An Even More Inconvenient Truth

Part 1 of series: An Even More Inconvenient Truth

By Mark Roberts @ http://www.markdroberts.com/

As expected, Al Gore's global warming film, An Inconvenient Truth, won the Oscar for Best Feature-Length Documentary. Whatever you may think of Gore or his movie, you've got to admit that Gore supplied one of the funniest moments in the Academy Award program. It came early in the show, when he and Leonardo DiCaprio took the stage to explain how the Oscars had gone "green." DiCaprio, in a pleading voice, asked Gore for the second time if he had "any other major announcement" to make. Gore got choked up, and said something like: "Well, given the overwhelming support I've received, I'd like to make an announcement." Removing a written speech from his pocket, Gore continued, "My fellow Americans . . . ." But then the orchestra started up, cutting off the former Vice President as if he were an overly loquacious award winner. So much for his big announcement! It was a cleverly humorous moment.

Al Gore believes that global warming is "an inconvenient truth," and he has devoted himself to spreading the word. In this series I'm not planning to consider Gore's convictions or his mission. Rather, I want to focus on another "inconvenient truth," one I consider much more troubling than global warming. This truth doesn’t come from Al Gore, but from Jesus. And if we were to take it seriously, it would change our lives far more than our thermostats or our MPG ratings.

I'm thinking of the inconvenient truth that appears both in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. It proclaims, simply: "Love your enemies" (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35). "Love your enemies" is often held up as the core teaching of Jesus. It's often praised as evidence that Jesus was an outstanding religious teacher. But if it's really true that we should love our enemies, I'd suggest that this is extremely inconvenient.

Why is it inconvenient? Well, for one thing, most of us don't do this. If we should be loving our enemies, then we'll need to change some basic behaviors, and this is never easy. Moreover, many of us, even if we are Christians, have doubts about the relevance of Jesus's teaching. Surely it doesn't apply to all of life, we reason. Surely we're not supposed to let people injure us. And surely we're not supposed to feel warm affection for Al-Qaeda terrorists who'd be perfectly happy to blow us up. So what are we to do with the clear and clearly inconvenient teaching of Jesus to love our enemies?

Recently I preached on this text for my congregation at Irvine Presbyterian Church. Some of what appears in this blog series will be based on that sermon. I decided to begin by dealing, not so much with the broader theological and ethical implications of loving one's enemy, but rather with the practical, real life challenges we face each day. I'll do the same in this series, though ending with a few reflections on how love for enemies might impact our thinking about things like war.

My decision to focus at first on the practical was motivated, in part, by what Jesus said about hearing and doing His word:

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.” (Luke 6:46-49)

No matter how we might apply the teaching of Jesus to the larger issues of national and international politics, I want to help us hear and do the word of Jesus in our daily lives. I'm convinced that obedience to the word of Christ is absolutely foundational for anyone who wants to be a faithful follower of Jesus.

So, then, here's my basic question for this series: How can we love our enemies? I'll start to answer this question in my next post.