There is one very odd thing I have been grateful for in these strange times… clarity.
It has become clear that a huge segment of those that call themselves Christian have actually embodied a state religion that also embraces hate, fear, and violence in the hope of power but in the name of Jesus. Even to those largely uninterested in the Christian faith have seen the discrepancies between that religion and the teachings of Jesus. It has become the Orwellian church. I am not intending to condemn people caught up in this, but to condemn the movement.
Where there has been more clarity in these days is that there exists a group of people different than that movement, across the globe, a body of people who see themselves as loved by Jesus and therefore try to follow Jesus and imitate him as best as we can. That means participating in God’s unrelenting love.
Here we are. I hope it has been clear with my life I am one of them.
We are not victims, we are not perfect, we are not ready to stop calling ourselves Christians, we are not impressed with power and money, we are not entitled, and even if we are frightened, we are not done yet. We rae not who we are because we are democrats or republicans AT ALL. We are American, we are Iranian, we are Palestinian, we are Russian, we are Ukrainian, We are immigrants, we are officers. We are not standing by to test if you are one of “us” or not before we love you. None of those things define us. We are loved by Jesus and we are trying to be part of that love. We not only see ourselves as loved, very importantly we see you as beloved as well, just as beloved as we are, and we want to work to try to help you discover this.
We believe God loves you no matter what. No matter what. No. Matter. What.
Even if you are one of the people who seem to do, or have done awful things in the name of the Christian faith, like start wars and punish trans people, we love you too. Love means it’s okay to change your mind. Love has already been at work in you, build on that.
Christians, if you have been part of the hate (as most of us have in different ways), okay, just you know…repent, switch it up. That is a thing all Christians do. It’s Lent, right? It is not unfamiliar to us or always a big dramatic deal. Just turn and move toward love however you can. Jesus can still be trusted, and we all have work to do; let’s do it together.
Now, that may take some sorting out and some prayer on our part, but I stand by the fact you are loved by God, and by God, I will figure out a way to love you, as best as I can.
I want to be clear here too, because of that love, we also believe in justice. We believe that following Jesus means loving especially those mentioned in Matthew 25 that some people know as “the least of these,” which does not mean those are the least people; it means those treated as the least by others. It means we believe the extent to which we love Jesus is not expressed primarily in who we vote for or even what we believe but how we love, and that means standing in solidarity with the most vulnerable people on Earth.
I don’t say these things to recruit you or impress you or to get anything from you; I just want to highlight the gift of clarity and light that this dark time has given us. The time is a threshing floor, and there is a separation between the wheat and the chaff. There are choices to be made, and that is good news… it is still possible, for me and you, to choose the way of love.
There are innumerable people committed to love and therefore to justice and peace as well. We are interested in figuring out how to love you even when that gets complex or hard.
I repeat, we are not perfect. But we believe God loves us all, and regardless of what you ever do or do not believe, we want to love you. We are trying to love you straight, queer, trans, black, Latinx, disabled, Muslim, gifted, famous, old, young, big, small, MAGA, Marxist, makeshift anarchist, butcher, baker, Buddhist, right, wrong, uncertain, sure, cowardly, or brave. We try to follow Jesus and love the most vulnerable first, but no one is exempt. No one.
I repeat, I am not saying these things to get anything from you. I am saying this so you know if you come to me, to us, in need of love, then I and the community I am part of will try to do our best to love you. …even (or especially) if we have to figure out all that that means. If it is too hard for me, one of my siblings in faith will step in.
We get that love is hard work. We are here for it. I am here for it, and I am far from being alone.
In this time, on this threshing floor, as stuff gets sorted out, I am grateful for the clarity to be able to pause and say we love you. I am trying to love you, and we want the world we live in to look more like the love of God than the hatred, fear, and violence that seems to have seized so many imaginations. Don’t lose hope. There are a lot of us, and myriads more people of other faiths and different beliefs who are also up to the work of love.
I am Christian. I am loved by God, and so I believe so are you.
Now, let’s turn the tables and make way for love to win the day.
.
I have never been more sincere,
Your
Brother
Doug
🔥
❤️