Leveling Up on Love

Leveling Up On Love

November 10, 2024
Luke 6:27-38. Matthew 5:43-48

But I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.

If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them.

 Luke 6:27-32 (CEB)

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In Matthew’s telling of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).  Luke’s rendition shows us exactly what such love looks like in action.  Turn the other cheek, give freely without expecting anything in return, lend without expecting repayment, show compassion, don’t judge, forgive.” 

Two things I find particularly interesting here:

1. The editors of the Common English Translation title this section of Luke, “Behaving as God’s Children” in contrast to Matthew’s section header, “The Law of Love.”    It’s easy to talk about love in abstract terms, but Luke seems to realize how easy it is to separate what we call “love” from actual actions or behavior.  There are a lot of people who claim to love everyone while behaving in extremely unloving ways. 

2. It seems that Luke’s version of this command is used far more rarely than Matthew’s these days.  A lot of people want to call themselves “Christian” without being bogged down with the nuances of actually “behaving as God’s children.”  Many Christian groups are far more vocal in deciding who they think God’s enemies are and then declaring God’s wrath and judgment upon them.  Some even go to the extreme of seeing themselves as instruments of God’s judgment to condemn or punish the wicked.

In our world, “an eye for an eye” is much more popular than “turn the other cheek.”  Forgiveness and compassion are seen as weak.  And let’s not even talk about  the money issue, “lending without expecting to be paid back in full.”  Our economy thrives on exploiting people’s debt so they pay back far more than they ever borrowed, often over the course of a lifetime. 

Funny how the rules of our culture run so contrary to Jesus’ most basic teaching, and yet we see no conflict between calling oneself a Christian while behaving in greedy, hateful and judgmental ways toward others.  I wonder how many of the rules and laws we want to pass to keep our enemies (or political opponents) in line would be acceptable terms if similar laws were passed against us. 

Many Christians today have a persecution complex.  Despite having a lot more freedom than we realize and holding significant political power at every level, we tend to feel like everybody is out to get us… everybody is our enemy.  Even if that was true, which I do not believe, I wonder how our relationships with those “so-called” enemies might change if we behaved toward them the way Jesus taught and modeled for us. 

Maybe, just maybe, we would make a lot more friends.

Blessing Your Enemies

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Blessing Your Enemies
A God Who Weeps - Part 6
Sunday, October 9, 2022
Jeremiah 29:1-7

Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare.

Jeremiah 29:5-7 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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There are few verses in scripture more quoted than Jeremiah 29:11 - “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  It’s often used for big moments or transitions in our lives like graduations, retirements, etc. as a way of offering encouragement as we enter into new and unknown chapters in our lives.  The problem is that far too often, we view God’s plans like a set of puzzle pieces that we have to put together in a particular way.  The “plan” involves the getting the right job, marrying the right person, or any number of other “right” decisions that will keep us aligned with God’s “perfect will.”    

The more interesting verse for me in this chapter, however, is verse 7… “promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.”  Yes, God has a plan to restore Israel to their rightful land, but not in the lifetime of most who are hearing this message.  For them, God’s plan is about how they live among strangers and enemies.  It’s about breaking them of their arrogance and self-reliance as God’s people, thinking they could get away with anything simply because they were God’s chosen and because God had a perfect plan for them.  Exile is a reminder that God’s “plan”, whatever that may look like, is not about a prosperous life, but about a faithful life in both prosperity and in desolation. 

Jeremiah 29 is far less about God making everything work out the way the people want and far more about how to live faithfully in exile, especially since they were unable to live faithfully in their God given homeland.  In exile, God is teaching them what it means to be a blessing to all the nations rather than elevating themselves above everyone else.  God’s message is perhaps one of the most radical things they could ever imagine… “I care about Babylon too.”  In other words, God loves  Israel’s enemies as much as God loves them, and in exile, they too must learn what it means to truly love their enemies. 

