Loving What You Fear.
Can we really love what we fear?
Remember the Russians?
As a child in the mid- to late 60’s, I recall that the Russians were the people that America was to fear. Of course, we may not call it fear, but at the core it was fear. More often than not we tend to learn to hate what we fear. And if hate is too strong of a word, we could certainly suggest a strong dislike.
The Russians were the enemies. We had fallout shelter signs plastered throughout my elementary school so that we’d know were to go in case the evil Russians attacked us. I was told that the Russians did not believe in God and were anti-American. This sure made it easy to oppose them every four years in the Olympics and certainly justified hating them.
Whatever happened to those evil Russians?
Maybe the question is, whatever happened to our hate?
Perhaps the better question is, whatever happened to our fear
for it seems that once our fear vanquished so did our hate.
It is hard to love what we fear.
A parent.
A nation.
A culture of people.
God.
My post is not a political post about the Russians and may be a poor illustration, but my point is that we tend to hate what we fear and it is difficult to genuinely love what we fear.
I wonder how often we project our hate onto others in the name of what we think our God hates?
In other words, our god hates what we fear or cannot control.
Holding hands and praying with a Russian couple in a hospital room past week; going down the hall into another room and praying with two gay men dying of AIDS; walking into the room of a 90 year old black woman who lived before, through and after the Civil Rights movement in the South, got me thinking that most of our hatred and rejection of people is based on our fear of them.
And is it extremely difficult to love what we fear.
When we get past our prejudices enter into one another’s suffering we find that we are all the same.
Many claim to love a God who has missiles pointed at them waiting to destroy, punish and inflict pain on their world when they fail to live-up to or "believe" some expectation of this god. "Believe in me or burn in a lake of fire." Seems like power and control and not love. People fear this god and it leaves me wondering if they can truly love this god or if this god loves them? Many try to please this god by projecting their hate on to what this god hates—anything that is different—those that they fear: Russians, Black folks, gay people, women…
But that isn’t the God revealed in the face of Jesus. In Jesus we meet the God who enters into our world and our suffering and transforms it throgh love. The God who is not impressed by our sacrificing all that we fear in the name of what we think God hates.
In Jesus, we find a God who empties himself of all power.
And desires mercy, not sacrifice.
A God of love and not fear.
That’s the God Jesus asks us to believe in.
And if we don’t believe in this God, it doesn't send us to hell, rather we are already in hell.
13 Comments:
It reallys is amazing the hatred that is present of people we don't understand. I think you're right that it's fear based. I find that it is so easy to judge people I don't understand. Yet I also realize that I hate it when people quickly judge me and try to set me straight. I get defensive and nothing is accomplished. But when people have instead just been open, I've found I can unfold myself. There's a positive outcome, but no control of the situation. However, you are so right that living in fear is being in hell. Thanks for the post.
I can really relate to your theology! Amazing! I scare men. I like what you said about it being hard to love what you fear. I like your blog. I find it helpful. Thank you.
nearly every time i come here i feel like you're handing me a special pair of glasses to see something differently.
thanks, my friend.. once again for the new view.
anything that is different—those that they fear: Russians, Black folks, gay people, women…
what is there though to fear? What is the threat from any of these groups. Yet church after church seem to struggle in this area, perhaps simply because of love ofthe status quo. I don't know. But it is sad.
When we look over Western/ US /UK history it does seem as if someone is always painted as evil or a threat, Russia, Cuba,Vietnam, Korea, Iran now Iraq. No doubt there is an awful lot of room for improvement in all these places but maybe part of it is deliberate to stop us building bridges, building a better future, spreading God's love. Like Brave New World.
This post discourages somehow (not your fault) because we seemed to get entrenched in our fears and hatred and suspicion and lose a tiny bit more of the divine spark that is in us each time. sigh
Great post, once again, Rick. The Pete and I were just discussing this yesterday; why some people seem so quick to judge, so reactionary, so close-minded, and the Pete came to the conclusion that it must be based in fear. You guys are "feelin' the harmonic resonances," there. (my new term for 'thinking along the same lines, but from miles apart and without talking to each other). ;)
I come by from time to time.
Today, I am a little freaked out about this god you speak of.
how is it that he is so full of loev, as you say, yet, he required the very death of his own son?
please explain how how death brings love.
please explain what I am supposed to believe about jesus.
please explain.
With that final line are you suggesting that we live in the Lennon-esque Utopia of no heaven and no hell, or merely suggesting that living in the love of Christ is not something that God will condemn us for?
I was all prepared to write a novel and then realized I may not have understood what you were saying.
Dear Concerned,
Required? God required the death of Jesus? I am not so certain God REQUIRED the death of Jesus? Where does the idea that God REQUIRES the death of "his" only son come from? substitutionary atonement theology? I am uncertain that death brings love. Perhaps it is love that defeats death or that even death could not silence love??? Sorry, but I may be missing something in my post, I never mentioned a God who required the death of his son. To me, Jesus is the face of God who entered our world to show us God in and through his life. The creation attempted to kill the Creator. The Creator didn't order it. Jesus' message from start to finish is love. God didn't kill Jesus because of humanity's sin, rather humanity tried to kill God because of its sin. And in the mystery of it all, Jesus' life, death, and resurrection atoned for the "sins of the world."
RWK,
Thanks. You always get a little alarmed by my posts initially. :)
No I wasn't talking about a Utopia, although I like John Lennon's music quite a bit. He was a lot like Jesus in that he is often misunderstood by the religious folks; especially when he told the truth.
The last line is from Philipians, where Paul uses the lrics from a son about the self-emptying Christ. I quoted Jesus in the part about mercy and not sacrifice. The other part suggests that hell is life without the self-emptying, merciful God found in Jesus and not a place folks are sent for not believeing in a mean angry God who waits for them to screw-up.
Hope that helps!
The God you describe -- the one who loves rather than condemns -- is exactly who's courted me back toward wanting to become Christlike (I hesitate to use the word "Christian," since its meaning is so dilluted anymore).
Ah, this was so refreshing to read today. Thanks; I needed that.
i'm afraid a lot of folks want a lot of other folks to believe in their unintentionally perverted version of this god...
when this is the case, who wouldn't prefer hell?
great post...
I still don't get what it is that we fear.
I know it's a reality that we do fear, we do discriminate, we do push down or push away
but what is the fear based on?
And how do we uproot it so that we can love again?
I grew up in fear of the Soviets, as well. But I remember the first time I heard a song by Sting whose lyrics said, "I hope the Russians love their children too." That was revolutionary to me. I think the fear died when we realized that they were people like us.
Separation plays into the fear dynamic. I think that was behind much of Christ's prayer that we would "be one."
I also grew up in fear of anyone who wasn't a believer, like those dirty homosexuals and drunks and smokers and people who said bad words and people who danced or listened to rock music. It was beaten into me that even hanging out with such people would drag me down.
Then they talked about loving everyone.
???
How the hell was that going to happen? I couldn't live up to that, so I ditched the whole thing. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Imagine the freedom when I realized that all those "sinners" were just like me. It was the understanding that I didn't have to isolate myself from the world that enabled compassion and the ability to love. And it's really love that casts out fear, right?
The reason the conservative church is perceived to be so full of hate is because we've isolated ourselves from the world. The church has become a fortress, instead of a sanctuary. When you spend a couple hours a week ministering to AIDS patients, for example, condemnation suddenly doesn't seem like such a priority.
You're bookmarked.
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