“Only love can drive out hate”
I wonder if you have noticed the quotation that has been on Holy Trinity’s sign out front on the lawn this summer. The sign says “Only love can drive out hate”. The sign attributes this quote to Martin Luther King, Jr. and that is true. According to Google, it’s a paraphrase of something Dr.
King originally said in 1957, when he said ”Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Only love can drive out hate.
This quotation comes from a sermon that Dr. King preached entitled “Loving Your Enemies”. His text for that sermon is Matthew 5:43-45, where Jesus says ”You have heard that is was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” ‘But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”
Only love can drive out hate. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Love is a dominant theme in the gospel that Jesus reaches and teaches to his followers; love of God, love of neighbor, love of self, love of our enemies.
We hear this theme of love echoed in the the words of the reading from Ephesians this morning:
Speak the truth to our neighbors. Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Do not make room for the devil.
Let no evil talk come out of your mouth…but only what is useful for building up…
….that your words may give grace to those who hear.
…be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you…
and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us….
Only love can drive out hate. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
As people of God and followers of Jesus Christ, we are capable of loving one another – and our enemies – only because we have first been loved by God. We can forgive one another – and our enemies – only because we have been forgiven ourselves through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can live in love – with one another and with our enemies – only because Christ loves us and draws us into eternal life with God.
What is this “eternal life” with God, into which Jesus draws us?
Eternal life is the gift of living in deep relationship with God through Christ; it is the gift of abiding in God’s love and mercy; by trusting and believing in Jesus, as the rock on which we stand and build our lives, individually and communally. Eternal life is the gift we receive today, this very day, and every day that we live our lives in Jesus Christ. Eternal life, our life of love in and with and through God, never ends.
We claim this life-giving promise of eternal life with God every time we remember our baptism – every time we remember that we have been washed cleaned, forgiven of our sins, baptized into death through Jesus Christ and raised with him into new life.
We claim this life-giving promise of eternal life with God every time we eat the bread and drink the blood that came down from heaven that is Jesus’ own body; the body that feeds us and nourishes us and sustains us even now.
We claim this life-giving promise of eternal life with God through the power of the Holy Spirit of God, with which we were marked with a seal when we were baptized; through the power of the Holy Spirit that fills us with the breath of life, gathers us together as a community of faith, and sends us out to serve the world with the sweet fragrance of love and sacrifice.
As people who follow Jesus, we are secure in the knowledge that we are loved by God through Jesus Christ with an everlasting love that will never end and we are set free, through that love, to live out the new life we have been given in Christ…set free to love God and serve our neighbors… set free to love and serve our enemies…set free to build up the body of Christ in the world… even in a world so full of hate.
Only love can drive out hate. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Over the next few months, in this time of pastoral transition, the people of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in North Easton, MA will dive deeply into prayer and mutual conversation centered around what it means to be God’s beloved people, followers of Jesus, in this place and this time; what it means to be people who have been set free by Jesus Christ to love and serve the world. We will ask each other many questions: what is God’s purpose for Holy Trinity? Where has the Holy Spirit led this community of faith in the past and where is the Holy Spirit leading you now? What gift does this community have to offer the world? How can you use those gifts to tell the story of Jesus in the world that is desperate to hear words of grace and mercy and love?
The Transition Team at Holy Trinity has planned a series of Open Forums to Engage the Conversation in these kinds of questions, as a means of discerning the next steps for the ministry and mission of Holy Trinity. The dates and times are listed in the bulletin*; more information will follow as we get closer to each session.
The Transition Team encourages you to come to as many of these Open Forums as you can. Come to these conversations with an open heart and an open mind and an open spirit; be ready to talk with each other, openly and honestly and lovingly, about these important matters and be ready to listen to each other, to hear what each person is thinking and feeling and believing and willing to do
in the next phase of your communal life together here at Holy Trinity. Come to listen deeply to each other, even when you might not always agree with each other.
And pray – now – for the work of the Transition Team, for the work of this community of faith, for the collective wisdom of the Holy Spirit, for the friendship of Jesus, and the love of God to surround you and give you peace in this time of conversation and discernment.
As we prepare to gather in holy conversation over the next months, remember that, through our baptism and our communion with Jesus, we are called to live in a new way. Let these words from Ephesians guide you in your prayers and preparation and participation in this important work:
Speak the truth to our neighbors.
Be angry but do not sin.
Do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Do not make room for the devil.
Let no evil talk come out of your mouth…but only what is useful for building up…
….that your words may give grace to those who hear.
…be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you…
and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us….
Only love can drive out hate. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
* Open Forum: Engaging the Congregation – Save the Dates: September 14, October 5, November 2 and January 11. Coffee at 9:30-10:00 am and conversation from 10:00-11:30 am.