God’s people were not called to retaliate or seek escape from Babylon.  They were called to work toward the welfare or “Shalom” of this foreign land.  They were to bring God’s peace among their enemies.  This isn’t just a matter of biding their time and trying to live isolate lives, separate from the world around them.  It was a radical call to fully engage in Babylonian culture and work toward wholeness, prosperity and the overall wellbeing of everyone.

In a nation where the church is entrenched in one culture war after another with warring factions or “parties”, this message is as relevant today as in Babylon.  We do not glorify God by “converting Babylon to Christ” or “forcing Babylon to pass laws to make it easier or more comfortable for us to live out our faith.”  Rather, we glorify God by loving our neighbors, even if they are our enemies, and working together for the peace and well-being of all.

Everyone who shall wish me ill

I arise today...
Through God’s host to save me
from everyone who shall wish me ill, afar or near...

The Lorica of Saint Patrick (St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer)

Paranoia and fear blaze through our culture like a raging forest fire. Everywhere we turn it seems there is someone who wishes us ill, both far and near. They may be as distant as refugees on the border or politicians in Washington or as close as the person sitting on the next pew in church or even across the dinner table in our home. More often than not, such fears are rooted in our perceptions rather than in real threats to our being. The people we are most certain are “out to get us” likely don’t view us as significant enough to bother with.

In some ways, our fear of being harmed flows out of our own sense of pride and our inclination to think of ourselves as more important than we are. I once knew a family who had turned their trailer home on a small rural street into a bunker with an arsenal of assault weapons lined up along hatches they had cut in the outside wall facing the street. They said when ISIS came marching through town to mutilate their daughters and granddaughters that those terrorists wouldn’t get anywhere near their house. Clearly ISIS would not be interested in this tiny little rural crossroads in the middle of nowhere, but the perception made this family feel like they were going to be the saviors of their community. It was as much a delusion of grandeur as it was a delusion of terror that did not actually pose an imminent threat.

It is true that we have enemies. St. Patrick spent his childhood in slavery and in his world the threat of death may have indeed been a real possibility. This portion of the prayer may be particularly valuable for those who are serving in war or on the front lines of local law enforcement or security. It may echo the prayers of powerful people who have made many enemies in their lives. It may even be a prayer on the lips of terrorists or drug lords who are always looking over their shoulder despite the fact that they have put themselves in that situation.

For most of us, however, it may just be that in saving us from those who wish us ill, God must first save us from our illusion that we are such a central target to whoever we may view as our enemies. What if being “saved from our enemies” actually involves being “reconciled with our enemies” through love and forgiveness. An enemy turned friend through the love of Christ is no longer a threat. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus was onto something when he said:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 5:43-44

I do not want to diminish in any way that there are some who truly do need salvation from dangerous situations. For those suffering from abuse, domestic violence, human trafficking, or any other form of intentional harm against your body or soul, this prayer is for you. May God’s host indeed save you from all who wish you ill, afar and near, and may God place in your paths people who will stand with you against such evil.

But for those who simply see enemies everywhere you look, every time you turn on the news, or every time you see someone who looks or thinks differently than you, maybe God wants to save you from your own fear and paranoia. Maybe God is inviting you to turn an enemy into a friend. Maybe, just maybe, hate and fear could actually be defeated by the power of love.

Could it be that we are truly our own worst enemies?

Reflections:

1. Who is it that you feel you may need saving from? Is the threat legitimate or only perceived? If the threat is legitimate, who might God have placed in your path to help?

2. What triggers your feeling of being threatened? What steps will you take to listen more to the voice of God than the voices of fear in our world?

3. Pray for an “enemy” every day this week by name. If you do not know someone personally, find someone in a news story who you might consider to be “against you” or your beliefs and pray for them. Perhaps a criminal, a terrorist, a politician from “the other party,” etc. Reflect on how God may be changing your view of them as you pray and how God may be calling you to respond.

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Our journey through St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer continues next week:

... I summon today
all these powers between me and those evils, against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose my body and soul…

Pray along with the full text of St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer