God's Enemies..... November 17, 2024

Since then, Christ is waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for his feet,      
           —Letter to the Hebrews 10:13

Beloved, there is a form of Christianity that has been lying to Christians for years. Or maybe I should say that there is a form of Christianity that has been deeply mistaken for years. And it has infected many folx. Maybe you. I know that for a time of my life — me.

This mistaken form of Christianity would hear this verse from the Letter to the Hebrews and understand those enemies the Christ is waiting to have as a footstool for his feet –  to be people. Maybe even particular persons.
But, Beloved: God—neither in the Creator aspect of the Divine nor in the Jesus aspect of the divine—-God does not have any people nor persons as God’s enemy. In fact, that is antithetical to whom and what God is. God is Love, and Love does not see any person or people as an enemy.

Oh yes, there are enemies to God, enemies to Love, but never—let me say this clearly and rather loudly—NEVER–is God’s enemy a person. God’s enemies are not people. Not even the people you are most disgusted with. God’s enemies are the thoughts, the beliefs, the ways of being that oppose Love. I am not talking about rom-com/hallmark-card love. I am speaking of Love which is the active intercession in order to gain another’s wholeness and wellness. And Love has no limits or exclusions for whom the “another” is. All others are the “another.” Each and every one. Because, Beloved, all are God’s. God’s created. God’s people. God’s Beloved.

In this creation, in this universe, it is impossible for any person to be God’s enemy. But God—that which is Love—does have enemies.  Greed is God’s enemy. Thirst for power over other people is God’s enemy. Self-centeredness is God’s enemy. Apathy is God’s enemy. Nationalism is God’s enemy. Prejudice and bigotry is God’s enemy. Religious certainty is God’s enemy. Hoarding wealth and considering that wealth to be our own—solely Microsoft Word - Preparing to Become the Beloved Community - Year A.docxfor our purpose, comfort and enjoyment—is God’s enemy.

​And Beloved, what if all of these enemies:  greed, corrupt power, apathy, self-centeredness, nationalism, hoarding wealth, bigotry—what if these are the demons of Legion? The demons Jesus kicked out of people’s bodies and spirits when Love showed up and called them out? Of course, it is easier just to go on hating people as enemies. It is easier to simply dismiss half of our siblings as folx we no longer have to stay connected to; that is certainly easier than finding the enemies within ourselves and using Love to root the enemies out of our neighbors.

In today’s Gospel Jesus is describing an apocalypse—the end of one era and the start of another. And in apocalyptic times, there is always death; there is destruction.  But from the ashes of that death, new life arises. Beloved, we find ourselves in such apocalyptic times. The world as we knew it is changing, has been changing. No longer is it so clearly tribal—-we are becoming more and more of a mixed ecology. And for some people—that is scary. They want what has been; they either cannot understand or do not want what is becoming. And so, they fight—tooth and nail—to try to keep us in the past, to keep Creation in their comfort circle: the way of being where their own status and comfort is afforded. Even at the cost of their siblings’ status and comfort, life and being. Their fear is God’s enemy.

But, we Beloved, we followers of the Way of Love, we know that we are a creation that is always becoming. While the new can be scary and uncomfortable, it is necessary for  deconstruction to happen so that re-construction can take place and something new can be born. The Message translation of today’s Gospel story tells it this way: Jesus began, “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities claiming, ‘I’m the One.’ They will deceive a lot of people. When you hear of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history, and no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. 

What we, as followers of the Christ, must remember is our own story. Jesus was born into a time of the Empire, the Roman Empire. He did not understand his mission and ministry to be one of toppling the Empire—at least not through warfare and Institutional means. No, what the Christ does is topple the Empire from the ground up. He reminds people of who they are and whose they are. He lives out Love—simply by tending with Love to whomever is right in front of him. When injustice gets in his face, he turns the tables. He takes the time to rest and recover. But then gets back up and keeps moving forward—-all while the Empire looms over him, over society, over the land. The movement of Love begins, exists, and continues right there in the middle of Empire. The Empire cannot stop it nor put an end to it. Even though it surely tries.

So, let us remember who we are and whose we are. Let us have a pattern of Love as our rule of life such that Love shapes us: our reactions, our responses, our sense of justice. Let Love remove God’s enemies from within. When we recognize that we are holding on too tightly to our wealth mainly to serve our own purposes and not for the purpose of ensuring that all God’s people have enough, let us open our hearts, our minds, and our spirits,  and let the apocalypse of Love have its way with us.

When we begin to fear because we are too  uncomfortable with all that is not what we have known, let us open our hearts, minds and spirit and let the apocalypse of Love have its way with us.

When we begin to see our neighbor—any neighbor—all neighbors—as the enemy, oh Beloved—let us then open our hearts, minds, and spirits and let the apocalypse of Love have its way with us.

And when the enemies of Greed, fear, power and corruption begin to reshape our culture and society into the antithesis of Love, let us create sanctuary together. Let us collectively care for one another, feed one another, quench one another’s thirst, lighting candles of hope and persistence, creating havens of resistance and revolution so that the apocalypse of Love can take root here—in our hearts and homes, in our community, our state, our nation, this world we love that is our fragile island home.

This weekend, Murray and I saw the movie Conclave—about an election of a pope, which is an apocalypse of its own kind with the ending of one era and the beginning of a new one. A cardinal from Afghanistan interrupted another cardinal who was speaking from fear—a fearful cardinal who called out those from other religions as monsters because he saw those others as the ones destroying his church. This quiet cardinal from Afghanistan–who had been eyewitness to humanity’s cruelty in times of war –he reminded his siblings, his fellow Cardinals: The Church is not tradition. The Church is not the past. The Church is what we do next.

Beloved: our story tells us that there is no force, no enemy, no system, no form of government that can stop us from being who we are: the Beloved, followers of the Way of Love. And as history shows us over and over: Nothing can stop the apocalypse of Love from having its way. Love is the greatest power and force that there is; so, Beloved,  let us choose to commit to being part of the Revolution, this Apocalypse of Love. We were born and baptized, shaped and formed for times such as this.