Love Your Enemies? Ugh, OK

Like many Southern towns, there’s a road in my city where you pass several churches in just a few blocks, one after the other. I was driving down this road the other day when I noticed that each church had the same banner: “Love Your Neighbor.” Then I started noticing the banner in front of churches all over town. It turns out that about 30 churches collaborate every year on the weekend following Valentine’s Day to preach on love of neighbor. I love seeing ecumenical efforts like this.

Of course, the liturgical readings also lend to this effort. That particular weekend was the Beatitudes, and this past weekend was about loving your enemies.

What a hard reading but necessary reading in the current climate. There is so much hurt and anger. But the truth is that we can’t let the times and circumstances change us. We are called to love.

What does love of enemies look like? It does not mean tolerating injustice. But it can mean swallowing our pride, holding back reactionary words, carrying heavy burdens. Those who curse or injure us are children of God, and even if they can’t see that, we should. God loves them, so we should love them, even when their actions are wrong and harmful. Every individual in front of us should be treated with compassion, and yes, forgiveness.

Monday Motivation: Presidents' Day

 From George Washington:

"A good moral character is the first essential in a man...It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous. "

" Truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light."

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience."

From Abraham Lincoln:

"I am responsible … to the American people, to the Christian world, to History, and on my final account to God."

"I planted myself upon the truth, and the truth only, so far as I knew it, or could be brought to know it."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."

500: Reformation Swiss-style

I originally did my 500 series in 2017 on the lead up to the 500th anniversary of Luther's 95 theses, considered the beginning of Protestantism. I didn't continue it, as the stories grow convoluted as different branches of faith arise in different areas with overlapping timelines. However, this year is the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism, a movement which many of my ancestors followed. So I will continue the series a bit on the lead up to the radical "re-baptizers." 

Ulrich Zwingli was born in 1484 in Switzerland into a family of farmers. At age ten, he was sent to school in Basel, then three years later went to Bern. He studied under the Dominicans, and it’s possible he became a novice. However, he did not join the Dominicans and instead went to the University of Vienna and the University of Basel. He was ordained a priest in 1506.

He served as a pastor in Glarus, a city whose soldiers served as mercenaries all over Europe. Zwingli served as a chaplain for several campaigns in Italy against the French. However, after the Battle of Marignano in 1515, the city began to side more strongly with the French (against the Papal States).

Zwingli, loyal to the pope, left to Einsiedeln monastery for two years, retreating from politics. He grew convinced that mercenary service was immoral, and he furthered his theological studies. He began corresponding with humanists, and even met with Erasmus twice. During this time, his theology evolved. He grew strongly convinced that doctrine must be backed up by scripture (rather than scripture, tradition, and Church documents). In December 1518 a post opened up at the Grossmünster in Zurich; his positions on humanist reform and opposition to the French/Italian politics were welcomed in Zurich, and he became the priest at the Grossmünster. (Note that this is about 14 months after Luther in Germany has posted his theses.)