Love Your Enemies – Yes Really.

Sunday, Christians celebrated The Reign of Christ in the Christian Calendar.  Does this mean that the Kingdom of God has been established?   Well, yes and no.

Jesus gives us the great commandment which will be the rule when the Kingdom is fully established.  The Great Commandment from Matthew 22: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

That certainly is a challenge but Jesus does not stop there.  He ups the ante, “You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

This is the essence of the Kingdom of God; love – love your neighbours and even your enemies.  Can you imagine if you were to tell this to someone who is not Christian or even many Christians?  I haven’t seen a lot of evidence of people loving their enemies on the news.    If we are honest, how many of us can say that we love those who persecute us or even neighbours who are difficult or even nasty?  If asked I will admit that I may be able to love the difficult people in my life with a lot of effort.  However, the nasty people are very difficult, if not impossible. 

How then, are we to love our neighbours of every variety and type- pleasant and nasty, good or bad or even your enemy – how are we to live out the Great Commandment that our Lord and Saviour gives to us as Christians?  I don’t know if you are familiar with Richard Rohr.   He is a Roman Catholic priest who I find very helpful in my journey following Jesus Christ.  He recently provided something which I believe can be helpful in this challenge to love our enemies.  I would like to invite you to participate in this short exercise.

Father Richard offers a practice of deepening love and healing:

How do we come to know love so that we can live from its depths? Love cannot be understood by the mind. And if God is love, God will never be subject to the mind as we know it. God and love can only be experienced. This simple practice is an invitation to encounter love in its very physical, connective reality.

Place the palm of one of your hands on your heart. Feel your heart beating, letting its rhythm bring you into the present moment and into the awareness of God’s blessing on your life, beat after beat after beat.

Bring to your conscious mind a loved one, an ancestor, a favorite place or animal, or anything that makes you smile with undeniable, spontaneous, unconditional love and joy.

Bring that particular beloved being or thing down from your mind and place it right under your palm, in your heart space. Relax your mind and let your heart relax at the same time, feeling the sensation of blood vessels, muscles, and chest cavity opening in warmth and love for that particular loved thing. Smile.

Now humbly place a challenging person, issue, or problem directly under your palm, within your wide-open heart space. This could be someone or something currently challenging you or an old hurt from a person gone from the living world. Silently continue to smile and hold this challenging thing in the warmth of your heart.

With closed eyes, look at the thing that causes you pain, visualizing the detail that bothers you the most, all the while smiling. Consider that there may be reasons why this thing brings hurt. Smile at the fragility, suffering, or misunderstanding that makes it this way.

Finally, give the person or problem to your heart and ask that your heart’s wisdom and love take over. Rest in the Love that loves both you and the other and wants to transform all into its loving image.  Open your eyes and return to what is around you. 

Let us love one another as Jesus loves us.  With God’s help it is possible.  May you be blessed on your journey to experience the love of Jesus and share that love with your neighbours - even those who are your enemies.

I acknowledge that we are on Turtle Island, the original homelands of the many Indigenous Nations who have lived since time immemorial in Canada or as many First and other Indigenous Nations
All of the lands in Canada are the subject of up to one hundred Treaties signed by the Crown in the right of Canada with these Nations.  I will only mention a few of the Nations: the Cree, Ojibway, Blackfoot, Blood, Dakota, Mig M'ag, Huron, Inuit and these lands are also home to the Metis people.

 

Is the Golden Rule Enough?

In the last two editions of my blog I have been attempting to answer, as best I can, the questions posed to me:

Can you explain to me your grounding belief in the Trinity? I can’t explain internally the need for formal religion and rules and commitment. 

I agree that when you drill down to the bottom of all... be good treat people as you want to be treated..  try to correct wrongs when you can etc. 

Does it come down to blind faith? What drives you to continue?  Do you ever feel that your energy would better placed in just straight up social justice?

Two weeks ago, I ventured into the landmine of the Trinity and last week, I why I participate in formal religion.  This week I will delve into the statement (rather than question) that at bottom the issue is be good, treat people as you want to be treated.  We are, of course, talking about the Golden Rule which, can be considered a foundational rule of Christianity.  Some references from the New Testament include, Luke 6: 12,” Do to others what you would want them to do to you” and Matthew 7:12, “Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.”   Jesus is putting these statements forward to those listening as rules if not commandments. 

However, as indicated in the passage form Matthew, it did not originate with Jesus.  Indeed, a quick check on the internet reveals that this rule can be considered a universal one.  There are references from many different religious traditions: Ancient Egypt, ancient India including, Buddhism and Hinduism, ancient Greece, Persia and Rome, Jainism and Sikhism.  This list is far from exhaustive, but I believe I have made my point.

This is a rule which is therefor something which can take you a long way in life morally and spiritually if you endeavour to follow it.  It is, as I have noted, foundational to Christianity.  So why not give up all the other rules, regulations, doctrines, practices, creeds and other aspects of Christianity which can be challenging and frustrating as well as enlivening and fulfilling and sometimes even fun; just follow the Golden rule?  Good question if I do say so myself.

The Golden Rule is foundational, but it is not “The” foundation.  Jesus calls us beyond that to the even more difficult challenge to love.  This is even more foundational; love your neighbour as yourself regardless of who your neighbour is, even the despised Samaritans in our lives.  Bottom line, we are to love our enemies. 

Here’s is where the rubber truly hits the road.  We might be able to convince ourselves that we are able to follow the Golden Rule.  However, I don’t know about you, but I know there is no way that I can love my enemies at least without a lot of help from God knows where.  That help is in and from Jesus. 

Now we come to what is the true foundation of Christianity in my view.  Jesus makes it possible that when, not if but when, we fail to love our neighbours/enemies we can turn to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and we are assured that we will be forgiven.  Jesus showed us that on the cross: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  I believe that even those who crucified Jesus were therefore forgiven.  Perhaps like the soldier at the foot of the cross they had to recognize Jesus as the Son of God but perhaps not.

So, by all means, if you believe that following the Golden Rule is enough for your rule of life absolutely follow it.  However, when you aren’t able to always treat others as you would have them treat you I hope you will consider the true forgiveness that is possible, not easy but possible, that comes from following Jesus Christ.ght 

Blessings on your journey.