Tomorrow at All Souls we are going to sing a song called They will know we are Christians by our Love. In our weekly staff meeting
this past Wednesday we wondered if this song was self-congratulatory or aspirational.
All too quickly we agreed it was aspirational. Not because we aren’t always
very loving but because “some” Christians aren’t known for being very loving.
What was meant was “those other” Christians aren’t very loving. I left
wondering if we were singing a song for ourselves to
aspire to or for others to aspire to. Since Wednesday I have continued to think about what it means to
truly love others and what I have been painfully reminded of is that I fall
short of loving all too often. This song has always been challenging for me,
whenever I have sung it (sang it?) I have asked myself if they really will know
that I am a Christian because I love.
Today, I believe the answer is no. That doesn’t mean that someday it won’t be
YES! but right now I know that love is not the first thing people see when they
look at me.
I am often impatient and quick to snap. I get impatient with
ignorance and self-righteousness (um…hello! pot calling the kettle black
much?). I get impatient with people who are too needy, who need too much
attention or affirmation (as if I get to decide what “too much” is for
anybody!). I get impatient with people who are impatient, who don’t listen to
others well, who think they have all the right answers.
I am eager and ready to judge people who believe and do
differently than I believe and do. It is all too easy to say that people who
voted for “that other guy” are uneducated and selfish. I have to pause and
remember that almost exactly half of the country voted for the candidate that I
did not vote for. Either this means that yes, half the country are idiots or,
perhaps (gasp!) that there is another, legitimate way to think about politics
and economics. How can we have open, constructive, respectful conversation to
bridge the deep divides in this country if the automatic assumption is that
those who voted differently than I did are incapable of self-reflection or
complex thought? This goes for other Christians as well. It is easy for me here in Berkeley to feel like I am loving my neighbor because my neighbor thinks
and acts and believes like me. There are Christians, though, who believe
profoundly different things than I do about God and Jesus, about forgiveness
and grace, about Scripture and tradition and prayer. Are they simply hateful
and close-minded? How do I love them and enter into thoughtful, humble and
loving dialogue with them?
I do not want people to know that I am a Christian by my
preaching and proselytizing. Neither do I want people to know that I am a
Christian by my lofty theology and progressive ideology. If I want to be known as a Christian by my love
I must become more loving. At the summer camp I grew up going to one of my
favorite campfire songs went like this:
Love, love, love, love, Christians this is your call
love your neighbor as yourself for God loves all.
God loves ALL. Not
some. Not those like me. Not the rich, the white, the liberal or the
conservative. God loves all. And so we are called to love all as well. It is a
huge, radical and scary expectation but it is one that I believe is central to living out
the Christian faith. The full lyrics to They will know we are Christians by our Love are below. What does it really mean to be one in the Spirit? Are you working to restore all unity? Are you guarding each person's dignity? I invite you to comment below or to think about it on your own
or to discuss within your own communities: How can you begin to love more? To
love better? To love all?
