Hatred has been growing in this world for some time. It first reared
its ugly head after the fall, ultimately being responsible for the murder of
Cain. It drove Joseph's brothers to both plot his death and then to settle for selling
him into slavery. It drove the Egyptians to slaughter babies born to the Jews.
It drove Haman to plot the destruction of the Israelites who were being held
captive in Persia. It showed its ugliness in Israel's treatment of the Gentiles,
the Gentiles’ treatment of Israel, and the treatment of both toward the people
groups who were the products of mixed marriages between Jews and Gentiles. It
was displayed when women were mistreated in marriages and discarded by arrogant
husbands who used them and tossed them out like the evening garbage. It was
displayed in the way the Old Testament society viewed women as second-class
citizens. It even showed its ugly head when fathers desired sons and mourned
the births of the precious daughters God gave. It showed its ugly head in the
legal system of that day that often failed to serve justice on their
behalf.
Today, it continues to grow rampant in all sorts of ways as we see
on the news. Hatred has roots running deep in human hearts. It is sometimes
birthed when fear becomes so intolerable that the power of hatred feels safer.
It is sometimes birthed in hearts filled with insecurities when hatred becomes
a way of calming anxious hearts that long to feel secure. It can be birthed by
deep longings--the longing of acceptance, of notoriety, of supremacy, of prestige,
and of significance--when one mistakenly believes hatred somehow ensures one can
get or keep those things longed for. It can also be born in a pride-filled
heart as one seeks to elevates oneself over others. It can be born out of a
heart deeply wounded by victimization, providing a destructive hot protection
that sadly kills loving relationships. It can be born out of a heart given over
to evil when one's conscience has become seared by one hateful choice after
another.
Hatred can also take root when distorted thinking rules our
hearts. When we exaggerate, or minimize the importance of events, experiences, and
mistakes we can breed hatred. When we employ catastrophic thinking, we see only
the worst possible outcomes, keeping us from seeing possible life lessons,
possibilities, and the call to grow love at deeper levels. And fear caused by catastrophic
thinking breeds self-protective, self-destructive hatred. When we are
given to making broad generalizations, we can develop hate-filled viewpoints.
If we were abused by a man, we can grow to hate all men. If we were ridiculed
by a teacher, we could grow to hate all teachers. If we were assaulted by someone
of another race we could come to despise all people from that race. We see this
in all the different movements that have come out in the last couple of years.
One Christian votes for Hilary, so all Christians are scum, murder-loving
hypocrites. One Christian speaks in favor of Trump and we are labeled as racists
and hate-mongers. One experiences racism at the hands of whites, then all white
people are labeled racists. Because of the black lives movement some white
people label all black people as violent, anti-whites. Then there are all the
other races and the other prejudices to consider such as, Hispanic, Asian,
American Indian, Middle Eastern, different economic levels, different cultures,
and different levels of education.
What is worse is some people wear crosses while they take videos
of themselves spewing hateful tirades on you tube. And there are white
supremacists wearing crosses claiming they are Christians, and now all
Christians are now being blamed and lumped into that small hate-filled group.
It sickens my heart! Even people who know us and know we aren’t like them assume
we are.
Hatred can also grow when we take everything we see and hear
personally. I even find myself doing this. If I allow myself to read the
comments posted under the articles I read on Facebook or News sites, I find
myself taking the hateful comments personally and they are written by people
who don't know me, don’t know I am reading the article, and don’t know what I
believe. Before long I find myself feeling defensive and my defensiveness gives
way to seething anger and my seething anger gives way to hatred and I find the thoughts
forming in my head are every bit as hateful as the hate speech which offended me.
I can’t allow myself to tale things personally and focus on that stuff or I
begin to sound like those I don’t want to be like. I notice that people who don’t
like Trump are beginning to sound just like him. Those who are taking a stand
against racism sometimes come across like racists. I wish we would all pause
and take a step back so we can emotionally decompress. Hate is never going to
be changed by more hate; it is changed by love, humility, grace, and
forgiveness. It is changed by trying to know the hurting heart behind the
anger.
And, jumping to conclusions and mind reading causes so many misunderstandings
and fights and hateful responses. I went through long rough patch with someone
I cared deeply about. She had seen a cross stitched picture hanging in my home
that someone had given me and she assumed I stitched it and assume I believed something
I didn't. I lost thirteen years of relationship with her because she jumped to
conclusions and thought she could read my mind. She chose not to clarify her perceptions
and chose to be offended by something she imagined. After thirteen long years,
she told me she had been offended by the Bible verse on the picture and allowed
me to tell her the story behind the picture. Her anger dissipated as she realized
the picture had nothing to do with her and I grieved. I grieved that she had
experienced so much needless pain, and I grieved the lost years of close relationship
we had once had. It is often in the replaying in the mind of such imagined
offences that hatred grows.
