The Christian season called Lent began this week. It is known as a time of penitence and fasting in preparation for Easter. Throughout the next six weeks we Christians are encouraged to slow down, embrace an act of fasting in some way, and to reflect on the state of our relationship with God and God’s creation. This work is meant to connect us more deeply to Jesus – with a particular emphasis on his embodied, passionate, sacrificial love – and thereby draw us more fully into the practice of our faith and the joy of our liberation from evil and death on Easter.
I am in the middle of writing a series on how we love our political enemy. Instead of pausing the series to talk about Lent, we’re just going to keep talking about loving our enemy. If you are looking for guidance for Lent, or advice on a Lenten practice, consider taking Jesus seriously and loving and praying for your enemies every single day of Lent. If you are looking for something to give up for Lent, consider giving up saying or listening to hateful words towards others who vex or infuriate you. I promise this would be fully in line with the spirit of Lent and would connect you more deeply to Jesus.
Last week we talked about how to love the political enemy that is your friend or family member. This week I’m thinking about how we love the political figures who are our enemy. And again, I use that language intentionally and carefully. There’s no use in pretending we live in gentle and amiable times. These are, in fact, very dark times for our political landscape. The lines are drawn sharply. We may bemoan this fact. We may long for simpler times. But we cannot afford to pretend that our mere yearning will conjure the social healing for which we hope. We have enemies. We act like they are our enemies. It’s best to acknowledge that so we as Christians can then face with honesty the question of what God would have us do about it.
And of course we have the Christian answer, whether we like it or not: God would have us love our enemies. God would have us pray for those who hate us. This is the clear commandment of Jesus. This is the way we follow him.
So what does that look like when it comes to the political figures who are my enemy? Well, I believe as good a place as any is to begin, as we did last week, with prayer. In the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, there is a prayer that is titled, “For the President of the United States and all in Civil Authority.” We will pray it now:
O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We commend this nation to your merciful care, that, being guided by your Providence, we may dwell secure in your peace. Grant to the President of the United States, the Governor of this state, and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do your will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in your fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
If you prayed this along with me, you just loved all in civil authority – including your enemies. This is the work: To practice humanizing people, to pray that God will guide them, to pray this without sarcasm, even when we don’t feel like it. Love is often the most powerful when it doesn’t come naturally, when it pulls us out of ourselves and draws us into a way of thinking about others that is not natural to us.
It is especially tempting with political figures to give into cynicism and hatred. And to be clear, sometimes they deserve both. Following Jesus is not about giving people what they deserve. I’ll say that again. Following Jesus is not about giving people what they deserve. Following Jesus is about insisting on the belovedness of every human being.
I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about Lent, but earlier this week was Ash Wednesday, the day that begins the Lenten season. And at the beginning of the Ash Wednesday service, we say a prayer that includes this phrase: God, you hate nothing you have made.
God hates nothing they have made. So how can I love more like God loves?
When it comes to political figures it can begin with sincere and consistent prayer, but it does not end there. When it comes to those in civil authority, I believe it is essential to acknowledge that part of loving them is holding them accountable. Loving them does not have to mean agreeing with them, liking them, or rooting for them. They are meant to represent us.
Now may be a good time to say that resistance and protest are not inherently anti-love. They are often healthy ways to hold those in authority accountable to the fact that they were made in the image of God and they ought to act like it. Likewise, so-called civility is not always loving. Sometimes it’s a hollow politeness that papers over festering division and evil political acts.
Loving my political enemy is not about rolling over and playing dead: it’s about finding strength in my conviction that God’s desire is for all humans to treat each other with respect and dignity. When I allow my ability to treat others with respect to be dictated not by God’s command but by the behavior of my enemy, I am not paying attention to God, and I am not paying attention to my own wellbeing.
So when I believe that a political figure is doing evil things, I have a Christian responsibility to hold them accountable, to participate in organized resistance, to seek to defeat harmful and dehumanizing policies, laws, and attitudes. And as a Christian, I have the responsibility to do so in a way that acknowledges and honors the human dignity of my enemy, not to sink into the mire of hatred for them. Not to allow myself to indulge in hateful speech, even if my political enemy relishes hateful speech. My decision to love cannot be dependent on anything but God – who has promised to help me love if I am willing to commit to loving.
Why am I so tempted to see this kind of love as weak or ineffectual? I believe I resist loving the politician who is my enemy in part because I am scared that it will not accomplish enough. I believe I am also resistant because I get a moment of cheap satisfaction in dehumanizing my political enemy. But that satisfaction cannot last, because it is not rooted and grounded in the love for which I am made.
I am a Christian! I worship the God who conquered evil and death through love! The command to love my political enemy is not an anesthetizing platitude – but a call to action. Loving my enemy is neither weakness nor idealistic impossibility: It requires strength and discipline. Loving my enemy requires me to live with my whole heart. The power of Jesus is inextricable from his refusal to hate. If you and I are going to have any power in these dark times, we will find it in the same place Jesus does. We will find it in love.
