‘I love the mountains and hate the beach’, it would not actually mean I felt hostile toward the ocean, but simply means that the mountains were my first choice.” (Bread of Angels, pp48) To love God, ourselves and our neighbors, or to love as Jesus loves us, is to say that is my first choice. It is to say that I choose life over death, love over hate, blessings over curses, peace over war.
I find it funny that Barbara Brown Taylor claims that Jesus would not have made a good parish minister. Why? Because she says that “so much of the job depends upon making it easy for people to come to church and rewarding for them to stay. A good parish minister will work hard to make sure that worship is satisfying, that Christian education is appealing, and that plenty of opportunities for fellowship and service exist.” (pp46) (End quote)
And yet, Jesus wasn’t the local rabbi in his hometown synagogue. Rather he was an itinerant preacher and teacher, kind of like me as a supply priest, who can say certain things, and then move on, leaving the fall-out to be handled by your rector when he returns next week! According to our gospel stories, the people in the hometown synagogue of Jesus wanted to throw him off a cliff!
So the bottom line for me? We have choices as to how we live our lives. And I would argue that while the cost of discipleship may be high, the cost of courage and love are even higher. And yet the rewards are both priceless and eternal. Today, listen to Moses; listen to Jesus, and follow them to the Promised Land. Be of good courage and choose love.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Luke 14:25-33
