FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP / ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
I am following up on a theme I mentioned in my last reflection, namely that we need to give attention to the call to love now before we are plunged into a night of hate such as has never been seen in American society.
Can the hatred get worse? I argue that it will if something is not done to correct it; and if the love of God is not implanted into the hearts of many individuals in the nation. We bristle at what took place in Rwanda and Burundi many years ago when tribal warfare led fellow church members to bring their machetes to worship and, during service, cut down one another as if they were all enemies.
We might think it strange, but such can be the case in America if efforts are not made to control the ideology of guns that has driven many of our churches to promote the Bible and guns together for so-called protection. If we keep arming the churches, schools, and society, this will lead to more murders and destruction.
If all the mass murders seen across the land do not stop. If the hearts of individuals and if political leaders behave as happened in the Tennessee State Assembly, where the two young black young men were thrown out because of their public protestation against guns, then we will enter a night in the land that will only be filled with more murders and destruction. Although the leaders in the assembly could hear the cries of 7,000 young people outside the Assembly Hall, because of political ideology and desire to please gun lobbyists from whom they receive support, they acted disgracefully.
They cast out the two young black Assemblymen. Public pressure and the insistence of the local city councils forced the restoration of the two young men to their Assembly seats on an interim basis. Still, the precise analysis does reveal that much love is lost, and much cleavage continues across the land. More and more guns are being sold, and people are shown how to be more suspicious of one another.
So, let me ask, is there still significance to the calls in both Bible Testaments to love our neighbor?
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NKJV)
So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27; cf. Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30-31)
Are the calls to love God and the neighbor as oneself just for the Israelites (Jews) who originally heard it and for the man to whom Jesus referenced it? Or does it apply to every generation of humanity and to us, as well?
What must we do when selfishness, self-indulgence, self-gratification, and indifference drive our culture? Will we accept that we are caught in an inevitable cycle, or will we do something to change? Yes, my questions are related to the gun culture and all other expressions of self-centeredness that show that we do not have much love for our neighbors.
Let us ask ourselves what we are teaching our children at home, what is being repeated in political speeches, what is being communicated through social media and on the supposed news media, and what is being said among the citizenry about foreigners. Finally, let us ask ourselves about how we look at different people in our society. Are we being loving? Are we being neighborly?
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain’s arrogant response to God after killing his brother Abel and God’s asking, “Where is your brother?” is relevant here. Cain’s response to God in the form of a question needs a resounding answer: Yes, I am my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper. This is the responsibility that God has placed upon us from creation. We are responsible for one another.
Giving guns will not help us to carry forward our responsibility. No. we need to practice love. And I am not speaking of the sentimentalism that shifts with our emotions; I talk about the love that is born of God as the apostle Paul says, the “love (Agape) that is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us.” (cf. Romans 5:5).
Let us demonstrate that deep love for one another and avert the deluge that is about to come if we do not.
