Violence is rooted in hatred. The writer of first John claimed that hatred is tantamount to murder. While that may seem like an exaggeration, perhaps it’s not so far off target. Violence grows in the soil of hatred. Blood from hundreds of murders stains every hour of every day in this country and around the world. When given a weapon under the right circumstance, hate kills. Several weeks ago I heard Judy Shephard speak in Shoreline. Judy’s the mother of Matthew Shephard. Matthew was a college student who was beaten and left to die strapped to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming about four years ago. Matthew’s mother spoke briefly about the two men who murdered her son because he was gay. She said that somewhere, her son’s murderers learned that it’s okay to hate. Somewhere they learned that it’s okay to beat another human being to death, if that person’s gay. They didn’t learn the pricelessness of every human life. They didn’t learn respect for those who they don’t understand or agree with. Matthew Shephard’s murderers learned hatred, and at just the wrong moment, under just the wrong circumstances, their hatred was born out in the murder of another human being. Hatred breeds violence, and violence is an obscenity that ought to turn our stomachs and shock us every time we encounter it. We’ve grown callous, though. We’ve grown accustomed to violence. We accept the inevitability of threats and murder. Video games are marketed to children and youth where players virtually beat each other to death and rip out their opponents’ hearts. Violent images in our television dramas and movies numb us to the violent images we see in the news and on our streets. In video games, on television, and in the movies, violence is artificially separated from hatred. Most of the time we see violence out of context, without the hatred behind it. We lose sight of the connection between the hatred and bigotry and intolerance that we’ve grown to take for granted and the acts of violence spring from them. But hatred isn’t some cerebral inclination. It’s not some internal emotion without shape and form. Hatred is an action, and it takes the shape of violence, abuse, active oppression and murder. Any moment that we indulge hatred, whenever we acquiesce to the presence of bigotry, every time we hear a hateful joke or hateful threats, we’re witnessing an act of violence that will too often grow into physical violence, explicit abuse, and open oppression.

The antidote to hatred is the disciplined exercise of love. Love is an action, too. Love is embodied and practiced, and in our practice of love we undermine the power of hatred. Our calling to love one another isn’t just an appeal for us to emote. Christ’s commandment to love one another has never been a call to sit complacently with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The antidote to hatred is love expressed in action. The Cotton Patch version of the eighteenth verse of 1 John chapter 3 puts it this way, “My little ones, let’s not talk about love. Let’s not just sing about love. Let’s put love into action and make it real.” We must not despair in the face of the hatred outside our doors every day. We must not try to insulate ourselves from the bitterness and brokenness in the world all around us. Love calls us to action. In the face of violence and hatred, feed someone who’s hungry. Comfort someone who’s lonely. Let’s not just talk about love. Let’s put it into action and make it real. When hatred creeps inside the walls of our homes, our schools, our workplaces or our church, give of your time and resources that a homeless person can find shelter. Stand up side by side with someone who’s being bullied. Let’s not just sing about love on a Sunday morning sitting in our pews. Let’s put it into action and make it real. Whenever we find ourselves despised or disregarded, whenever we’re tempted to shout back and fight back and meet hatred with hatred, instead, turn to a neighbor who’s in need, and lend a hand. Advocate and lobby and vote on behalf of children, the poor, and the marginalized. Let’s not just talk about love. Let’s not just sing about it. Let’s put it into action and make it real. And when we put love into action, don’t be surprised if we find more hatred pointed our direction. Because there are so many people in the world who live without love in their lives. And too often, they jealously lash out against expressions of loving acceptance because they haven’t learned to accept the gift of love for themselves. People who live for very long in the absence of love, under the threat of punishment, who know only violence and condemnation, those folks often encounter love and can’t believe it’s true. Love feels too risky to believe in, too uncertain to count on, and their anger and hatred lash out against what they can’t believe can be true in their own lives. When faced with hatred, don’t stick around for abuse or violence to be heaped upon you. But turn to a person who’s in need of what you can give, and extend the love of God. In the end, hatred won’t stand a chance, if our love for one another is true and lasting. Love casts out all fear. Love conquers all hate. On the street, at school, at work, in all of the places where human need can be met with love or indifference: exercise love.

When we love one another, we’re already participating in God’s abundant life. When we exercise love toward others, we get a taste of God’s promise of peace and reconciliation. By responding to hatred through the exercise of love, we choose the path of life and reject the way that leads only to death. Hatred within or hatred without should only serve to remind us that we’re a community called to love one another. Whenever we stand in the midst of hatred, the witness of our love shines forth that much brighter. This day and all days, let’s not just talk about love. Let’s not just sing about it. Let’s put love into action and make it real. May God who gives us the will to do these things also grant us the grace and the strength to do them. Amen.