“ . . . I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment.”

This morning I'll attend a meeting of our neighborhood homeowners association where there will be lively and heated discussion of some contentious issues.

Some homeowners are not keeping up their property according to the standards set forth in our by-laws and their neighbors want to force them to do so. Another group wants to upgrade the common grounds, install new landscaping and new mail boxes. Others argue it isn't in the budget. Some complain about bike riders on the walking paths; their parents say,"kids will be kids." And so it goes. It has reached the point where neighbors aren't talking to one another.

Of course, our situation isn't unique. We have friends in a high rise condominium, who ride the elevator with people they aren't speaking to. Our daughter lives in a townhouse development where lawyers are going door-to-door with lawsuits. As the comic strip character "Pogo" said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

When Jesus spoke about loving your enemies, He wasn't just talking about opposing armies or political parties. He was talking about anyone who, at the moment, does not see eye-to-eye with us.

When I Googled the words "enemy" and "neighbor," I got more than twice as many hits on "enemy." It seems that a lot of people are walking around with chips on their shoulders just looking for trouble. It might be a cantankerous neighbor, a business competitor, a co-worker, or someone who takes an instant dislike to you because of the color of your skin, your nationality or the way you talk and dress.

You don't always get to choose your enemies, but you do get to choose how you will respond to them.

Jesus didn't say we're supposed to "like" our enemies; He said we are to "love" them. Considering how some of them mistreat us, that would seem next to impossible were it not for something else Jesus said:

"Pray for those who persecute you."

The transforming power of prayer changes everything. When we hold our enemy up in prayer, it  changes us and it changes them. The very act of praying for them leads us on a search for common ground.

Consider how Abraham Lincoln reacted to the vitriolic, mendacious attacks of his great political  enemy,  Edwin Stanton, a man who had traveled the country mocking him. After being elected President, one of Lincoln's first acts was to appoint Stanton Secretary of War. Lincoln's dumb-founded advisers challenged the President, reminding him that Stanton was his bitter enemy. Lincoln responded by simply saying:

"Am I not destroying my enemies, when I make them my friends?"

After Lincoln was assassinated, Stanton rose at his funeral to deliver a moving eulogy in which he expressed the greatness of his former adversary by saying, "Now he belongs to the ages."

I'm off to the meeting of the homeowners association.