Radical Love: An Ash Wednesday Reflection
Steven Joseph John Bruening, Ruling Elder, Mt Washington Presbyterian

Friends, as we enter this holy season of Lent, many of us are thinking about what we should give up. While most people choose to fast from things like sweets or social media, I feel a deep calling to give up something much heavier and more complex. I am letting go of the misguided idea that my identity as a follower of Jesus the Christ somehow exempts me from the rules of our society that threaten my “status quo” as a Christian.

There is a loud message circulating today that suggests being a Christian gives us a “pass” to ignore civil policies or demand legal exemptions that allow us to treat others with anything less than total love. I am choosing to fast from that spirit of entitlement. I am giving up the notion that my faith allows me to demand accommodations that lead to discrimination against others.

We often talk about religious freedom, but we must ask if we are seeking the freedom to serve or simply the power to control. If my “freedom” requires me to use political force to exclude others or spread messages of hate, then I have wandered very far from the path of the Cross.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13:10 that “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” This means that if my actions or my demands for special treatment cause harm or exclusion to another human being, I am not actually fulfilling the law of God.

This Lent, I am re-committing to the radical way of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus did not call us to lobby for the power to coerce others into belief. He called us to be a light that sits on a hill for all to see. He taught us that our witness is found in our character and our sacrifice, not in our ability to dominate the culture through legal loopholes.

I am choosing to focus on imitating the life of Jesus, the Christ. This means I want to live my life as an imitation of his (external imitation as opposed to an internal imitation as proposed by Thomas à Kempis in his devotional De Imitatione Christi).  Jesus never used the state nor personal power to force his will or teachings on people. He did not seek out legal ways to avoid the marginalized. Instead, he leaned into the lives of the outcasts and the strangers, sometimes defying, breaking and reinterpreting Judaic Law when the Law fell short of the Kingdom.

Dorothy Day once said that “The Gospel takes away our right to forever discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.” I believe this sentiment applies to every neighbor we meet, whether they are an immigrant seeking safety, a student in a public school who does not share my specific doctrine or the LGBTQ+ persons being erased, especially those standing outside our churches seeking love and grace but being met with hate and condemnation in the name Jesus.

In the Gospel of Matthew 25:40, Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for and, more specifically, TO him. For when we hate the “least of these” we hate Jesus, when we condemn, we condemn Jesus, when we exclude, we place Jesus at the gates weeping for love and grace. When we use political force or exclusion to protect our own interests, we are turning our backs on the very person we claim to follow.

My goal this season is to stop trying to force my biblical beliefs on the world through coercion. Instead, I want to embody the life of Jesus so clearly that my actions speak louder than any law ever could. I want to live in a way that witnesses to the world through my kindness, my hospitality, and my unwavering love for every person I encounter that I am a follower of Jesus, the Christ.

I encourage you to join me in laying down the weapons of political force and, in its place, living the Sermon on the Mount and genuinely imitating the life of Jesus.

May this Lent be a time where we are known for our radically generous love and grace rather than our exclusionary hate and demands for special treatment. Amen.