Lord, I’m a bit confused – you know that song

‘They’ll know we are Christians by our love’?

I just don’t think it’s true

I know all that stuff that Jesus said

About not judging others, about turning the other check

About forgiving others seven times seventy

About loving your neighbour as yourself

– even loving your enemies

But it doesn’t seem to cut much ice

With too many religious people round here

The two Christian communities in Ireland have spent

The last thirty years and more fighting each other

Where’s the love in that

Even now when the fighting seems to have ended

There’s as much hate and fear as there ever was before

And do you know what’s the most disturbing thing?

The most judgmental voices – full of hate and anger

Seem to come from some of the most apparently religious people

Who see you as a vengeful God of wrath

On their side to defeat their enemies

And historically Christians don’t seem to have done much better

Not only fighting against other faiths

But engaging in terrible, wars in the name of one Christian

Denomination or another, we don’t seem to have moved too much

Forward over two thousand years

We need to hear again, the radical voice of Jesus

Calling us to give up aspirations of power, wealth and military might

To love each other selflessly to live with integrity

To forgive unconditionally

To increasingly work for truth, justice and beauty

Perhaps if we do that we will in the end be able to sing in humility

“They will know we are Christians by our love”.