Fortune telling also stops grace giving and stops us from
reflecting our God who really is a God of a million chances--our lives prove
that! Sometimes we see only the negative aspects of situations or people, but all people
are made up of both strengths and weaknesses. And if people are made that way,
groups of people are too. All races, all genders, all cultures, all social
groups—all have strengths and weaknesses. All can contribute good and all are
in need of grace. When our thoughts are filled with "should have’s" we've
placed on others, hate can be the result as it covers disappointment we feel when others don't fulfill our expectations and demands that would not be there if we replaced a “should”
with a desire. All or nothing thinking keeps us from seeing the good in people
and the sin in us--even more fodder for hate.
This latest event in Charlottesville initially left me with a sick
feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was soon followed by a deep grief that we
people get it so wrong so often, and fear that we humans will never learn to love
better. It was also followed by a righteous anger that has been burning hot.
When white supremacists claim to be Christians, I get angry because Christians
are supposed to be in the process of becoming more like Jesus and supremacists do
not reflect the Jesus of the Bible. Ephesians 2:14-21 makes this so
clear. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has
broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law
of the commandments express in ordinances that He might create in Himself one
new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to
God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came
and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you
are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in who the whole
structure, being joined together, grows into a Holy Temple in the Lord.
Jesus, the Jesus talked about in Scripture, was a Jew born in the
Middle East. He wasn't even someone white supremacists would follow. He broke through
economic barriers. He left heaven and was born to a poor carpenter. He turned over
the tables of money changers that were making it difficult for the poor to
worship. He broke down cultural boundaries when He rubbed shoulders with the
blind, crippled, deaf, mute, lepers, and a woman unclean because of constant
bleeding. He changed the religious culture by allowing all sorts of people to
sit under his teaching--from boisterous fishermen, doctors, tax collectors,
business women, homemakers, and prostitutes. He even allowed children to come
into His presence, which was unheard of in that day. He laid His hands on them
and blessed them and called people to have the faith they had. He cast out
demons who were destroying people. He gave the gospel to the Samaritan women who
was of the mixed race and then remained to teach those living in her town. He
was a bridge builder, not a divider! He was bridging the hostility between the
Jews and the Gentiles and the Gentiles are all the other races that exist. He
was humble. He was loving. He was servant who washed His disciples’ feet,
rather than pridefully setting Himself up as a judge! White Supremacists are
driven by the Enemy who is trying to convince people Jesus is something He isn’t.
As they claim to belong to Him and to be His representatives, they are being
used by the enemy to distort God's image and to stir up the hostility that Jesus
came to destroy. That seems like pretty serious sin to me.
So, what do we do in light of growing hatred? We spend time with
the One who loves and came to kill the wall of hostility. We continue build a
church comprised of all nations and all races. We build a church full of people who are reconciled to God, unified in Jesus, being led by the Holy Spirit to do the
ministry of reconciliation. Our Jesus preached peace. Our Jesus reconciled
people to the Father and granted people citizenship with the Saints! We would
be wise to examine ourselves and clean out any residual of bigotry and racism
and Pharisaical judgment we might possess as individuals and as churches because
those things destroy His peace, divide the body, and keep others from knowing God.
I must guard my heart so in my passion I don't take on the very
hatred God hates. My anger and my hatred can never bring about repentance. Only
God's goodness can! I don't want to spend hours stewing over recent ugly
events, because I know God is just and His Name and character can’t be changed
by those who hate. I praise God that His very nature is love and He sent
Jesus to kill hostility. I pray my heart will be sensitive to His work so my
heart and life are a true reflection of Him who died in my place, satisfying God’s
wrath for my sin. I praise God that His Son was not, is not, and never will be
a White Supremacist. He was a Jewish baby born in humble conditions, who in an act
of supreme humility lay down His life, breaking the barriers of hostility
between me and God and me and all other people—barriers that stood in the way
of people getting to know Him. These horrific events have painted an ugly
backdrop that allows our love to shine even brighter. We want to make sure we stay
deeply connected to the God whose nature is love and that love is what will melt
hatred.
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