Grand Theft Auto 3. Super Smash Brothers Melee. Metal Gear Solid 2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.

Do these titles mean a thing to you?

How about Madden NFL 2002? Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? Or Halo, Pokemon Crystal, and Super Mario Advance?

These are all video games -- best-selling video games. Part of an industry that rakes in over $10 billion a year.

This is big business.

Unfortunately, the industry is now being infiltrated by people who love to hate. Some brand-new titles hitting screens across the country are Ethnic Cleansing, Shoot the Blacks, and Concentration Camp Rat Hunt. The objectives of these objectionable games are predictably similar -- to kill as many non-whites, Jews and other minority groups as possible.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, hate groups are increasingly using racist and anti-Semitic computer games to recruit young people. These so-called "white-power games," which can be bought or downloaded online, use modern technology to seduce young game-players into bigotry, prejudice and anti-Semitism.

One of these games, Ethnic Cleansing, is being promoted as "the most politically incorrect video game ever made." According to Wired Magazine, it takes place in an urban setting where the protagonist kills Blacks and Latinos on city streets before descending into a subway to slay Jews. Racist rock music, with hate-filled lyrics, blares on the soundtrack. Do you know when the game was first released?

January 21. Martin Luther King Day.

This is high-tech hatred.

(Julia Scheeres, "Games Elevate Hate to Next Level," Wired News, February 20, 2002, www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50523,00.html)

There is certainly no room for games like these among players who have a passion for Jesus Christ. When Jesus found himself in the middle of a heated controversy in first-century Jerusalem, he offered a stunningly simple response to a very tricky question, an absolutely brilliant answer that served to silence a group of people who were trying to play games with him.

"Which commandment in the law," asked a theologically-sophisticated lawyer, "is the greatest?" Jesus knew that the religious leaders had counted no less than 613 commands in the law of God -- 248 positive commands, linked to the number of parts of the body, and 365 negative commands, corresponding to the days of the year. Which single commandment could possibly be the greatest? He also understood that he would be stepping on a theological landmine if he elevated one commandment above another, or if he declared that one category, such as "moral law," was more important than another category, such as "ceremonial law."

So what did Jesus say?

"Love."

Yes, that's right: Love.

Stunningly simple. Absolutely brilliant.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind," he reminded them, quoting a line from Deuteronomy. "This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:36-40).

Love is the key for Jesus. It's the key for interpreting everything that God has revealed to us, not only in the law, but in the prophets. Instead of high-tech hatred, Jesus offers us low-tech love.

So why aren't we playing this game with passion?

The problem with love is that it's a tough game to master, much more difficult than Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. Hatred comes easily to us -- it's almost a reflex action. Hatred between Israelis and Palestinians? No problem. Between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland? Simple. Between Neo-Nazis and minority groups? Natural. Between Americans and Al Queda? That's a no-brainer. Bring on the smart bombs.

High-tech hatred is easy, you see, but low-tech love is an enormous challenge. What makes it even trickier is that Jesus commands us to love not only our neighbors, but also our enemies. "You have heard that it was said," says Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, "'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (5:43-45).

Think about it. If you love those who love you, what's the big deal? Don't even members of hate groups do the same? A Neo-Nazi can sit around playing Ethnic Cleansing all day, blowing away legions of virtual minorities, and then go give his dear, sweet mother a big, affectionate kiss. What makes the followers of Jesus distinctive is that they love not only their friends but also their enemies, and they pray precisely for those who persecute them.

It's hard to imagine anything tougher.

Why is this? Why does hatred come so easily, and love remain so elusive? We might agree with Mary J. Blige when she sings "Don't need no hate-eration, holler-ation" … but we don't know quite how to move from being haters to lovers. Certainly most of us -- probably ALL of us -- are going to refuse to allow bigoted, violence-filled video games into our living rooms. They are offensive, outrageously offensive. But even though we recoil at the thought of blowing people away, we are still a long way from loving them.

There are just so many barriers to the kind of love that Jesus commands us to practice. Self-interest keeps us from loving others, because we fear that another person's advantage will create a disadvantage for ourselves. Inconvenience prevents us from reaching out, because we are so resistant to leaving our own cultural, political, racial, and political comfort zones. Distrust is a big barrier as well -- we fear that if we lower our defenses, we'll be attacked.

On top of this, we are often held back by our fundamental dislike of certain people, by our disapproval of their hairstyles, clothes, music, food, work habits, attitudes and accents. Some Presbyterians have a misguided sense that religious purity would be threatened if we loved gays, for example, or Muslims. Another barrier is a simple lack of personal interest -- many of us simply couldn't care less about people across the street, or around the world. Another obstacle to love of neighbor is fear: We fear that we will be rejected, that we will offend, that we will be imposed upon, that we will be endlessly obligated.

Left to our own personal preferences, we would never leap these barriers and obey the love commandment.

Fortunately, Jesus never leaves us alone. He makes it very clear that the command to love God -- which is really quite easy and natural for us to do -- can never be separated from the much tougher command to love our neighbors. We cannot first love God, and then, when we get really good at loving, take on the challenge of loving people around us. To love God is identical to loving one's neighbor -- they are as inseparable as the vertical and horizontal beams of the cross. "On these two commandments," says Jesus, "hang all the law and the prophets."

This unity is what makes love of neighbor possible, because it links our human relationships to our relationship with God. Loving others is not just a nice and noble and enlightened thing to do, but it is, instead, an integral part of our spiritual growth, a component of our relationship with Christ, and an aspect of our everlasting salvation. When we love a neighbor, we not only fulfill the Great Commandment but we act as a channel for God … we experience a truly indescribable joy … and we discover the very meaning of human existence. Best of all, we confront our Lord Jesus in a powerful, profound and personal way.

Jesus promises to meet us, after all, in one particular place: In our needy neighbors. At the last judgment, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, all the nations will be gathered before him, and all the people of the world will be divided into sheep and goats. The good sheep will be invited into the kingdom of God for one reason, and one reason only: They were the ones who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited the prisoner.

And, most amazing of all, when the good sheep served their neighbors, they were really -- surprise, surprise -- serving Jesus himself (Matthew 25:31-40). When they fed a homeless woman, they were feeding Jesus. When they gave a cup of water to an immigrant groundskeeper, they were refreshing Jesus. When they welcomed a stranger of a different race to worship, they were welcoming Jesus. When they purchased clothes for the Children of Chernobyl, they were clothing Jesus. When they cared for an AIDS patient, they were caring for Jesus. When they visited inmates in the county jail, they were visiting Jesus.

To love one's neighbor is to love Jesus Christ. Nothing more, nothing less. They are exactly the same, and as inseparable as the beams of the cross.

In a world of high-tech hatred, this is the only game to play. Amen.