Before I get to the Sermon on the Plain, part two, I want to get something off my chest. I was fully inspired to take the time to pray and study about Luke’s Gospel message to “love my neighbor” with an earnest and open heart after I read the Forward Day by Day for February 19th. The scripture passage in Psalm 109:12: Let his descendants be destroyed, and his name be blotted out in the next generation.
The daily reading went like this:
As unholy as I may sound, there’s almost nothing I love better than a good cursing psalm, and this one is my favorite. The combination of pettiness and venom married to prayer is so incredibly delicious that I feast on it time after time. On a good day, I see it as an extreme, almost slapstick adaptation of what I wish would happen to “meanies.” And on a bad day, when individuals or institutions choose evil that results in abuse, murder, and genocide, these words are affirmation that God understands human responses.
This psalm is an invitation to bring the deepest level of honesty and reality into God’s presence as an emotional release and spiritual cleansing. Pain and righteous anger get the blessing of divine witness, and my spirit gets ready for the work of loving those who hurt me and others. What freedom to not have to “fake it until we make it” in the work of loving enemies. God is present with us and allows us to be fully present in our emotional lives so that we can act in love, whether we’re feeling love or not.
Continuing from where Bryne left off last week preaching on Part One of Luke’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’, regarding who is blessed and who is cursed; today is Part Two of the same sermon now focused on loving our enemies. There is Part Three as well. The third part addresses the meaning of Christian compassion and generosity, integrity; and who is a true disciple. But the lectionary dropped the final part this year for Transfiguration Sunday, which is important also. So for the sake of completing the message here is Part Three in a nutshell: Be compassionate, don’t judge, be a learned teacher in Christ. And who is the true disciple? Jesus says that anyone who comes to Him, listens and learns, and actively builds a spiritual foundation and home in the kingdom of God is a disciple.
Ok, I stalled enough. It is time to address God’s call to love our enemies.
But before I do that it is worth addressing why Luke’s Gospel places Jesus “at a piece of level ground” (Luke 6:17), and not a hillside as portrayed in Matthew’s Gospel. This reflects Luke’s ongoing theme of Justice.
Luke intentionally places Jesus on l ground level with the diverse crowd of followers. This implies more than physical topography but rather a symbolic theological statement. For Luke, “Level Ground” speaks to human equality, humility and his overriding theme of fairness.
Ok, I stalled enough. It is time to address God’s call to love our enemies.
The same Jesus who compassionately preached about a world where the poor are blessed and woe to the wealthy is the same Jesus, who in His next breath, calls us into a world where we love our enemies. Sadly, this is an often-misinterpreted message. I know women who have stayed in abusive marriages because they believed this message was a call to be passive before the oppressor. We all know examples of people who don’t stand up for themselves, don’t speak their truths and allow abuse in the name of passive response to tyranny. In truth, this is a fear response, a trauma response, not a Christian call to love. It is no better than fighting back with violent action. Both responses are the opposite of God’s call to love our enemies. Jesus teaches us a third way. But it isn’t an easy road.
This is known by many as “Jesus’s But.”
But love your enemy, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. This falls on the heels of blessed are the poor and woe to those who have it all in this life. But it doesn’t end there. Because as Justo Gonzalez wrote, “Luke… wants to make clear that Christian love is not just a [passive] sentiment or a self-righteous feeling, but also an attitude leading to concrete action.”
According to conflict theory, which I realize more and more is Christian theology, advocates for a third way to actively respond to our enemies. loving our enemies is not passive, but a bold and meaningful action that levels the playing field. It is nonviolent resistance. Let me break that down.
Victimization: The first way to respond to a dangerous enemy is to submit. This is illustrated when slaves cast down their eyes in submission, dumbed themselves down and behaved and spoke as they were expected to behave and speak. This is not a love response but a fear response generated by exhaustion and a drive for human survival. Marginalized communities can each tell their stories of passive submission to the one who declares power over them. People get hurt.
Retaliation: The second response begins with an anger response that generates violence in the form of verbal or physical disputes or loud protest. When this form of pushback does not result in a fair outcome, heated energy accelerates toward violence, be it riots, terrorism or war. This is why fighting back doesn’t work. Soon the oppressed becomes the oppressor and everyone is sucked into the same angry and cruel vacuum. People get hurt.
