Tag Archives: Hate

Spewing Hate

Living in the Spirit
August 27, 2018

Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43

‘But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! Have regard to your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day towards this house, the place of which you said, “My name shall be there”, that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays towards this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling-place; heed and forgive. –1 Kings 8:27-30

Revelation 21:3b-4 answers Solomon’s question, “Will God indeed dwell on the earth?” by saying:

 ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’ 

God is omnipresent, bigger than both heaven and earth. God will live among us fully when love rules the world. We are the ones crowded God out.

God incarnate, Jesus Christ came to challenge us to work toward such a world to make it a reality sooner than later. The goal of Christ followers is not to judge who will be included in such a world. The goal is to work until all are included by taking responsibility for our own assignment of loving like Jesus. We are assigned the task of loving; Jesus is assigned the task of judging.

It must surely break God’s heart to hear the hate language being spewed throughout our land by those who claim to be God’s followers and those who use God’s followers for selfish gain. One way to test what we hear or say about others is how would it make us feel if someone were saying the same thing about us or treating us in the same way. It’s called loving your neighbor.

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when I get caught up in the movements to spread hate and divide your people. Remind us through the life of Jesus, how we are to love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Love vs. Fear

perfect-loveLiving in the Spirit
September 21, 2016

Scripture Reading: Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
   who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress;
   my God, in whom I trust.’
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
   and from the deadly pestilence;
he will cover you with his pinions,
   and under his wings you will find refuge;
   his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
   or the arrow that flies by day,
or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
   or the destruction that wastes at noonday. –Psalm 91:1-6

Truth cries out in our scripture today. We do serve an awesome God who loves us and thus wants the very best for us. We do live in a scary world where bullies try to bring us to our knees. The bullies do not realize that the best place for God-lovers in times of stress is literally or figuratively on our knees humbling ourselves before God. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1) This truth particularly resonates in our lives when evil seems to be all about us.

Our world is complex. Hate and fear beget hate and fear. What we must remember and grasp is love overcomes hate and fear. God never promised it would be easy. God does promise that our love exponentially increases as it joins with God’s love. The love of God combined with the love of all God-lovers far exceeds the power manifested by hate and fear. The question, the challenge is when will we ever have the faith to let love do its work through us as God seems to will?

Prayer: Strengthen us to humble ourselves enough to be your conduit of love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

What is Evil?

be-not-overcome-of-evil-but-1-638Eastertide
May 4, 2016

Scripture Reading: Psalm 97

The Lord loves those who hate evil;
   he guards the lives of his faithful;
   he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
Light dawns for the righteous,
   and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
   and give thanks to his holy name! –Psalm 97:10-12

What is evil? The Hebrew word translated as evil in the above scripture is described as adversity.* Other words identified as descriptive are malignant, giving pain. Hate does spread like a cancer. The Psalmist seems to be telling us that the one thing we can hate is hate itself.

I am sickened by the voice of hate that is epidemic in our land. We who call ourselves Christians seem to be some of the most rabid proponents of identifying people who fall outside our definition of who is acceptable and who is not. We somehow seem to think that if we hate enough we will be of greater worth to God. Of course, the very opposite of that is what Jesus taught. Jesus called us to love and actually freed us of the responsibility to judge anyone by accepting that assignment himself. If we choose to use the Bible as a guide for what is sin and thus how to avoid it, we do that to guide our own behavior not the behavior of others.

 God’s love is the only thing that can overcome evil. We can rest assured in that. By melding our love together as the Body of Christ in the world today, our love, not vestiges of hate, will make us a tool in God’s hands to conquer evil.

Prayer: Lord, protect us from the malignancy of evil spreading through the world and strengthen our work to love like you. Amen.

*Strong’s Concordance see at http://biblehub.com/hebrew/7451.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

Fear and Love

abundant life 2Eastertide
May 1, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:7-21

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. __1 John 4:18-21

Some are just angry, others are very much afraid. It demonstrates itself sometimes in paranoia and sometimes in downright hatred. It is an interesting time to be white in a world that is more and more a continuum of flesh tones reaching from white to deepest ebony. It is an interesting time to be in the role of the “emperor” when we worship a God who champions the oppressed.

The answer is quite simple. We are to love each other, but the doing of that basic task is hard for we must strip away layer by layer the preconceived notions that we have about ourselves and about the other before we can love them and they can learn to love us in return. This means we have to take the time to really get to know ourselves and to know the individual others. For some reason, some of us who call ourselves Christian, have adapted the language of exclusion and exceptionalism. Being chosen by God does not mean we are better than anyone, it means we have been called to be a blessing to everyone. All of God’s children are exceptional and all children, even when they grow to being adults, are God’s.  Unique as the varied snowflakes, we have each been created to serve a distinct and vital part in the kingdom of God.

Those of us who find ourselves living in relative comfort, even prosperity, are faced with the challenge of loving the rest of the world in ways that will enable them to know the abundance of life of which Jesus spoke: John 10:10, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. God calls us to be seekers of justice.

Prayer: Lord, I lift myself to you. Mold me and make me like thee. Erase my fear, enable my courage, and strengthen my ability to love like you. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Merciful Justice

hateEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 14, 2015

 

Scripture Reading: Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18

O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
   and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
those who speak of you maliciously,
   and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
   And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
   I count them my enemies.  — Psalm 139:19-22

Psalm 139 is one of my favorites. It reminds me of God’s vigilance for each and all of God’s children including me. It makes me feel good until I get to verses 19-22 quoted above. Why did the author have to stick those verses into my meditation?

The word hate or hatred is defined by Merriam Webster as a general attitude of prejudiced hostility :  group animosity.* I suppose the author of this Psalm wanted us to each remember that even with the attentiveness of God to our care and guidance we are still capable of hatred. It probably starts with hating those parts of ourselves that we know are not a part of God’s plan. Our hatred can then blossom into exaggerated surveillance of others to see where they too may be missing the mark. We may search out likeminded disciples to coalesce our hatreds and even give them the credence of community so that what we hate together becomes a self-defined righteousness. When our cup runs over with self-righteousness, there is little if any room left for God’s justice and righteousness.

I for one do not believe we can ever hate the sin but not the sinner. God calls us to all inclusive love that Merriam Webster defines as unselfish and benevolent concern for the good of others**. All of us stand in need of the healing of our souls at one time or another and the balm for that healing is always love, God’s love and our love for each other.

Prayer: Lord, overcome us with your merciful love so that we can live and model your merciful justice. Amen.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/hatred
**http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/love

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.