Father Peter F. Hansen
Sermon for the 2 nd Sunday after Trinity
June 20, 2004
Love and Hate
“MARVEL not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ”
Love and Hate : daily we are confronted by evidence of one and absence of the other. Hatred we see in the eyes of the Moslem cleric denouncing the West and vowing to kill all Americans. Hatred we see in the face of a rap musician as he plays out his rhymes of sexual conquest and racial and political unrest. Hatred we hear in voices raised in this political year. Hatred is depicted on television shows featuring violence on every channel. And Love? Love is a concept that fails quickly, resorting instead to lust, need, bondage, fear, codependence, and ultimately hatred. We may long for love, and yet never know the meaning of the word. Where is love? How can we know it? When will we be loved? Who can love us?
Somebody please teach us a course on love! What is it? How can I learn to love? This course was taught, and we heard the message, but have we taken the lessons? Have we passed the test?
Love and hate are often thought of as opposites. They are not . Love stands alone, without any opposite. I say this because St. John has repeatedly told us: God is love . God is the definition of love and His very nature is that of love. Learn about God and you will begin to understand love . Don't turn the equation around, thinking you have love in mind and then apply your meager definitions to God. Many have done so and painted a picture of a man-made god: a god of tolerance, diversity, equality: a god who is blind to all sin. But God is love , and what is the opposite of God? Some may say, “ Satan ,” but they are wrong. The opposite of Satan is St. Michael, archangel, who fought and defeated the fallen Lucifer and cast him out of heaven. God doesn't need to fight Satan Himself: the foe is defeated by the holy angels. The opposite of God doesn't exist. The opposite of love is not hate. Hate is too poor a thing to be the negative of love.
Love is lacking , and our indifference toward other human beings and their sorrows, their needs and suffering shows a failure in us to love. Love can also be perverted , and modern lust in many forms twists the ideal of love into every kind of horror. I was recently riding with the police and we were called to a 9-1-1 hang-up call coming from a sprawling trailer park in Chico—a literal rat warren slum of fallen down, broken trailers. When we arrived, the scene developed that a man and his estranged wife had verbally fought until he ordered her out of the trailer, hurting her bare feet by slamming a door on them. The woman's strangled cries were those of an animal, not really words, as she nursed her shredded feelings in a neighbor's tenement. You really couldn't identify a trace of love in this broken marriage. All that was left was pain and revenge. Our world needs so much love today.
Hatred is something else again. In some ways we don't hate enough . We are watered down in our enmity toward the things God hates . If God is love , and yet He hates human sinfulness, the oppression of the innocent, all lies, and false teachings that betray people away from God: then the God who is love can also hate. He hates because of love; hates the things and sins and actions that cause love to fail in His much-loved creatures. God hates evil, but He loves the world. He loves all people. He wants to restore everyone to Himself, and it is His will that no one should perish. Nevertheless, many will perish and the cause of that loss He hates, for their sakes. If we only hated sin as God hates it, we would cure many of the world's evils and ills . If we hated sin in ourselves enough, we would be better people. But people will instead hate people and tolerate sin. We have it exactly backwards. Hate sin, love people is our commandment , but we take a short cut and just reject other sinners, forgetting that we are sinners too.
What is hate? Have you ever wanted someone to die? Have you ever been happy when another person suffered greatly? How many of us, truly, do not hate Sadam Hussein? Osama bin Laden? God loves these men, although He hates their deeds greatly and He will judge them for their wickedness. Hate is a strong emotion. We often hate, I believe, and yet modify our emotional tenor so we can tell ourselves, “I don't hate him, but I strongly disapprove of him. I don't like him. I can't stand him. I want nothing to do with him... But I don't hate him.” Hating is bad, so we don't see ourselves as people who hate.
What is the opposite of hate? I think we can say that Satan's feeling toward God and toward us, His beloved creatures, comes down to hatred. He envies us our potential for redemption. He wants to see our lives and our world reduced to ashes. If the object of hatred is to reduce the hated object and take away its power, its life, its potential: then the opposite of hate may be generosity, a giving spirit . To give to someone who doesn't deserve it, to build into someone what wasn't there before, to take time with someone less worthy perhaps than you—this cures hate. Ulti mately, to pray for another person, even someone who is out to get you, will stop your hatred of them and give you a heart to love . You truly can't pray for someone and hate him or her too. Hate is cured by a giving heart and a prayerful attitude, interceding for them, seeking their good.
Love and hate : God wants us to love Him and each other, and to hate sin and evil. God wants us passionate , as He is passionate. Christ said to the Laodicean church in Revelation: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” 3:15-16 Lukewarmness: indifference, tolerance, and bland acquiescence are mistaken by Christians as a virtues. Christ is ready to spit out of His mouth those who are dispassionate. We have to be hot with the love of God and man, and cold with the hatred of evil or we are not worthy of His kingdom.
Today's Epistle from 1 st John predicts that the world will hate us, and tells us not to be surprised. The world, meaning unredeemed mankind, sees our life in God and, being dead itself, hates us and the love we have for each other. We have gone from death to life. S t John instructs that if we continue to hate our brothers, we have not let go of death to embrace life. Imagine the Christians who had to embrace Saul, the future S t Paul, right after he had joined them! Today we may have to embrace people of other races, other economic backgrounds, the opposite sex, another age group, those from former evil lifestyles, or worse, our own family members. Each of us find a challenge in loving all Christians. Some Christians in other denominations make us angry by their positions on certain holy matters. If we have trouble loving even our fellow Christians, what do we do with Christ's teaching : “ I say unto you, Love your enemies , bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven...” Matthew 5:44-45 Love your enemies . I have practiced this every week in front of Planned Parenthood. I hate what they do there: killing babies every Wednesday. But I have prayed for the clinic workers, many which still hate me, and I have grown to love them. Some even secretly love me back. It's strange but true. Loving your enemies makes them no longer enemies but simply lost sheep. We are to find and feed the lost sheep.
St. John goes on to say that hatred of a brother makes you a murderer . In this, he reflects Christ's teaching that the Commandment against murder is also breeched by hating, carrying a grudge, or even calling someone an evil name. The Planned Parenthood workers are murderers, in fact. But were I to hate them, I would be no better than they are in the eyes of God.
But what is Love ? Attraction? Tender feelings? Compassion? Strong appetite? These are mere echoes, betraying us to shallower feelings. Pity may be a worthy feeling but it falls short of love. Love was lived out daily in the life of Jesus Christ. God is love . Jesus is God the Son: therefore we should love as He loves. He laid down His life for us. He didn't love in word alone. Only St. John records Jesus saying that He actually loves us: “…love one another; as I have loved you.” John 13:34 “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” John 15:9 “ This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” John 15:12 Jesus is the perfect model of love, and He showed great passion for us, His bride . He left a safe home in heaven to seek us. He brought us out of darkness into light and life. He gives us His Body and Blood. He died for us and rose again to redeem us and give us eternity. Love is more than just talk: it gives everything away for the beloved.
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost in eternity without beginning were in a relationship of love. In His creative might, God overflowed that love into a creation, setting mankind above all creatures that we might freely give Him back our love. Our created nature is to love, which will cost us greatly, but reward us endlessly if we choose the most worthy object of our love, and hate only sin and evil that breaks the heart of God. God loved us before we knew Him and sent His Son to die painfully in our place. If we can learn this lesson, and these first commandments, we will show the world that Christ is real, and that He is seeking them also. Love and hate: Love the sinner —including yourself—and hate the sin that breaks his relationship with God. God is love. May you love as He loves.
PFH+