On Valentine’s Day weekend, the Senate concluded the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States. As the votes of “guilty” or “not guilty” were coming in, the political division in our country was obvious. It is no secret that these two politically opposed sides have often thought and fought as if though they were enemies and not fellow Americans. This is not a new occurrence. Our country has been bitterly divided before.
President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address spoke to a different but also extremely divisive American context: “With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
There is no question that our nation is wounded right now. We all have friends, relatives and neighbors who have contracted Covid-19. Many families are struggling economically and homelessness and depression are at epic levels. In order for us to bind our nations wounds and begin to heal, we as Christians must each commit ourselves to do something that Jesus commanded us to do. We are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48).
Yes, I am talking about Democrats loving Republicans and Republicans loving Democrats. Loving those neighbors while loving yourself. This does not mean that you cannot speak up and hold people accountable for their actions of evil. This is not about giving up on the principles of justice and freedom and equality that we hold so dear. You can still be opposed to the evil actions themselves, while loving the person committing the evil acts. The old adage of “Hate the sin, love the sinner” applies here.
But if you seek to love your enemy, if you truly wish to follow in the way of Jesus, you must remove any internal violence of the spirit toward, “Those people.” To quote Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “If you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption.” The underlying principle to remember, the thing that makes loving your enemies work, is a commitment to the practice of agape, or self-sacrificial love. –The kind of love that a mother has to sacrifice herself for her child; the kind of love that seeks good will and happiness and peace for all people, not just for yourself and your tribe. This is the kind of self-sacrificial love that Jesus has for us when he suffered and died for each and every one of us. This is how we, as Christians are called to live. This is how we are to create community, even in our times of great division. So, let us begin. Amen.
Article published in Rockford Squire Newspaper 2.15.2021
