There’s a song that was on the radio
last week and it has some lyrics that go “shot through the heart and you’re to
blame, you give love a bad name.” That
got me to thinking about all the media we have been inundated with about Paris
and those terrible Syrian refugees that the government has been threatening to
inundate us with. And some of the
rhetoric in the States has been truly horrific.
Some people, claiming to be Christian, have said that we should only
allow Christian Syrians into North America, others have said that every Syrian
is dangerous and a terrorist. Wow. They conveniently forget that the Paris terrorists
only had one Syrian passport in the bunch found in the raid, and that Syrians
are getting robbed for their passports and Isis doesn’t like Syrians leaving in
the first place as it wants to act like a country and have people make more
babies for its caliphate. No, refugees
like the little three year old who drowned, were running away from terrorists,
not trying to be terrorists. Alayn
Kurdi, that sad little boy, had no home left.
If you see photos of his home town, there are many houses without roofs
and the streets are rubble. Sad how one
day we are clamoring to our government to let his people come to Canada, and
the next we are clamoring to keep them out.
But it’s bigger than that. I am
tired of American Christians who talk about judging and criticising all kinds
of people, the negativity that they express and especially the close-mindedness
they depict to the public. Build walls
around Mexico, criticise anyone who doesn’t look like us, talk like us or
believe like us. Enough already. Jesus said that our first commandment is to
Love God. And the second commandment is
to love our neighbor as ourselves. The
second commandment is not to judge our neighbor or criticise our neighbor or
convert our neighbor or tell them that they are full of the devil or are not
good enough to get into heaven or any of that.
No! Jesus said love your neighbor. Your neighbor next door who maybe plays the
radio or tv too loud first thing in the morning or last thing at night, who
cheats at cards or takes the last cookie at supper. Your neighbor who pops her knuckles loudly at
the dinner table or thinks it’s funny to play tricks on people or fiddle with
their dentures or gossips behind our backs.
You see, I don’t think being a Christian is easy, Jesus never said it
would be. And being a Christian isn’t
about being nice either, and letting people walk all over you. Sometimes we have to speak up and say that
God doesn’t want three year olds drowning in the sea because their houses are
destroyed. But being Christian is seeing
beyond black and white situations, “I’m good and my neighbor is bad” or even
black white yellow and red like the old hymn we used to sing about Jesus loving
all the children of the world. But
instead Jesus calls us to be loving towards our neighbors, especially when we
are afraid of them. Our Christian beliefs
must be shaped by the remembrance that Jesus lived and died in the Middle East,
and was living in a country full of violence and on the verge of civil war. Even then, he called his people to love, and
we are still called to love. That should
be the hallmark of who we are as followers of Christ. Love of God, love of neighbor. It's time to remember to sing "They'll know we are Christians by our Love" and then to go do it. Love God, Love your neighbor, love yourself. The rest is commentary. May it be so for us all.
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