Boys day out in Brunswick today and Will and I had two goals: acquisition of plumbing hardware ☑️ and wading through MLK Jr’s sermon “Loving Your Enemies,” delivered at the Detroit Council of Churches’ noon Lenten services. ☑️

No matter which side of whichever aisle you find yourself on, or if maybe you’re like me and don’t feel like you’re even in the same room as anyone else — many different things will be said at many different times, many of them very important, but none more perpetually relevant and requisite for us all than these “words lifted to cosmic proportions,” a command that is “an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization”: love your enemies.

And I submit to you that the first way that one can go about loving his enemy neighbor is to develop the capacity to forgive.

The other thing that we must do in order to love the enemy neighbor is this: we must seek at all times to win his friendship and understanding rather than to defeat him or humiliate him. There may come a time when it will be possible for you to humiliate your worst enemy or even to defeat him, but in order to love the enemy you must not do it. For in the final analysis, love means understanding goodwill for all men and a refusal to defeat any individual. And so somehow love makes it possible for you to place your vision and to center your activity on the evil system and not the individual enemy who may be caught up in that system. […]

And I think this is what Jesus means when he says, “Love your enemies.” And I’m so happy he didn’t say, “Like your enemies,” because it’s kind of difficult to like some people. Like is sentimental; like is an affectionate sort of thing. And you can’t like anybody who’s bombing your home and threatening your children. It’s hard to like a senator who’s spending all of his time in Washington standing against all of the legislation that will make for better relationships and that will make for brotherhood. It’s difficult to like them. But Jesus says, “Love them,” and love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive, creative goodwill for all men. And so Jesus was expressing something very creative when he said, “Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Pray for them that despitefully use you.” […]

And only by doing this are you able to transform the jangling discords of society into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and understanding. […]

And this is the meaning of the cross as we move toward Easter. It is not just a meaningless drama taking place on the stage of history, but it is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity and see the love of God breaking forth into time. It is an eternal reminder to a power-drunk generation… Love is the only answer. And so this morning, as I look into your eyes, as I lift my eyes beyond you and look into the eyes of the peoples of the world, I love you. I would rather die than hate you. And I believe that my spirit can meet your spirit, and your spirit, through this process, will meet my spirit; and through this collision of spirits, the kingdom of God will finally emerge.