Loving Our Enemies

Gospel: Matthew 5: 43-48

We would be hard pressed to find in scripture the command to love our countrymen and hate our enemies, but we find it everywhere practiced and rigidly enforced.  We find it in the enmity shown against immigrants, migrants, and foreigners.  We find it in the apologetic against other religious groups and in theocratic agendas that punish others for not being us.  We find it in the death penalty system, the exploitation of the poor, the deliberate disenfranchisement of those deemed lesser that us.  

In all these acts we will find "Biblical" justification offered by "Christian" pastors who help to support all these acts and more.  Again, we won't find the command Jesus cites today in any Biblical text, but we will find many who act as if it is there giving warrant to hatred of others.  We might be inspired by Ted Lasso, but we instead live like the Roy family...

But in the breach is Jesus who stands between the vulnerable person and the mob of religious folks with stones ready to kill her.  We who are enemies of God are loved by God in spite of our enmity.  Jesus went to Peter and Thomas, the denier and doubter; he forgave those who put him to death.  He lived in fullness what he preached today in loving all people - loving them equally, friend and foe.