Musical Prelude and Service.

Luke 6:27-38
I will confess there are times I look at what the Revised Common Lectionary proposes and think that maybe I should look at different options. What Jesus tells us in today’s scripture is incredibly important, but reflecting on the idea of loving your enemies – at this moment in time particularly, is remarkably challenging. Love your enemies.
Perhaps if we look at how we translate this gospel from its original Greek.
Love – well, apparently the Greek word here is Agape. That is viewed as the love God has for humanity and the love humanity then shares back with God. So basically, to love your enemies like God loves you.
This is not the same as brotherly love or the romantic love we share with our life partners. But to love our enemies as God loves us. Well, there isn’t a lot of wiggle room there.
The Greek word used where we place enemies, is a word for hate or hateful. So love those whom you hate, or those who hate you, or are simply hateful.
Jesus then proceeds to give concrete examples of what that love can look like. Don’t retaliate when attacked. Give up that which is taken from you. Treat people the way you would want them to treat you.
Jesus acknowledges in this sermon that there is a popular or common wisdom of the time that encourages people to differentiate who is deserving of our love. And within that wisdom is the notion or the expectation that those who hate you should be hated in return. That our violence or scorn is justified in the presence of that attitude.
But Jesus challenges us to move beyond that earthly wisdom. To embrace what so many others would consider foolishness or weakness. It’s easy to love those who love you. It’s easy to be generous with those who are generous with you. The difficult thing – the thing that will truly make a difference in the world – is to love those who despise you. To loan money to those you cannot trust.
Jesus lived in dark and violent times. Jesus loved those who despised him. Hated him. He forgave those who betrayed him and nailed him to a cross.
Jesus desired to see the world change. Jesus desired to bring some light and some hope into a violent world that encouraged despair and distrust. A world that rewarded self interest and adherence to the status quo.
The easy thing is to love your friends. To love the people who are nice to you. Loving your enemies? That’s hard. It can truly be painful. But it’s the path that leads to changing this world for the better.
I say this, knowing full well that this is a painful message for a great many people. I say this knowing the call to love your abuser is not going to be received with welcoming hands by those who are the survivors of abuse. I say this knowing there are far too many people who have experienced their mere existence challenged by hateful people we are told to love.
I also believe that sometimes love is not a matter of warm and affectionate feelings. It is a powerful choice in how we see the world and act within it. It is a decision to be kind and to hold out a hand of support in times of difficulty without asking who the other is, where they come from, and what their political affiliation is. It is knowing to love is a choice and an action.
We live in a world that lifts up a dizzying array of hateful statements and actions at this moment. I can’t even begin to enumerate the examples just from recent weeks. We have choices for how we choose to respond. We can return that hatred with our own hatred. We can choose to do nothing – to not engage, to turn our backs to this world and isolate ourselves and hope things pass us by. Hope that the anger and the hatred dies out eventually.
Or we can listen to Jesus; follow his example. Witness to the love of Christ and in our gratitude follow his example in trying to spread his love, even in the presence of so much anger, hatred and scorn.
This is not the easy way. Jesus acknowledges that this is difficult. But we can’t pretend that Jesus did not instruct us to live this way. This is not to say that we are called to tolerate hateful statements and actions, to ignore them or make excuses for immoral behaviour. We can and should continue to resist and stand up against those statements and actions that cause harm or exclude our friends, family and neighbours. We must be ready to push back in the face of hatred and evil. But as we do so, let us not lose sight of the fact that these people are humans and are created in the image of God.
We need to resist the temptation to dehumanize them or write them off. Eight years ago, then Moderator; the Right Reverend Jordan Cantwell, made a statement talking about the difficulty the challenge of loving those we see as our enemies. She noted the trend towards division and isolating ourselves in groups of people just like us and seeing the world just like us. She observed how much easier it is to hate people like the current President of the United States. But that she couldn’t hide from the words of Jesus.
She concluded with the message that we are called to resist creating groups of us and them where those outside of our groups are seen as expendable.
In recent weeks there have been some proclamations that there are hierarchies of love.
Those most deserving of our love.
Those whom we should prioritize in the sharing of our love.
I have not found evidence of that in my studies. Love your enemies as I have loved you. Treat others the way you wish to be treated.
Scripture offers us a view of what our world looks like; not just for us but for those who are all too often on the outside looking in. It is a view of a world that is often ruled by fear and violence. But scripture also offers a vision of what this world can be when we let God guide our actions and our decisions. When we let love be our principal value.
We will not achieve that vision of our world if we are guided by the status quo. Loving only those we see as worthy of our love; of welcoming only those who look like us or think like us or sound like us. Jesus calls us to love our enemies, even if it is painful and doesn’t make sense based on our common sense.
May we find the courage, the strength and the resolve to hear Christ’s words and find our way to live our lives guided by his wisdom and his love and his courage.
Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789