This is a continuation of our favorites series as we prepare to close our ministry. For the children's sermon I told the story of the cracked pot.
The first reading was Genesis 45:3-11, 15.
The holy gospel according to Luke (6:27-38).
Jesus
said:
27“But
I say to you that listen,
Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you,
28bless those who curse you,
pray for those who abuse you.
29If
anyone strikes you on the cheek,
offer
the other also;
and
from anyone who takes away your coat
do
not withhold even your shirt.
30Give
to everyone who begs from you;
and
if anyone takes away your goods,
do not ask for them again.
31Do to others as you would
have them do to you.
32“If
you love those who love you,
what
credit is that to you?
For
even sinners love those who love them.
33If
you do good to those who do good to you,
what
credit is that to you?
For
even sinners do the same.
34If
you lend to those from whom you hope to receive,
what
credit is that to you?
Even
sinners lend to sinners,
to
receive as much again.
35But
love your enemies,
do good,
and
lend,
expecting nothing in return.
Your
reward will be great,
and
you will be children of the Most High,
who is kind to the ungrateful and the
wicked.
36Be merciful,
just
as your Father is merciful.
37“Do not judge,
and
you will not be judged;
do not condemn,
and
you will not be condemned.
Forgive,
and
you will be forgiven;
38give,
and
it will be given to you.
A
good measure,
pressed
down,
shaken
together,
running over,
will
be put into your lap;
for the measure you give
will
be the measure you get back.”
The gospel of the Lord.
-----
“Love your enemies.
Do good. Bless. Pray for. Offer another cheek, another coat. Expect nothing.
Be merciful. Do not
judge. Do not condemn. Forgive. Give.”
Jesus, it seems, is full of instructions today. Some easier than others. Some more reasonable than others. If I were in the habit of giving “how
to” sermons or instructions for being “properly Christian,” this would be about
as easy as it comes today. But
there is not much grace in that.
There is not much assurance or proclamation of the Good News of God’s endless
unconditional love for you and for me.
The Good News that I am a bit more desperate for these
days. Good News I need as the
world still feels chaotic and unsafe, as predominately black churches continue
to burn, as people with guns take the lives of those who choose to serve our
country. Good News as our closing
worship is now less than a month away.
Because the thing I’ve come to realize and the real reason I
love to preach, which may not always be clear even to me, is that I am
desperate for the Good News of God’s grace, desperate to be pulled beyond
myself into something bigger than my little place in this corner of the world.
If that is what we need, that Good News of Why God is in the
world, then we are in luck. That
is really what Jesus is getting at this week. These different exhortations and calls to action are not
to-do lists, but life lived beyond ourselves, reliant on a God who is bigger
than our to-do lists and wish lists.
These sayings, from “love your enemies” to “turn the other
cheek” to “do to others as you would have them do to you” open us to something
bigger than ourselves. It is way
too easy to get pulled into ourselves, holding a grudge, withholding
forgiveness because of the hurt and the pain that we still feel.
But God is bigger than that. God is bigger than the fear, the hatred, and the pain that
can build up walls around us and keep us from being open and vulnerable with
others, that can push us to run away or to dig in for a fight instead of
following Jesus’ third way of loving engagement.
These counterintuitive, wacky exhortations pull us toward
that. They pull us into a
community of faith where we are not alone. Where we can be hurt and can still continue to learn
compassion and empathy. Where we
can pray for those who are so broken that they abuse others, where we can love,
and mourn every death from Osama bin Laden to Norm Kettner to Sandra Bland, who
died while in police custody in Texas.
Turning the other cheek is not about being a doormat. In Jesus’ time, if you hit someone with
the back of your right hand on their right cheek, it was an insult, it
reinforced their inferiority to you, like a slave. When you hit someone on the left cheek, it was a sign of
equality. So, turning the other
cheek meant shifting the slap or the hit from insult to equality and it made
clear the imbalance of power creating the opportunity for change and repentance
in offering the other cheek.[1]
If Jesus were speaking these today, perhaps he would say,
“when fighting with family, remember the power of tickling.” “when your
congregation is closing, dig into your faith in the time that you have
together.” “When reading comments on KSL, engage with love and prayer.” “when
the ku klux klan holds a protest, bring your sousaphone.”
That is what one man did to challenge their hatred. As the KKK marched in protest of
removing a symbol of hatred and racism, this man on his tuba-like instrument
played Ride of the Valkyries, the
score for the White Supremacist film, Birth
of a Nation, exposing the foolishness of the KKK’s hatred and racism. And it fits! It is a creative way of challenging the hatred, pain, and
anger that can easily consume us.
That is what God is all about.
God finds creative ways to bring about good, to turn the tables on those
who oppress others, to create a third way.
That is how God brings us outside ourselves. It is God’s third way. Neither fleeing from conflict, from
abuse, pain, or anger, nor reacting impulsively to it. It is engaging it in love. That is how God brings a new reign, a
new dominion to earth.
Creatively.
Engaging in new ways, responding in creative love rather than reacting
out of pain.
We’re not fundamentally changing who we are or what we do to
follow a new list of the how-to’s of being a “good Christian.” God is the one who is already claiming
us, who is already at work. As in
today’s reading from Genesis, what Joseph’s brothers intended for harm—mainly
selling him into slavery—God managed to use for good. Not that God causes the harm, but that God can work even
through our brokenness, even through the cracks in our water pots and in our
lives.
Nothing is too big or too bad or too painful for God to
handle, because God is in that too.
God, in Jesus, comes into our hurt and pain and brokenness and takes it
onto himself, onto the cross—with us
in suffering.
God brings creative, new life even out of ways that lead to
death. Jesus spends his life
bringing new life, restoring community, responding creatively to the powers of
evil and oppression at work in the world.
Ultimately he responds even to death—the worst death, by
crucifixion—with creative new life.
He doesn’t raise up an army to fight the Roman occupiers, nor does he
give in to the inevitability of oppression. He takes the third way, proving once and for all that death
is no longer the final word. God
is. And in God there is life and
love and a creativity that pulls us out into the world. God pulls us into considering how another
might want to be treated, into loving even the unlovable, into new ways of
being in the world, and into community in love.
Thanks be to God.
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