Hello,
Is it easier to love or to hate?
I ask this question for today’s Bungee Cord in light of the tragic events of this past weekend in Pittsburgh where a gunman entered a synagogue, yelled out some hateful things, and then proceeded to shoot, killing and wounding a number of people.
So, is it easier to love or to hate? I suspect that people far wiser than I have answers, some of them might even be the thesis for a PHD. But I have a theory, not produced by careful scientific research, but produced out of the experiences of my life. Here’s my theory: when one is personally connected to another, it is easier to love and harder to hate that one; when one is not personally connected to another, it is easier to hate and harder to love that one.
When I was in high school I lived about three blocks from the school, so one of the ways that I would get to school was to ride my bike. One day in my junior year as I was going home from baseball practice I was stopped on my bike at the corner of 55thStreet and Grant street where there was a traffic light. As I waited for the light to change, alongside me came a car, a convertible, with two of my baseball teammates aboard. Just as the light was changing to green and I was resetting myself on my bike, the two of them leaned over toward me, hacked up a bunch of mucus, and spit on me. I wish I could say that that was the only time that these two guys turned their ire on me. It was not. But when that happened, I did not find much love in my heart for them, but I could feel hate bubbling up. The connection as teammates was not very deep.
I could only imagine what my reaction would be if such a thing was done to me by someone with whom I am deeply connected…..because thankfully, it hasn’t. However, when I have seen someone’s child or spouse “spit” at the one who is connected to them by flesh and bone, or by the promise of their word, I have seen how hatred still has a hard time taking hold of a heart that shares in a rhythm of love. Undoubtedly, the pain would be more severe, but when connections run deeper than the ocean, even pain doesn’t have the power to overcome the impulses of love.
For me, the thing that I base my hope in God’s love for me is exactly in such a deep connection that God has made with me, the connection that he has made in taking on human flesh, and the connection that he has made in shedding his blood for me. Truth is, that I have done to this One, God, who has so deeply connected himself to me, that those with whom I am most deeply connected have not. I have “spit” in God’s face….not just once….but over, and over again. And although God would have every reason to hate me for my brazen actions, he doesn’t. Instead, with the overriding forgiveness of Jesus, God still finds it in his heart to love me….every time.
What would this world look like if people experienced a deep connection with one another? Fact is, many do not feel a deep connection with certain others….surely that was the case this weekend with the gunman and the folks in that synagogue. But the Bible tells us that that man had somehow missed apprehending this important fact: there was, indeed, a deep connection between him and those folks in that synagogue. You see, when Jesus died on that cross, all people became connected to him, like spokes on a wheel. And just as every spoke needs to be connected for a wheel to carry the weight of the bike, so likewise Jesus connected every person at the intersection of that cross in order that that cross would bear the weight of the love of the one who was nailed upon it.
Is it easier to love or hate? In Jesus Christ, God is at work connecting everyone in the deepest connection possible, and in so doing, to make love come to life and hate meet its end. The joy of the Christian faith is that we get to be part of that work, too.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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