What If?

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, leave peaceably with all.

Romans 12: 18

I'm going to engage in a moment of unbridled hope.  It's a rare occurrence, because the world gives me very little evidence to support optimism, particularly when it comes to human behavior.  We are afflicted by racism and prejudice so systemic and pervasive that many of us choose to deny that it even exists.  We are convinced daily that self-interest and therefore selfishness is the only true driving force in the world.  We cannot see that there is really any alternative to the endless cycles of violence, and therefore our search for security leads us only to the accumulation of power in the hopes of holding the violence at bay.

Sorry, I said I was going to be hopeful, it's difficult to say the least.

Can you imagine a world where all people who claim to have faith in a certain God, actually took the prescription of that Creator seriously?  That would mean, Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, because we all share parts of the same book, a book that prescribes basically two rules: love God and love each other. Whatever other things we might find in the book, and our various favorite appendices, all of the big three agree on those two.  If we set the love God part to the side for one moment, you could even bring in the Hindu and Buddhist folks and probably a handful of other random religions that are based on the basic ethics of not treating other people like big piles of manure.

Imagine a world where we took this as seriously as we take various definitions of sin and trying to judge who is in and who is out.  It puts that stupid John Lennon song to shame (you don't need to get rid of all the religions, you just need them to start acting their age).

So why don't we take this stuff more seriously?

Literal types who want to hold on to all sorts of abominations, and fight and protest and schism, are you doing everything you can to live peaceably with all?

Liberal folks who like a forgiving God, are you really trying everything you can to live peaceably with all?  What about those fundamentalists who keep bugging you?

I'm not even saying that we somehow need to do this perfectly, I know, ain't none of us perfect.  I am saying that we could try a little harder than we are.

We need to stop making excuses and pretending like we're just making the best of a bad situation, because we're not.  We're blaming our enemies and saying we can't live peaceably because, basically, "they're just a bunch of big stupid-heads."

Notice that this a unilateral command, it says nothing about expecting the "enemy" to behave themselves.  We can make peace a one-sided equation, as Ghandi and MLK tried very hard to demonstrate.  It is possible, it's always possible, it is just really difficult sometimes.

Paul gives us more than a little bit of wiggle room, so that we really can't make the excuse that it's just an impossible goal.  "If it's possible, so far as it depends on you..."  That's a good amount of weasel space.  After all, you could interpret that as: "just don't pick a fight, but once it's on, let the claws come out."  That appears to be the way that most of us approach it, if we approach it at all.

Christ-likeness is all good and fine until the cross starts to loom on the horizon, then it starts to seem like maybe we should try something different.

"Get thee behind me, Satan."  I'm trying to be optimistic here.

But the fact of the matter is, that when I start to try and think about how to love my neighbor, and live peaceably with all, the reality of all the exceptions starts to close in around me.  I start to think of all the good and practical reasons why this really isn't a tenable plan of action.  There are people who would like to shoot me, rob me, blow me up and otherwise not be very good neighbors.  How am I supposed to "love" them?

This is where Paul is so great at giving us that room to deal with reality: you don't actually have to love them, you just have to act like you do, in other words, treat them as though they were not your enemy.  If they're hungry, give them food, if they're thirsty, give them drink. You don't have to be stupid about it, but you should always seek to be kind and hospitable.  Is that asking too much?

God seems to think not.