Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself is Not Polling Well These Days
Mark 12:28-34
It’s hard to know how to react to the results of our most recent election. I obviously wanted Kamala Harris to win, but more than that, I wanted to believe that the American people would do it. Given the choice, and simply looking at the words said by the candidates themselves, I had hoped that most people would at least be turned off by what I heard as angry ranting and excited by the possibility of something new. That did not happen.
Yesterday I was processing all this, as I’m sure many of you were, and I thought about last week’s lectionary scripture. The most important commandment is to love God and “love your neighbor as yourself.” I’ve often used this passage in conversations with friends about politics to explain why I support certain policy positions or ideals. If you love love your neighbor as yourself, then you must blah blah blah. Yes, I am fun at parties. It might sound silly, but it’s at the heart of why I do most everything. Why do I support healthcare for all? I would like healthcare, and if I would like it, my neighbors would too. Why do I think we should take care of immigrants? They are both figuratively and literally our neighbors! I think Jesus is pretty clear on that one.
I think it is obvious, even in making a positive case for Donald Trump, that the inherent rejection of loving neighbor is part of his sales pitch. He is going to ignore their priorities and focus on your priorities. He’s going to deport them so there is more for you. His messaging assumes a zero sum game where there are those who support him as an inside group and those that don’t as the “enemy within.” This is openly the opposite loving your neighbor as yourself.
You know I love to go on about how our modern culture is antithetical to Jesus’s teachings, and Jesus’s teachings are so radical and counter-cultural. In this instance we have an example of a literal majority of our country voting for the avowedly anti-loving neighbor candidate. I think there can be no better example of the distance between the beliefs of modern America and the teachings of Jesus. As we enter this next four years, we need to remember to hold on to what is true. We are not called to better ourselves at the expense of others. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. We do not yet know what all that will call us to do, but we will know soon enough.
I have not written in a while because things have be pretty tough at home in the past few years, but I’m getting back to it now, so you should hear more from me soon. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that I’ve put together a book about following Jesus in a modern capitalist country and I’m looking for some folks to give it a read through. In the book I go through the gospels and ask two questions:
What is Jesus asking us to do, and what would it look like to actually do that in today’s America?
It’s meant to be read by a small group or Sunday School class for discussion, but it’s open to anyone. If you are interested in taking a look, send me a quick email to let me know - jmartin@caldwellpresby.org
Keep the faith, my friends. There will be hard days going forward, but there will be good work to do. Following Jesus reminds us that no election is the end, and there is always work to be done for justice.
Justin