love, sweet love

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love.  It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”     Hal David

Last week, composer Burt Bacharach died at age 94.  I’ve often said that my education in theatre was my first pre-Christian experience of Christian community, of being part of a group that worked together for the creation of something bigger and more important than any one person.  In the same way, the songs of Burt Bacharach and his lyricist Hal David were the soundtrack of my adolescence and contained some of my first pre-Christian treatises on self-less love, preparing me to recognize the grace and compassion and love of Jesus. 

So, what to make of the culture of hate and division that has marked our nation and even the church in the last decade?  Psalm 97:10 says, “Those who love the Lord hate evil.”  Therefore, hate is part of the description of God’s people, too.  But who and what are we to hate?  What is evil? 

Many people who worked with her described Roseanne Barr as evil.  She even described herself to one of the women writers on her eponymous show in 1988 as evil.  She asked the writer, “Are you a witch like I am?”  However, she was successful, so she could call the shots, get the creator of the show fired for “creative differences.”  In reality she couldn’t bear to share credit with anyone.  She had already disowned her parents, and eventually she divorced the husband who wrote much of her stand-up act and discarded her sister who also worked with her.  Final global awareness of her despicableness didn’t happen until 2018, after numerous controversies.  Her racist comments were the final straw.  Does that indicate that narcissism and racial animus are evil? 

President George Bush talked about the “Axis of Evil” referring to Iran, Iraq & North Korea in his State of the Union address in 2002.  This was a response to the 9/11 attacks and terrorism perpetrated against the U.S.  So, terrorism is evil.  My cousins’ daughter-in-law is Ukrainian and makes no bones about her opinion that Putin is evil.  Such bald-faced aggression must be evil.

Evil is self-serving, bullying, hating and terrorizing.  I believe that the psalmist wants me to stand against those who are described this way. 

But what about those who are desperate, frightened, underserved,  and under-represented because of their gender, skin color or immigration status.  Are they the evil we are meant to hate?  I don’t believe so.  I will not waste another moment hating any person or group because they are different or desperate.  These are victims, not victimizers.  They require our compassion.  Jesus says we are to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”  As I wish to be listened to, respected, and loved, Jesus says I must do the same for others.  It’s the one command that includes all other commands.  And right now, it is counter-cultural for many who say that they follow Jesus. 

Back to Burt Bacharach.  He once said that his favorite of his songs written with Hal David was “Alfie,” because of these lyrics:
     “If life belongs only to the strong, Alfie,
      what will you lend on an old golden rule?
      As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above, Alfie,
      I know there’s something much more,
      something even non-believers can believe in.
      I believe in love…when you walk let your heart lead the way,
      and you’ll find love any day.”

Amen?

Love, Liz 

“This is love:  not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  1 John 4:10  (emphasis mine)