Face-to-face with Satan

I dreamed I was face-to-face with Satan. It was not a frightening meeting, I felt no sense of evil. It seemed he was simply a man of ordinary features. The extraordinary thing is that I was telling him that I loved him for Jesus’ sake. As I dreamed, my mind/subconscious/nondream-self thought, ‘This is amazing! Who has ever imagined offering the love of God to Satan?

[Robert De Niro in 'Angel Heart', 1987]

In a later point in the dream I was attacked by his body-guard thugs, and tried to fight them off. The dream ended when Kathy told to me to stop, and I awoke to find myself grasping her leg in my hands.

The dream has stayed with me, goading me with the question, just ‘how far can “love your enemies” go?’. 

I don’t suggest that I am the only one who has ever contemplated offering the love of Christ to the Devil. And I admit my subconscious/nondream-self was a bit proud for saying it. But the question niggles: could anyone actually love the Accuser/Slanderer/Evil One? Can he (assuming the masculine form of the name refers to a ‘he’) be moved by love? 

Can love save Satan?

Let me be clear, I am whole-heartedly committed to the central command of the gospel, ‘love your neighbour’, which Jesus clarified to include ‘love your enemy’. I have probably preached dozens of sermons on the point. And I know I am only one of a host of followers of Jesus over the centuries for whom the call to love has been taken seriously. Having said this, even as I hear myself affirm it, I ask myself, ‘What does this sort of love look like? How do I live out such love?’

I am not likely to be tested personally by the Satan on this point. But his minions, local incarnate versions of their Master, are a problem. The second part of the dream is cautionary. The decision to love with the love of Christ does not mean the Evil One will act any differently. Such love does not promise immunity from getting beat up.

 

Here I want to speak to followers of Jesus of all persuasions. We talk a lot about love, but seldom talk about how to love. 

I offer an illustration from the old classic TV programme MASH [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M*A*S*H_(TV_series)]. When it was running in the 70s it was clearly a liberal comment on the ongoing Viet Nam war, but in its perpetual re-run form has become a nostalgic favourite even of conservatives. But, it has become for me the paradigm of liberal/progressive love—Hawkeye and Pierce loved their enemy when that took the form of the North Korean or Chinese Communist patient under their care; but they were unable to love the hyper-patriotic fellow officer who lived in the same tent. That is to say, they could love all humankind in general, but not in the specific.

On the other hand, I think of the open-hearted and generous Christians of my denominational family. My father was a lovely example of this. He could be caustically dismissive of the cultural matters of the day—hippies, drug-takers, sexually permissive, etc—but when he met a person from any of those categories, he would see them only as someone to love. He was very good at love in the particular. That is to say, conservatives can love in the particular, but are not so good at humankind in general.

Here is my challenge to my brothers and sisters in Christ in these polarized and contentious days: To those on ‘the left’, how do you put your all-inclusive love into practice when those who you include do not include you? To those on ‘the right’, why is it that I don’t see calls to love from you, but much condemnation of the other even though you would give all you have to help your neighbour in need?

Love of enemies is not easy. The people I struggle with at the moment include Donald Trump and those who blindly support him. I fully believe his election as president would be a catastrophe for the US and the world. A Harris presidency might be an irritant, but not apocalyptic. For me, I have to figure out how Christ’s love in me can act in love for Trump.

 

So, this is how I plan to address issues of the coming American election. In the next weeks I will focus on ‘the Gospel’, the good news of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. I wish to address political issues by looking at whether they are gospel-friendly. The task is how to fulfil the royal command of love in what I write and say. And I invite you to join me in a conversation. Disagree with what I write, even vehemently—but as you do, show the love of Christ to me.

My expectation is that few will have read this far, and those who do will be those who know me and (possibly) love me already.

On reading the times: right-wing riots and ordinary people.

Last week a niece in the US described her recent road trip across America. I was taken by this part:

‘I love a good long road trip, especially in the midst of elections. It’s not nearly as polarized when you get in there. I mean, it’s not great and I know who I’m voting for, that’s easy. But mostly, people are kind. I believe most want to be nice, thoughtful and take care of each other. Gas station clerks especially-not just in Montana, but also Ohio, and on the dang Penn turnpike when my card thought I was fraud while 58 people waited in line- the guy said, “oh man, I see this all the time. It’s on us. All good.” and the sweet lady that calls everyone “honey” in Omaha, they should make all the decisions. 

This is why we take the trip every single year-it is a reset button and it never fails to do its job. People are good and we keep being kind.’

Today I went out to get pastries for our Sunday brunch, and decided to take the long-way round (it adds about a mile). I never know what and who I might meet. A few days ago I experienced another first for my life in London, being offered some weed by a young teenager on a BMX bicycle. The weather today continued a spell of sun and warmth, with people out walking their dogs; young parents with their children at the play-ground; young people at tennis, and cricket practice; street-side tables in front of coffee shops all full. Peaceful scenes, and accompanied by bird-song. Really, at one point I found myself standing between the two sides of a blackbird conversation. This doesn’t feel like civil war.

Go take a walk!

Turning one corner I nearly walked into two people—I assume the people were grandmother and grandson walking their d
og—in the midst of conversation. The South London gran was speaking, ‘People have got to be kind. What’s the point of life if you aren’t kind? You gotta reach out…’.

Just what my beloved niece said! People need to go outside and talk to people. It is not as dark out there as many would have us believe.

 

I am reminded of the story in The Lord of the Rings when Gandalf the White comes to the Golden Hall of King Théoden of Rohan. The king sits in shadows, the fire burning as though in Winter, ‘so bent with age he seemed almost a dwarf’. Learning news only through the filter of his chief adviser, called Wormtongue by all around him, he is prematurely aged by the evil tidings of death and doom that was all he heard of. And Wormtongue offers nothing but ‘twisted tales and crooked promptings’. Gandalf strikes the man down with a roll of thunder, and brings the king outside. A shaft of sun stabs through distant storm clouds. Seeing the light shimmering through showers and on the river, Théoden remarks, ‘It is not so dark here!’

For too long, too many have spent too much time in darkened rooms before flickering screens listening to the twisted tales and crooked promptings of online influencers who would tell us that everything is failing and doomed; that it is all because of people of other politics (or race and faith); and that the response must be anger and outrage.

Go take a walk!