Thursday, December 11, 2014

Loving beyond necessary

I was walking (I know, what are the odds) to get lunch the other day and I ran into a conversation that needed to be recorded.

The young man stopped me about two doors down from lunch and asked if I would support marriage equality. I asked how I could do that. He began to explain what that was (as I thought I knew), and finally told me I could contribute to marriage equality by being a monthly donor to the ACLU.

I explained a few things about myself. I was a moderate in politics and religion, I was a pastor of a United Methodist Church up the street, I would not be doing same-sex marriages though I understand if not support civil unions as they are none of my business, but the most important thing of all, I told him, was that we have shown these things can be talked about. I told him it is important that we learn to discuss these things instead of yelling. And I invited him to our church.

He smiled politely, wished me well, and off I went to a shrimp po-boy.

It seems to me that discussion, conversation, is most important today. It is a lost art. It is a lost mechanism toward peace, any peace, personal or otherwise.

Have you talked to an enemy lately? Have you forgiven those who have hurt you? Have you asked for forgiveness for those mistakes, choices, sins that are large and so small you forget? If you have, so be it. I suspect it is a difficult thing for all of us.

But Jesus is pretty clear on the subject. "You have heard that it was said, 'love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

Gandhi, as you know a non-Christian, said this: "It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."

There's a film coming out in a couple weeks called Unbroken that depicts the life of Louie Zamperini. There is a bit of an argument forming about the movie about Zamperini, whose life story is one of being held for two years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. His life was changed at an evangelical meeting with Billy Graham when he accepted Christ and forgave his tormentors.  The argument is that Jesus isn't mentioned, but the makers of the film talk about the fact his faith is in there throughout the film.

Zamperini's daughter says, "if they wanted to know more about how he got through it (the POW camp), how he survived it, they could investigate it. He never wanted to preach at them but live the example."

Maybe that's the answer. Maybe that's the ticket. We need to be doers of the word, not just listeners. We need to stop judging and start talking. In the end, that's all we will have. That's what separates us from the apes.

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