enemies.

"Can you love your enemies and still kill them?"

I asked my students this question today and their brains melted. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of them said yes. They had one reason: we have to win wars.

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I know this a tired subject, but when I look at these students, who I thoroughly love by now, and see this wretched kind of confusion, my heart hurts. All of their heros are murderers, not martyrs. You can see why following a Messiah that peacefully died at the hands of his enemies is a brain-melter. If you do not murder, than you are a coward, a hippie... you are unamerican.

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Recently, I have been trying to work out the connection between hope and imagination. I still have a ways to go, but for now, I will simply state that war is hopeless because it totally lacks imagination. This is not only to say that war shows a lack of creative energy to find alternatives to violence, though that is true, but I mean to say more than that. I think war is hopeless because it shows that we do not have the will or ability to imagine life after resurrection.

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If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ~ Luke 6:32-36

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It is tough to imagine nonviolence as a practical way of life. There are numerous situations that we can dream up where we would intuitively use violence to solve the problem: to save our own lives... to rescue the ones we love... to defend the helpless child... and so on. The latest Rambo movie was all about that intuition. I certainly have those same intuitions. But what if we really believed death was not the end of the story? What if Christians really believed that all the pain and suffering they currently endure would be erased in a flash. Perhaps loving enemies makes more sense when we consider the end of the story.

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This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. ~ 1 John 3:11-18