"I say to you: Love your enemies": A Pastoral Reflection on Our Call as Christians

“You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your 
​enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for God
makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous
 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”   ~ Matthew 5:43-46

Dear siblings in Christ,
        This time last year, I shared a reflection on our call as Christians to speak out against the rising tide of the unpatriotic and unchristian ideology that is Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism distorts the Gospel that Jesus came to share for all peoples of the world and it stands in opposition of our First Amendment right of freedom from and freedom of religion, as ratified by our country’s founding fathers in 1719. And today, I feel like I am at a loss of words at where we are as a society and country so clearly steeped in Christian Nationalism while seeing so many using God and Jesus’ name to condone such unspeakable violence, dehumanization, and demonization of those considered ‘outsiders’, ’illegal’, or ‘enemies’. Christian Nationalism is a toxic ideology that perverts and bastardizes the word of God and the call that we all as Christians strive to follow such as the greatest commandments of loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39), but also is antithetical to all that Jesus taught and stood for when he also taught us to love our enemies, whoever our enemies may be. Christian Nationalism leads to thinking that our country and those we deem as ’acceptable’ and ’worthy’ are our first and only priority. And it leads to us looking down on almost every other nation or group of people as lesser, or to think that God is only on the side of our country and not the others, which is antithetical to the God that we confess belief in as the maker of all things and as the God who “so loved the world” who sent the Son, Jesus not to condemn the world but so that whole world might be saved (John 3:16-17).
        So often we hear leaders invoke God’s name to justify treating people as lesser, dehumanizing those they disagree with or find unworthy and treating them like animals, or even worse like ants that we can squash into oblivion through bombing whomever we’d like, whenever we feel like it, or through our continued support of others in their bombing and destruction of whole nations of peoples, like that of the occupied nation of Palestine which is the region that Jesus himself is from and where he lived out his ministry on earth. But here’s the thing, these kinds of behaviors is not loving God, neighbor, or enemy like Jesus commanded all his followers to do, but this kind of behavior is actually what it means to take God’s or the Lord’s name in vain. God’s name is not taken in vain by using swear words or even when we say “OMG” but it is actually taken in vain when God’s or Jesus’ name is invoked to justify such horrendous things done to creation and to our fellow children of God. It is taken in vain when we hear and allow the Prince of Peace to be turned into the spokesperson for our country’s military industrial complex by saying that God is on our side and that the bombs we drop or send to others are blessed. It sickens me to hear this kind of rhetoric because I can’t help but question, how exactly are they blessed? How and why would anything be blessed that kills so many often innocent civilians just trying to live their lives as best they can just like the rest of us. I cannot help but to see the hypocrisy of so many in positions of leadership throughout this country that are pushing to post the 10 Commandants in schools and government buildings when they tend to be the ones so blatantly ignoring them and all of Jesus’ teachings in some form or fashion by cheering on the death and destruction of so many of our neighbors throughout the world while taking God’s name in vain and treating their money and power as a more important god then the God they claim to believe and follow.
        Throughout Jesus’ time on earth, he stood in opposition of the forces of empire and the earthly powers that be while standing with those so often dehumanized and pushed to the margins, by feeding, healing, caring for, and acknowledging their belovedness as fellow children of God and commanded his disciples to do the same. If we say that we believe in God, Jesus, and the Spirit and strive to be Jesus followers, than we too are disciples and are included in his command to feed, heal, care for, and acknowledge all peoples humanity and belovedness as fellow children of God. In other words we are called to share and show God’s love to all people throughout the whole world, and yes, part of that is for us to feed, care for, and acknowledge all peoples humanity of those whom we encounter within our day to day lives, but it also includes demanding and praying that others, especially those in positions of power to do the same, to see and acknowledge the humanity and belovedness of every single person no matter who they are. Will you join me in this work of speaking against Christian Nationalism and speak up for our fellow children of God?
God’s Peace,
Pastor Tamara Siburg