Lives Transformed – Through Love!

 

 

I sit with a group of friends in the stadium in Parramatta to watch home games for the local football (soccer) team. We cheer for the team in red and black and those wearing other colours are the opposition. In some cases the opposition becomes the enemy – players, coaches, teams/clubs who are serious rivals or who rubbish our team… Whilst we sit alongside those wearing different colours, and can even by somewhat sympathetic to some other teams, they are not us! We build our little bridges or barriers to those who are different and keep them out. It becomes very unsettling when we discover that an opposition player or coach is actually a really decent human being and not much different from us. Something of the barriers we’ve constructed begin to fall down and it is confusing, uncomfortable and crosses the neatly defined territory we’ve created.

We create these tribal groups and define our tribal land, our space, whether physical or conceptual. We let some people in and exclude others. More than that, we judge others and label them as enemy, evil, wrong and even dangerous. When people, in their fear and sheer desperation, dare to get on a rusty boat and come here uninvited, we lock them away or send them off-shore to another place. They are labelled as ‘boat people,’ the implication is that they will be dangerous, bringing the violence of their homeland, take our jobs or homes and we are afraid. There are people who look, sound, or dress differently. They eat different food or have a different way of life, with different expectations or ideologies, faith expressions, or they have cultural differences and we push them away out of fear and judgement. They are different! Perhaps it is those who live with mental health challenges or serious disabilities or chronic health issues and we don’t know how to engage or we fear them push them aside, exclude or ignore them and hope they will be hidden from our view, our life. Whilst we may not refer to them as enemies, they certainly aren’t friends and are excluded from our space, our life.

There are a multitude of ways we write people off and build our barriers, that may be small or significant, creating ‘safe’ places for ourselves protected from others who are different or with whom we disagree. Such perceptions often inform our decisions and responses to people and may deprive them of what they need to live. As a society we are guilty of hoarding resources and depriving the most needy and challenged people of what they need to live and flourish. Such attitudes that are prevalent across our society, lead to various forms of violence, from the softer forms around exclusion and isolation, through to the rejection of people from equal participation to hate-filled rhetoric or physical violence – as we’re seeing on the streets of Sydney at this time.

This week in Luke’s story of Jesus (Luke 6:27-38), we are challenged by confronting words of Jesus. ‘Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you…’ ‘Do unto others as you would have them do until you…’ ‘Don’t judge or condemn, or you will be judged or condemned…’ He preaches forgiveness, generosity, love, turning the other cheek, praying for enemies. I ponder how I might respond to his words when I’m watching that ‘other team’ (the one I really don’t like – the enemy) play ours? I wonder how to respond to the idiot who says things that drive me crazy, are dangerous or plain stupid? I wonder how I might respond to the person who is so different in every way and whose arrogance and rhetoric are hate-filled that feel abusive and horrible? What would this Jesus have me do?

What about those who are perpetrating evil on others – starting wars, persecuting innocent people, engaged in domestic violence or sustaining deeply unjust rules and laws? How do I/we respond? Is Jesus suggesting we keep quiet, turn a blind eye or walk away and ignore such actions? The reality of Jesus’ words, and their expression in his life, there is both, love and the resistance of evil. It seems that love dictates we resist the evil people perpetrate without descending into hatred and hate-filled retaliatory violence. Mahatma Gandhi was drawn to Jesus and his teachings, specifically these teachings in Luke’s Sermon on the Plain and Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. He followed their wisdom and the way of love, drawing on Jesus’ resistance of evil, speaking and acting in love but resisting the ways of injustice, hatred, racism and persecution. His followers were prepared to receive the violence their oppressors delivered whilst resisting the commands to submit to the unjust requirements and expectations.

Martin Luther King Jr, guided by Jesus’ words and influenced by Gandhi’s life and work, repeatedly reminded those involved in the Civil Rights Movement that they must love those who regarded them as enemies but resist the evil they perpetrated. They would take the violence meted out to them – physical violence, arrests and unjust imprisonments, the vile rhetoric and abuse – but they would not retaliate with more violence. Only love!

Jesus’ vision is to bring people together into a just and flourishing community that is open and engages the world with reconciling love and hope. This way is transformative of people, communities, organisations, nations, churches and other religious communities, to bring about the flourishing of human life. There’s a story I read this week about a boy called Tom. He was rebellious and disruptive in high school and was set to be expelled – unless a teacher who worked well with disruptive boys would take him on. Mrs Warren was up for the challenge, despite the long list of complaints and welcomed him into her English class. He tried to disrupt but she was calm and invited him to sit with her at her desk so she could help him get up to date. She explained to the class she would help him catch up on the reading assignment and began to read for him – A Tale of Two Cities. He wanted to dislike her and this book but her passion and engaging manner drew him in and he was swept up in the story. That night he completed his English homework without harassment from his parents. He never missed her English classes and asked for more reading ideas. He came back after school to talk about them. Mrs Warren’s care, gentle and open manner and taking him seriously was changing Tom.

Unexpectedly, he left home and joined the navy after a fight with his parents and therefore left the school. Mrs Warren felt she had failed Tom. A few years later, aft school one day, Tom appeared in her room and despite the changes in his appearance, she recognised him instantly. Tom ran over to hug her and then told his long story. He’d continued school in the navy and then completed other courses. When his time was up, he found work, got married and continued to study in the evening. When she asked what he was doing, he told her that he’d become an English teacher and he specialised in working with wayward boys because he remembered what she had done for him. I really think that this is the transformation and flourishing Jesus invites us into – a way of love!