The topic of “love” comes up so often in the gospels, that I find myself repeating myself sometimes. However, some of this is so “basic” that it is worth repeating.
Some recent studies tell us that around 70% of Americans claim to be "Christian," but that only a small minority let their understanding of "Christianity" affect their everyday life. According to recent reports, despite 70% claiming the Christian faith, in reality only a tiny minority of American adults (6%) demonstrate a consistent understanding and application of biblical principles. In other words, only 6% seriously put basic Christian principles into practice .
In response to these statistics, some of those who are most vocal about claiming the title "Christian" are making "Christianity" synonymous with bigotry, meanness, hate and repression. I reject this current brand of Christianity called “Christian Nationalism.” I, for one, am not about to join their crusade! I am not as angry at such religious narrowness, which would have us believe that they are the only true Christians, as I am angry at the rest of us who are letting them get away with it! I consider myself a person trying his best to be a "Christian,” but I do not share their agendas nor their religious arrogance. After twelve years in the seminary and fifty-five years of preaching the gospel, I refuse to let them dismiss me and claim that only people who think “like them" are "truly Christian!” I not only object, I simply refuse to let them get away with it!!
How will people know that we are disciples of Jesus? The gospel answer is that it is our love for one another that will make us stand out in the community as "Jesus-like!" Yet, the facts reveal that some self-professed "Christians" can be just as nasty, just as hateful and just as selfish as everybody else! As the famous Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Just look at the public behavior of men and women who self-righteously proclaim they are "Christian" but engage in rhetoric that is intolerably un-Christian and language that would be profoundly offensive in any authentic Christian community. Venomous hate is now preached daily under the banner of reclaiming our "Christian culture!" The same people who scream "family values" are teaching a whole generation that it is OK, and even funny, to encourage vicious personal assaults on people who think differently from them. They spewed personal assaults on Pope Francis and now they have even started their personal assaults on our new Pope Leo. I do not understand them at all! I have voted for both political parties and I have prayed for both conservative and liberal Popes. Can you imagine the future of our church if individual members only respected Popes they "liked?" Well, we are already there! Nastiness and meanness are epidemic in our culture, even in so-called "Christian" communities.
“This is how they will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” What does it mean "to love?" It means living out the ways, works and words of compassion. By doing that, we will leave God's signature on the church and the world. It's really millions of little things, done out of love by millions of Christians, that will transform this world, not the mean-spirited actions and hateful words of "wolves in sheep's clothing!" Christians are called to respectfully resist such mean-spirited behaviors and hateful words, even when those deeds and words come from the enemies of Christianity. Did Jesus not tell us explicitly to "love your enemies" and "do good to those who hate you?"
Let me give you three simple examples of what I think it means “to love.” I have used all three of them before, in this very pulpit, but I think they are worth repeating. The first example came in the mail when I was pastor of our Cathedral. It was a "thank you note" from a someone whom we had been helped from our community service fund to which parishioners generously contributed. It was addressed to all of us. "Dear Members of Assumption. Even though I don't attend your church, you didn't try to force me into your beliefs on the grounds that I needed your help. I know now that there is still unconditional love left in our world." This note was signed by a woman and her children.
The second example came from my mother. When we were growing up in the country with seven kids in the family, food was never wasted. When we had fried chicken, my mother even fried the chicken back and ate it herself. I grew up believing my mother loved chicken backs. I was much older before it dawned on me -- she wanted us to have the best parts. She was willing to take what was left over, out of love for us.
The third example occurred one Friday when I had the opportunity to go to the Islamic Center on River Road. The Muslim community invited some of us from the Cathedral Heritage Foundation for lunch and to attend a Muslim prayer service. We were reverenced and respected and welcomed. We had reached out to include them in our inter-faith Thanksgiving and rededication celebrations. They reached out to us in return with a loving gesture of their own.
“This is how they will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” My friends, this is the very heart of our religion. this is what it means to be a true Christian. This must be present in every Christian's life or else all of his or her religious practice is for naught! This is not an optional activity. This is essential for discipleship. Often, religious people confuse loving someone else with approving or agreeing with everything they do. How ridiculous! How dangerous! Why can't we help another person for their good, and not for what we get out of it, as we did for that struggling single mother? Why can't we freely and quietly “give each other the best pieces of chicken” sometimes, as my mother did, instead of always competing for the best? I have always considered myself as “Consciously Christian, deliberately Catholic and unapologetically ecumenical and interfaith” Why can't we be good, strong and faithful Catholic Christians and at the same time have a curiosity about, and have a reverent respect for people who practice a different religion? This is what it means to love one another. This is our trademark as Christians, as disciples of Jesus. This is the heart of the matter.
Religious militants are very frustrated these days with the complexity and contradictions in our world and they feel they must change it by whatever means necessary, even by brutal force, until it conforms to their vision of God's plan. Religious militants need an enemy, someone to hate. They often do it by picking and choosing their preferred religious teachings, usually based on some obscure and misinterpreted Scripture passages that serve their needs and justify their goals, and ignoring those which challenge them! This kind of insanity is being passed off as religion these days in many of the world's religions, including our own!
During these confusing
times, let us go back not to some imagined “good old days,” but to the basics of
Christianity. Lived Christianity is what will attract people
to our faith, not forced conformity. Lived Christianity is
about small loving gestures in thought, word and deed by millions of
disciples. Lived Christianity, not another Christian
"crusade," will transform the world. Don't let misguided religious zealots
seduce you with some hate-filled brand of religion. Christianity is, and always
has been, about "unconditional love." Those of us who know this must
respectfully and firmly disagree with those who spew venomous hate and call it “saving”
Christianity!
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