We are amid election season in the United States. The vitriol, hatred, and division are at an all-time high as the candidates seek to win the election for their party and for their own aspirations. The vitriol, hatred, and division penetrate the church and the Christian community too often during election season, pitting brothers and sisters in Christ against one another. The name calling and personal attacks drive a deep wedge between those who disagree and often portrays a poor witness to the community.
As we wrap up the Lenten series on the Greatest Commandment, we are reminded of Jesus’ statement, “the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus is not bringing a new teaching, but reiterating God’s instruction to the people of Israel in Leviticus 19:18, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord” (NLT).
The expansion of social media plays against our ability as Christian people to show love for one another when we tend to write words we would never speak out loud in a public forum or to the face of the person with whom we disagree. When we write the words, they seat into our spirit, and it becomes easier to dismiss the other person and to steer away from a conversation where we can be productive and find resolution and reconciliation for our relationship. The tendency, in our present time, is to seek the echo chamber where the words we read and the people to whom we listen always agree with our perspective. We have lost our ability to show love in disagreement and to seek unity as brothers and sisters in Christ.
The love we are called to live out is to:
As we move toward Good Friday and then onto Easter, let us seek to love one another in ways that go against the vitriol, hatred, and division in our world. Let us seek reconciliation, restoration, and grace in relationships that have become toxic and have been lost because of disagreement. Let’s confess where revenge and grudge exist in our hearts and find healing for our own hearts and for our relationships.
Prayer: Lord, I confess revenge and grudge exist in my heart. I confess I have not always loved my neighbor and have allowed my heart to be turned away from them and turned from you. Give me the strength to love my neighbor when we disagree and the grace to sit at table with them for conversation. It will be hard, so I need you to change my heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.