Love Your Enemies? by Rev. Dr. Melinda V. McLain
Love Your Enemies?
By Rev. Dr. Melinda V. McLain
God makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. - Matthew 5: 45b
About 10 years ago, I took up the practice of preaching on the topic of “love your enemies” each January in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who also preached on this challenging theme once a year. And I would submit that the ability of Rev. Dr. King to embody this principle is one of the primary reasons that he is still so admired throughout the world. Who would Jesus call a friend? An enemy? The answer is, of course, neither. Jesus sees us all – and I believe without exception – as beloved children of God. No one is a "special friend" or "enemy" of Jesus. God loves us all. The all-too-human tendency to divide our neighbors into enemies and friends is not the way of Jesus, so it should not be the way among those who seek to follow Jesus.
Separating every experience we have into rigid categories of good and bad seems to be a favorite - and unfortunate - human occupation. For example, I have become increasingly sensitive to Christian rhetoric that claims to know what God is doing in the world and the subsequent assertion of who is blessed and who is cursed.
We’ve all seen fire and brimstone preachers blame the extension of equality under the law for LGBTQ people as the reason for various hurricanes and other natural disasters. They rant and rave that God is having vengeance against us because we have been unfaithful to God’s law or precepts. The reverse is true too. Prosperity-gospel preachers claim to be financially-blessed because God has rewarded their “true worship” and, if you will only send them a generous contribution today, God will bless you too!
In my view, it is extremely dangerous for anyone to claim to know such things. At the very least, anyone who does make such proclamations may fall prey to Anne Lamott’s brilliant comment, that “you know you’ve created God in your own image when God hates all the same people you do.”
Instead, I believe Matthew gets it just right that the current weather (nor any other natural condition) is a gift or punishment from God. And to assert personal knowledge of God’s pleasure or displeasure is pure folly and perhaps even self-idolatry: casting ourselves in the role of God.
This passage goes even further and exhorts us to stop playing the game of sorting others into categories altogether by choosing to love all without exception. God calls us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Still, Jesus did not remain silent in the face of injustice. In the Gospels, Jesus regularly lambasts his disciples for their foolishness and constant bickering about "who is the greatest?" He also challenges the wealthy and the powerful to live their lives as servants instead of overlords.
Jesus is not a wimpy and meek lover of all humanity who allows bullies to keep up their assault on the weak. To do so would be to abandon both the bullied – and the bully too. For God even loves bullies and those who would seem to be enemies of all that is good and right. God doesn't give up on them, or us. Instead, Jesus teaches that the bullies will, like the rich man, find it difficult to glimpse the reign of God until they end their reign of terror. Jesus teaches that there is a better way. Follow me.
As our society becomes more and more connected, our divisions also become more visible. We are constantly challenged to "stand with this" and "stand against that". And this is good. It is definitely part of the path of Jesus to stand for the poor, the oppressed, the outcast, to stand for justice and mercy.
At the same time, we must find a way to not convert our disagreements into hatred and separation. This is REALLY hard, but I believe it is part of Jesus path to find a way to love our enemies until they become our sisters and brothers.
Have you ever converted an "enemy" into a friend? What can we learn from those who disagree with us? How can we welcome those who challenge us?