Love your enemies and do good to them. Lend expecting
nothing back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Be merciful, just
as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop
condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you. The measure with which you measure will in
return be measured out to you.
Luke 6:27-38
What we have today in this powerful gospel passage is a
description of “basic” Christianity. Some recent studies tell us that around
70% of all Americans claim to be "Christian," but that only about 6%
let their understanding of "Christianity" affect their everyday
lives. So, the old question to us is this, “If it were a crime to be a
Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict us?”
This is why I find the “Christian Nationalism” movement
very scary and troublesome. Unfortunately, many of those who are most vocal
about claiming the title "Christian" are out to make
"Christianity" synonymous with bigotry, meanness and repression in
its name.
We live in an hour when a significant minority in US
Churches - Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox - increasingly believes that the
way to save both American Christianity and America itself is to
embrace Christian Nationalism. People who subscribe to this thinking
believe that if we will only give the state the power to impose “Christian
values” on what they perceive to be an increasingly godless society, then all
will be well because Christianity will undergo a revival and America will be
great again. However, imposing Christian values on others
goes against the teaching of our Church and it poses a threat to our democracy. Even
Jesus rejected the temptation to align himself with political power when Satan
presented that option to him in the desert when he was discerning his ministry
path. We read about that rejected temptation annually on the first Sunday
of Lent.
I am not as angry at such religious fanatics, with their
narrow political agendas and religious arrogance, who 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 narrow
political agendas nor their religious arrogance. I'll be damned if I am going
to let them dismiss me and claim that only
people who think like them are "truly Christian!”
How will people know that we are disciples of Jesus? The
gospel answer is that it is our love for one another which
should 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 anybody 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 some of the men and
women who self-righteously proclaim they are "Christian," but engage
in rhetoric that is intolerably non-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 to encourage vicious personal
assaults on political candidates they disagree with! I do not understand
that at all! I have voted for both political parties. I have prayed for and
encouraged both those for whom I voted and those for whom I did not vote. I
thought it was a "family value" to respect legitimate authority and
then vote them out in the next election. Can you imagine a country whose
citizens refused to respect any elected officials except those they voted for?
Well, we are there! Can you imagine our church if individual members only respected
Popes they "liked?" Well, we are there! Nastiness and meanness are
epidemic, even in so-called "Christian" communities and
sometimes especially in some so-called "Christian"
communities!
It is by living out the ways, the works and the words of
compassion, as taught by Jesus, 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 hateful
words and mean-spirited actions of "wolves in sheep's clothing!"
Christians are called to resist such behavior, even when those actions are
coming out of the mouths of the enemies of Christianity. Did Jesus not tell us
explicitly to "love our enemies" and "do good to those who hate
you?"
Let me give you three simple examples of what I think it
means “to love.” The first example came in the mail when I was pastor of our
Cathedral. It was a "thank you note" from someone whom we had 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.
I kept the note.
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 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 this loving gesture.
My friends, this is the 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 their other religious
practices are one big silly joke! 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 the Cathedral did for that struggling
single mother? Why can't we freely and quietly “give each other the best pieces
of chicken,” as my mother did, instead of always competing for the best? Why
can't we be good, strong and faithful Catholics and at the same time have a
curiosity about, and a reverent respect for, people who have a different
religion and who sincerely try to live it? This is what it
means to love one another. This is our trademark as Christians
and disciples of Jesus. This is the heart of the matter.
Religious militants are very frustrated today with the
complexity and contradictions in our world. They feel they must change it by
whatever means necessary, even by force, until it conforms to their vision of
God's plan. Religious militants need an enemy - someone to hate. Once they
identify that enemy, it isn't much of a jump to see themselves as superior
people fighting the inferior elements in society. They pick and choose
religious teachings, usually wrapped in some obscure Scripture passage, that serves
their needs and justifies their goals. This insanity is being passed off as “true
religion” these days in many of the world's religions -
including our own!
It is time for us to go back to basic Christianity. Lived Christianity
is what will attract people to our faith, not forced religious conformity. Lived Christianity
is about all those small loving gestures in thought, word and deed carried out
by millions of disciples. Lived Christianity, not another
Christian "crusade," will transform the world. Do not let the
religious crazies of this world seduce you with their hateful brand of
religion. Christianity is, and always has been, a religion of "love."
Those of us who know this must respectfully and firmly disagree with those who
spew their venomous hate without restraint, without hesitation, without
compassion, and who call it Christianity! We must live love
and let love's power infect the world. There are no short-cuts. If it isn't
love-based, it isn't Christian! It's that simple and it's that hard!
