Ten years ago, I was very fortunate to be in India & Nepal with my brother & sister – my brother was the tour organizer. One of the highlights of our time there was an afternoon of parasailing over the foothills of the Annapurna mountain range in Nepal. We arrived at the launch site & were each assigned a flight partner – we were literally strapped to our partner because he knew how to control the sail & find the thermals that kept us aloft. Jacque was my partner’s name - a Frenchman who was actually a parasailing instructor. Before we were attached, he explained the take-off procedure. “I would like you to run as fast as you can off this cliff. Do not stop at the edge & leap – that will deflate the sail behind us & we’ll hit the ground.” he said, describing it this way: “You must run like the ‘Road-Runner’ in Bugs Bunny - straight off the cliff, legs pumping in air”. I’m sorry, you want me to do what?
With his constant calm guidance, I did what he asked. This frightening, potentially dangerous activity was one of the most awesome, truly uplifting, soaringly peaceful experiences of my life -- so far. But I had to trust & run off a cliff.
Jesus says, “Love … your enemy, do good to those who hate you; pray for those who mistreat you.” I’m sorry, you want me to do what?
My Dad always said, if being a Christian was easy, everyone would be doing it. Technically, a Christian believes that the person of Jesus IS the Son of God, who carried all our sin on the cross in order to redeem humankind for all time. However, if one truly believes in Christ’s identity as God with us, then we must also acknowledge the divine authority of His teaching & the significance of His call to follow in His way.
No, it is NOT easy to love those with whom we’ll never see eye to eye, or who seem to live to annoy us, or who wilfully act to hurt us & others. It’s especially difficult when those people are in our church.
Once upon a time, there was a very dedicated Clerk of Session who deeply loved the congregation they served. The Clerk, along with 2 other Elders, formed a support team to meet regularly with the minister. At one meeting, the Clerk instructed the minister, “Stop being so nice to the Rileys or we’ll never get them to leave.” This ‘advice’ is wrong on SO many levels. The minister explained to the Elders, who all seemed to be in agreement on this strategy to ditch the Rileys, that we’re the Church of Christ. We don’t actually pick & choose, according to personal preference, who comes to church & which ones we’ll be nice to. It was a challenging moment. The Elders’ challenge was to be able to offer love & acceptance to everyone who sought the Lord. The minister’s challenge was to continue working with & loving these Elders, upon whom the minister had now passed a negative judgment.
During a retreat day in December, the Elders of Zion & Knox identified Love as one of the Core Values of our congregations. As Christians, we may respond, ‘Well yah, that’s a no-brainer, to figure out Love is a Value in a Christian Church’ And you’re right - Love as a core value is an obvious answer.
The Love that truly follows the Way of Christ is a commitment at an entirely different level of loving. It’s a leap, because there may be no sound, safe, rational, obvious reason to offer someone our love. They may have done everything humanly possible to resist your love, to taint it, scoff at it, ignore it, use and abuse it. Jesus says, love them anyway.
Our love is often given according to conditions & criteria & the expectation that we’ll be loved in return. But God’s love couldn’t be withheld if He tried, regardless of how often we offend God, or ignore Him, or reject Him because of our pride, or deny His existence altogether. God’s love for us is not dependent on our love for God. And that’s how He’s asking us to love, for no good reason, with reckless abandon.
There are lots of folks whose disposition makes them difficult to have around, let alone love. In a collection of children’s letters to God, compiled from Sunday School teachers across North America, there was a note from 8 year old Ellen: “Dear God, I don’t know how you can love everybody in the world. There are only 4 in my family and I can’t even love them half the time.” Even the folks we love can be hard to love 24/7/52. Sometimes we have to recommit to them and to the relationship every day to get through a rough patch. So how do we love our enemies? We don’t have to propose to them - this isn’t limited to romantic love. We don’t have to become their bestest buddies, but what’s it mean to love them? If we hold Love to be a Core Value in our lives as Christians, how does anybody know that? Love is a feeling that normally needs expression in word and/or action, so how do we live the Love we value?
Obviously, that’s already happening. The Elders, back in December, were asked to tell of instances & events that exemplify the character of the congregations, & then we identified the values embedded in the stories. They told stories of love, as shown in the people of Zion & Knox. So there IS a culture of love in both congregations. Our call now is to maintain that, to commit to consistent loving behaviour, & to improve upon what is already happening, so that whoever walks into this church knows and feels that this is a safe, sincerely compassionate & loving community.
What about our enemies? What about the times we debate in meetings, or have conflicting ideas about an issue, or how to accomplish a project? What about the folks whose opinions are very different from our own about assisted death, or full inclusion of the LGBTQ community, or about creation vs. evolution? How do we continue to love the folks we disagree with, the ones over there, on that side of a question?
The method to Christ’s teachings is in Paul’s letter. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy or boast …” or put self first, or fly into anger, or keep a record of every offense. Love seeks truth; love protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. Oh yes, it must persevere and my apologies to Paul, but I would add, love needs the heart of a lion, the softness of a baby & the grace of Christ.
Before we get the idea that Love means standing around holding hands & singing Kumbaya, I just want to note that there is a need for genuine justice in the face of abuse & criminal offenses. Sometimes the best way to love someone is to call the professionals, or sometimes law enforcement, to help them to recognize, to stop & to change their harmful behaviour toward self & others.
How do we love the hard-to-love? Because we’re easy to love → we’re never mean, or careless with someone’s feelings or hopes; we’re not judgy or controlling, or annoyingly negative, or ungracious – not us, not ever. One of God’s most beautiful & wondrous miracles is that He sees beyond the parts of human nature that are dark & nasty & sharp, & He continually searches our souls for the lovely, shining, generous parts that He placed in all of us. Jesus is just asking us to try our best to do as He does, to see ourselves & one another as He sees us. And maybe the unlovable enemy will begin to look different to us.
Before we close, I want to tell you a little more about Mrs. Riley. She brought considerable experience & gifts for teaching to the congregation, & she approached the Christian Education chair about offering a Bible Study for youth. Unfortunately, the Christian Ed chair rejected the offer, telling Mrs. Riley that she hadn’t been a member long enough to lead a study [they’d been members for over 2 years] & that she wasn’t needed. Her & her ideas were dismissed in a very hurtful manner. She dropped into the minister’s office for a chat. She talked about the rejection & the hurt it caused, and this was her response to being pushed aside: “I’ll pray for [the elder], because to hurt people like they do, they must be hurting very deeply.”
Mrs. Riley walked the rough road with Christ & she’d been bruised for it.
Oh Lord, you’re asking me to, what? Ok, Lord, I trust You. I’ll try to do what You do; I’ll try to find the best in the people who keep showing me their worst, and maybe that’s how I’ll find the best in me. Thank You, Lord, for the challenge, & for loving me enough to keep trying. Praise be to God, Amen.