Turn the other Cheek: The third way is Jesus’s but. It is not the easy way. Faith would be so much easier if Jesus had not said, “But I tell you, love your enemy”. The third way is guided by love. The third way is nonviolent resistance. The third way is putting work and action forward with the mission of leveling the playing field. The third way is both conservative and liberal. The third way is a reconceptualization of social democracy.
What does it mean to turn the other cheek? Here is an explanation. During the time Jesus spoke these words people did not use their left hands for anything except personal hygiene. They didn’t eat with their left hand, and they didn’t casually acknowledge friends or foes with their left hand. So, if your right cheek was slapped it would have been a slap from your foe’s right hand, likely backhanded. A slap was a violent gesture of dominance. So, if your foe backhands you on your right cheek with his right hand; what would happen if you turned your head to offer the left cheek? Well, your enemy would be forced to awkwardly try to slap your left cheek with his right hand, which would look and feel silly and strange. He could sock you in the face, but that is the gesture of a peer starting a fistfight with a peer. His purpose in slapping you was to embarrass you and to show dominance over you. When you offered your left cheek, you balanced the playing field. You counter-embarrassed and ungrounded him.
Now what about giving your shirt if your debtor demands your coat? Well, what if the debtor gives his coat as demanded, and his shirt, socks, shoes and underpants and stands before the creditor naked. The naked one is not the one shamed, but it is the one who took more than his share who receives the public shame.
Give what you can to others who ask for help. When someone steals from you, you acknowledge that you see them and what they are taking and then lovingly offer them more along with blessings and goodwill. Again, it evens out.
Then there is the Golden rule. All cultures and religions have a version of this law. It is so simple to follow when you know how you wish to be treated.
So, when a government leader, say a vice-president, makes a public statement to love your own family first before all else, well we can simply know he is wrong and not give it any more of our energy. For even sinners love their own families. Big deal. Robb Version wrote, “It is easy to love the people you like. It is much harder to love jerks, but I’m telling you to love jerks. Because there was a time you were a jerk and someone loved you”.
We also need to be aware that this is not transactional between ourselves and God. God creates the terms; we are called to live a certain kind of life. We have the privilege of living a more interesting life that requires us to act differently sometimes. But there is no quid pro quo.
To love our enemies is our calling card. It is how they will know we are Christian. We act rather than react. We are led by our core values handed to us by God. Fred Craddock wrote, “Christian behavior and relationships are prompted by the God we worship who does not react but acts in love and grace toward all. This is what it means to be children of God”.
Shifting to Genesis. Joseph was so loving and kind to his brothers even after their horrible betrayal of selling him into slavery. When he returned home, he seemed genuinely happy to see his brothers. He kissed them and openly forgave them. And they in turn came to Joseph and loved him back
So, what is the balance of justice and mercy and forgiveness?
First, I don’t know the whole answer to that question. But we do know that God’s justice is not the same as human retribution. When Jesus speaks of Justice it is the belief that each person is a beloved child of God and thus each is working to ensure equal and equitable ability to live an abundant life
Judgment on the other hand is viewing someone because of who they are or what they have done as less than a beloved child of God or unworthy of an abundant life. That is why we are called not to judge.
But not judging does not mean anything goes. We are also called into action to advocate for the poor, sick and oppressed. We do not stand back in the face of evil. This faith is a balancing act. We pray for leaders, even ones we see as evil. We use all the tools of nonviolent resistance, including litigation when necessary. As the National Episcopal Church joins in unity with the council of churches in suing the Trump administration for the rightful return to the religious freedom to provide sanctuary to those who need protection, we will not be passive, we will resist.
I admit that I struggle to pray for our current leadership, but what I learned this week is that when I pray for our current administration, I bring God into my battle. I am praying that God will open their hearts, resulting in less pain for people I care and worry about. When I pray for and love my enemies, I am, in that moment, washed of the anger that clouds my vision and perceptions. So, I can be stronger, bolder and better prepared for the challenges ahead. And by loving our enemies we can more clearly hear the God’s collective call to work together building his Kingdom.
When we pray for my enemies, we are part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Amen