What should any of us do about our enemies – beyond not killing them? Well, that’s easy. According to Jesus, we should love them. Sounds simple, right? But it’s so, so hard! It may be the hardest thing we ever try to do. That said, there are ways to love our enemies that we don’t articulate often enough, so I’m going to propose some concrete steps we can take along these lines.
The word “asinine” means stupid or foolish, behaving like an ass – a donkey. But the Christian tradition indicates quite the opposite. When our heads get hot, as oft is the case in this era of history, we do well to consider the wisdom of donkeys.
There is much in the world about which to be sad and distressed these days. Most of it is obvious, filling the daily headlines, but not …
I’m a pastor employed by an institutional church, and I’ve found deep meaning in gathering each week in intentional community. For me, congregational life has been life-giving, deepening my faith and expanding my compassion. But here’s the thing: I’m not particularly invested in ensuring the institutional stability of organized religion.
Increasingly, the rise of authoritarianism in American politics poses a serious threat to our institutions and to our democratic way of life. This rise is not unique to the United States.
I am hearing a lot of people in this era say they are overwhelmed—and understandably so. Many feel helpless and fatigued, wondering if there is anything they can do to repair the world as they watch the powers that be systematically dismantle it.
I write today seeking to work with the primary texts of the Christian tradition and invite us to operate from that “biblical” paradigm. The writers of the gospels present a Jesus who sees things as they are, calls things as he sees them, and doesn’t offer false hope or cheap grace. The writers depict Jesus foreseeing the end of Jerusalem/Israel, and the author of Revelation even has him proclaiming the eventual end of the Roman Empire.
Overturning marriage equality is now a present threat. Many of the issues both POC and LGBTQI+ Americans confront in Trump’s first term- health care, unemployment, housing, immigration, voting rights, among others – are front and center, again, and on the chopping block. And the fear is palpable.
May’s commencement speech at West Point contained a number of surprises for the cadets, not the least of which was President Trump informing them that the military was going to have a new focus: “crushing America’s adversaries, killing America’s enemies, and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before.”
Fundamentalists make sure we see the EXIT signs, while poets, philosophers, and mystics are always pointing us toward the ENTRANCE signs. Heaven, sayeth the preacher of fear, is someplace else—anyplace else—and this world is best gotten out of, not moved more deeply into. How odd then, that the ministry of Jesus was such a brief but intense walk-about, knee deep in the sacredness of the ordinary.