Many Christians are familiar with some of the lines in today's reading from 1 John. "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God... God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them... Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen."Given our familiarity with such words, it is somewhat disconcerting how easy many of us find it to dislike and hate others. Most everyone has heard examples of the terrible things committed in the name of religion, from the Crusades to burning "witches" at the stake to the group who protests at military funerals, claiming these soldiers' deaths are God's punishment because "God hates fags."
But beyond these sort of examples, I'm thinking more of the type I'm likely to engage in. When there are disagreements in congregations or in the denomination, the fighting can get nasty, with little evidence of love on either side. And it is all too easy to find myself thinking the absolute worst of those who disagree with me. It's an easy progression from they're wrong, to they're stubborn, to they're stupid, to I don't like them, to they're evil, to I hate them.
How do we love one another when we disagree, especially if we disagree about things we think are critically important? There is certainly no easy answer, but Jesus never said that following him was easy. He talked of taking up a cross. And it seems to me that learning to love one another while disagreeing might well be the most powerful witness the Church could make to the world about what it means to be people of God.
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