Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 6, 2022 - Thursday after Epiphany, or Jan. 10
[1 John 4:19-5:4 and Luke 4:14-22a]Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. [1 John]
I once saw a wall-hanging with a character, Linus, from the Peanuts cartoon which quoted him as saying: "I love humanity. It's people I hate." But Christ does not permit us to substitute a general "love of humanity" for love of particular human beings. He did not become incarnate in some generic way, but as a real human being. This is what makes violence by one person or group of persons against another person or group of persons completely contrary to the gospel. We cannot reconcile love of God with hatred of neighbor. The story of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel According to Luke [10:29-37] should put us on notice about this.
Christianity is a challenging faith. No matter how attractive the person of Jesus may be to us, if we hate other people we cannot call ourselves faithful followers of Jesus. This means a lifelong struggle because we will always be imperfect in this effort. We will be in good company. Some of the disciples wanted Jesus to rain down fire on a village that refused to accept him! [Luke 9:54]! The history of Christian faith is replete with violence done in Jesus' name! G. K. Chesterton's famous remark about Christianity not being tried and found wanting, but rather never really tried comes to mind. As the first scripture for today puts it bluntly, we make ourselves liars if we claim to love God and, at the same time, hate our brothers and sisters. Christian faith is a continual effort to tell the truth about God and about ourselves! AMEN