Speaking of loving your political enemy, I remember a conversation I had with a relative a few years back. They are a family member with whom I tend to vehemently disagree about political issues. One day they sent me a text out of the blue that said, “Do you think God really cares about income inequality?” First, I need to tell you – because it may not be obvious – that the question was asked with sincerity. They were curious about my opinion as a religious professional, and not just baiting me. They are Roman Catholic, and were trying to sort through something Pope Francis had said about inequality.
Secondly, I want to say, I think this is a great question. It’s the kind of question I think Christians should engage in and wrestle with: One that expresses curiosity about how God views what we’ve got going on down here.
I don’t have my text response anymore, so I can’t quote it verbatim. I will be sure to make myself sound much smarter and more articulate in the retelling. But I remember sitting with the question for a minute. Do I think God cares if some people make more money than others? Do I think that income inequality is inherently anti-Christian? Well, no, I don’t think I do. And that was the first part of my response. Because I recognize the basic premise that different jobs have different levels of responsibility, impact, and skill requirements, and that different levels of income might reflect that reality. So fine, ok.
And while I was typing that response, I started thinking about our prayers. Or rather, our main prayer. You know, the one that Jesus taught us. The Lord’s Prayer or Our Father. In this prayer that is fundamental to our relationship with God, this prayer that draws us into a deeper understanding of Jesus’ heart, we say these words: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
I pray this every day, and I think like many things I do every day, I pray it without really grasping my own prayer. In this prayer, I am literally saying that I want earth to be as much like heaven as possible. That’s what the prayer says: God, make this place here more like your place there. God, make it here on earth as it is in heaven. Every day I pray this.
So then I had to ask myself do I actually believe that in Heaven, some people are living lives of extreme opulence just down the street from people who are starving and thirsting, who are malnourished and marginalized? And that is what I wrote in my next text: That I didn’t think that the radical inequality we experience on earth – including in our beloved country – exists in Heaven.
Do you? Do you think that in Heaven, some people are subjected to squalor while others have enough resources to singlehandedly eradicate poverty and homelessness? I’m guessing you don’t. Neither do I. That doesn’t sound like Heaven. Some version of this is what I texted back to my beloved relative. They did not respond. I’m pretty sure they think I’m a communist now. I’m not, in fact, a communist. I am a Christian. And I’m trying to make my life look like I take Jesus seriously.
When we pray thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, we are asking God to get rid of the kind of radical inequality with which we have become accustomed here on Earth. And then when we say Amen, it is our responsibility as Christians to get up off our knees and participate with God in making this prayer a reality.
It’s possible when you read this your response is that this isn’t Heaven, that we live in the real world, not paradise, that we can’t afford to be dreamy-eyed idealists and Kumbaya our way into a perfect world. And if you’re thinking this, actually I agree with you.
I don’t think what I’m saying is idealistic at all. I think it’s practical.
It is practical to have a goal for which we strive as a people. It is practical for the Christian to ask the question, “What would God have us do?” And it is practical, when we answer that question, to find ways to try to live into our understanding of God’s will for us. What would God have us do? According to Jesus, God would have us try to make earth more like Heaven. And according to Jesus, God would have us do this work not by making everyone believe exactly what we believe, but by creating communities that embody peace, love, and justice – that treat all people as if they are made in the image of God and are deserving dignity and respect just as they are.
Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Do I mean it?
Throughout the last few weeks, I have been writing about Jesus’ command to love your enemy and pray for those who hate you. In particular, I’ve focused on how we love our political enemies. We have looked at loving our political enemies who are family, friends, and neighbors. We have looked at loving our political enemies who work in government and positions of authority.
What I’m writing about today may seem like a digression, but I don’t mean it as one: We cannot build a world that looks more heavenly, more Christlike, more like God intends without loving our enemies.
So much of our cultural conversation is stuck in the binary of winning and losing. This binary is fundamentally false, and it destroys the soul. We become obsessed with the humiliation, dehumanization, and destruction of our enemies.
And I feel that temptation too. I am watching our government openly and aggressively promote racist ideas and policies, systematically attack LGBTQ+ persons, viciously misrepresent our public school system while gutting its funding, withdrawing support and care for our military veterans, and create budgets that dismantle medical care and social support for our poorest senior citizens.
This is all happening in plain sight, no propaganda or partisanship needed.
And I believe it is my Christian responsibility to love the people who are perpetrating this audacious display of organized inhumanity.
I remember being knocked off my feet once by something Dr. King wrote – and I’m paraphrasing here, but he wrote that racism does terrible things to White people – because it makes us believe untrue things about ourselves and others. Racism makes us believe we are better when we are not. And it makes us think that people of color are inferior to us, when they are not. This disorders our thinking, disorders our way of understanding ourselves, disorders our way of interacting with our neighbor who is made in God’s image. Dr. King said that the eradication of racism and White supremacy would be healing for all people – not just people of color. It was an act of love, even love of enemy.
I believe it is our Christian responsibility to strive for racial equity, to protect and uplift our LGBTQ+ siblings, to properly fund and equip our schools, to care for our veterans, and to uplift the poorest among us. And I believe that doing these things will be good for all lives and souls – including those with whom I radically disagree. I do not want to be interested in their destruction: I want to be passionate about our shared liberation from the disordering of our souls that inequity brings to bear.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
