“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…” (Luke 6:27)
If you’re at all familiar with the church I pastor, you probably know we’ve run a few ad campaigns where we claim to love two seemingly opposite groups. We’ve kept basically the same pairs every time: We love gay/straight people. We love tattoos/suits. We love doubters/believers. We love Democrats/Republicans. The only variation depends on the sports season. We’ve loved Sox/Cubs and Packers fans/Bears fans.
Numerous people have told us that the ads caught their attention on the train, which is why we keep running them. Our newest campaign is launching this week and (because social-media savvy people say we should do this) we added a hashtag to the ads: #uvcbiglove. We’re encouraging people to add their own groupings like, “We love peanut butter/we love jelly” or “We love Rogers Park/we love Englewood.” (Type in that hashtag on Twitter to see what else we’ve come up with). It’s been fun to think of creative pairings, but it doesn’t take long before you start thinking of a duo and wonder, do I mean this? During our staff meeting on Tuesday, I mentioned, “We love Rahm Emanuel/We love Karen Lewis.” There was silence. Emanuel is the mayor of Chicago. Karen Lewis is the president of the Chicago Teachers Union and is considering running against him in the next election. Safe to say, there is no love lost between these two. Is it possible to love two people who are at opposite ends of the spectrum?
That kind of love has to be more than a cute catchphrase. It is truly a love that can only be God-given. But if following Jesus is supposed to mean anything, is supposed to stand out in this polarized society, it means, that, yes, we are called to love. Sometimes that love must confront and sometimes that love is gritty, grimy, and unpleasant. When we follow One who was willing to love like that, though, we have no other choice.