enemies are important people

HOW SHALL WE DEFEAT THE ENEMY?

How shall we defeat The Enemy>

We shall defeat The Enemy by making alliances.

Who shall we make alliances with?

With people in whose interests it is to be enemies with The Enemy.

How shall we win an alliance with these people?

We shall win an alliance with these people by giving them money and arms.

And after that?

They will help us defeat The Enemy.

Has The Enemy got money and arms?

Yes.

How did The Enemy get money and arms?

He was once someone in whose interests it was, to be enemies with our enemy.

Which enemy was this?

Someone in whose interests it had once been, to be enemies of an enemy.

Michael Rosen, 2001. (Writer of Chidren’s Poetry)

The logic is impeccable – it is the opaque logic of self-interest, of fluid loyalties and cynical alliances. The depersonalised abstraction dominating the consciousness, throughout the poem, is ‘The Enemy’. And ‘The Enemy’ is identified with upper case, definite article, certainty and finality. No possibility that we are mistaken then, no recognition that there might be another possibility – of reconciliation, of peace, of friendship.

So this poem with ironic wit and relentless rationality exposes the closed mind that hardens hate into a categorical imperative. Few terms are more depersonalising than that two word abstraction, ‘The Enemy’. It’s when we depersonalise human beings, that we move into the realm of the morally, politically, pragmatically justifiable attack.

Now as a Christ follower I happen to believe that my enemies are important people. So important that Jesus used personal pronouns when he spoke about them – he never objectified people as ”The Enemy’. They are people, like me, subjects capable of response, human beings with the same possibilities of change as me, and even if they don’t or won’t cease being my enemy, they are still not a disposable abstraction called ‘The Enemy’. So Jesus makes enmity personal, and in some of his most demanding yet grace-filled words, he rehumanises enmity and helps us recover our perspective, the human perspective originating from the divine perspective! And he does so by using the personal pronoun, second person, possessive – your enemy belongs to you, and is therefore your responsibility. How scary is that?

Matt 5.44, But I say to you, love your enemies…..

Luke 6.35, Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you….

Rom.12.20 If your enemy is hungry feed him….. (Paul echoing the words of Jesus?)

Prayer

Lord may I recognise in my enemies,

your image,

their humanity,

my unknown friend.

Forgive all dehumanising abstractions,

that reduce personal humanity to impersonal hostility.

Forgive the willed blindness to the truth of ‘the other’;

open my eyes

to see their face

open my mouth

in the saying of their name,

open my arms

in welcome to their presence,

open my heart

in honouring their humanity.

In the name of Jesus the Lord

Who died rather than kill his enemies,

Amen.