Fill My Cup with Grace
As Christians, we don’t have the luxury of hating other people without being hypocrites.
But I don’t think it is bad to reflect on how and why that it’s difficult to behave otherwise. It might be healthy for us to admit to ourselves how easy hating truly is.
Hatred and fear are roomates in our brains and right now there is a lot to be afraid of happening in the world and in our own country today. Perhaps there are things happening in your own life that are freaking you out. The thing is, finding something to hate and rage against when you are afraid biologically feels good.
Anger not only feels good, it is something we can base community off of. Anger is something that makes us feel safer, safer if we are with other angry people who are all angry at the same thing. These are some of the core dynamics of group think and a deep biological part of who we are.
Jesus’ teachings in Luke 6 are counter cultural and truly challenging in light of all of this. “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you.” I can’t imagine that there is a large appetite for that kind of behavior in the United States today! But that counter cultural display of the love in whose image we have been created might be the kind of shock that awakens us to our shared humanity, even if we do not have shared partisan political identities.
We are in a pivotal and dangerous moment as a human race across the world. Regressive and violent politics are on the rise. Wars, both civil and border related are roiling in countries across the world. The poor are poorer. The climate is warming. Things feel like they are falling apart.
There is a lot to be afraid of, and the gut instinct that we all have in finding anger to cling to and finding enemies to hate should not surprise us.
My heart is breaking over the violence happening between Methodists (of different Denominations) in Nigeria. At least one child has died and homes have been destroyed in internecine conflict between United and Global Methodist Church members over property and control of resources. It isn’t lost on me how on the same continent of Africa, Civil War is gripping Sudan, and horrific violence is being waged between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
None of this is disconnected, and I can hear Jesus’ clear call in this moment, to myself in the United States, and to those who are fighting elsewhere: “love your enemies; do good to those who hate you.”
Can you imagine how the world would change if we just did what Jesus commanded us to do?
