“You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5)

At first blush, this headline may have taken you aback. After all, it’s no secret that I am deeply troubled and disagree with many of our President’s policies around immigration, national security, abortion rights, and economic policy. I think they are uncharitable, unwise, unchristian, and deeply threatening. So maybe you thought this title was a type-o or simply click bait. However, I hope to articulate in this short snippet, and much more so in this coming Sunday’s sermon, why I do love the President, and why it is so important for Christians to take seriously our belief in the ultimate nature and work of God in the world as love, a love embodied in the ‘light’ within each of us, and what that light demands of you and me in the midst of a our anxious lives in a divided America.

So first, let’s talk about love.

Christians believe that God is love. We believe that from the inside out, through and through, within and without, God is absolute love. And this love, when embodied in human hearts, makes us lovers. Love becomes our supreme trait, it is our greatest attribute, and our highest goal. You see, Christians believe that love saves us, that love saves the world, indeed, that love is what will save civilization. Love, and nothing else – even, and especially, love for our enemies.

In seeking to embody this love we can have no place for hatred – not even for those who threaten or harm us (more about this Sunday). We believe Jesus was not joking when he told us to ‘love your enemies’ but was imparting to us a critical key of his plan to redeem the world and make the Kingdom of God real in our midst.

I believe Jesus told us to love our enemies because to do anything less would betray the light within us and be harmful to our community, our world, and us.

First of all, we are to love because to do otherwise would only intensify the tension, bring things to a boiling point, and cause an eruption, which would help no one.

A second reason, is because when we hate, it changes us – and not for the better. Therapists can outline the mental and emotional impacts of a persona that dwells on hatred. We become bitter and angry. Our personalities shift and change. Our blood pressure rises. The book of Proverbs eloquently asks, “Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?” (Prov. 6:27)

And perhaps the most important reason is because of love’s redemptive nature. We simply cannot hope to effect positive change in a situation in which our oppositional convictions has forced us to remove ourselves. A little known but critical aspect of the civil rights protests of the 1960s was that of loving the oppressor because in doing so lay the only real hope to change the situation.

How we do this, of course, is no easy matter and I look forward to outlining more about that on Sunday as well. But let me end by saying that I am well aware that I share the pews with people who are on the opposite side on these issues. I count many as friends who voted differently than I did – and I thank each one of them who has read this far. And so my final, and perhaps most important point, is that I believe God created us with distinctive personalities, opinions, and differences that are crucial to obtaining the fullness of human life and building a just and peaceful society. I see those who stand on the opposite side of issues not as the decadent, despicable, and despised, but as humans in need of the same kind of redemption I need. We are all equal before God, and God created us differently because in the harmony of our dissonance lies truth, growth, and health. I love Donald Trump because he is my brother and teacher with whom I share high respect for this nation and its wellbeing. We can find some common ground. We can work out some differences. And it takes love. The deep divides in our pews, and in our national life will never be spanned by insults and threats, but through the creation of safe spaces founded on love. Let us speak up, cultivate our opinions, yet always do so in the name and pursuit of love.