Matthew 5: 43-48.
‘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, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
SERMON:
I told the story of St. Patrick... the one who loved the people that kidnapped him and made him a slave. In this story he returns to make friends of enemies.
Why does Jesus expect the impossible from us?
Jesus is of course correct... we have heard it said “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy...”
This is the law of the school yard... the law of any good rivalry between people... the law of loving the oilers and hating the flames... the law of civic business in a dog it dog world where property and money is fought overall the time.
Love those who can help you... and hate those who are against you... actually, crush them... bankrupt them, smear them with a bad reputation...
Who is this Jesus?
“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;”
What does it mean... to love a person whose hostility threatens us and whose behavior is hurting us?
This can’t mean that we are supposed to somehow come up with some warm and fuzzy feelings for those who are abusing us... You can’t make yourself feel anything like that... And surely we aren’t supposed to smile and take it while being abused.
And what does it mean to pray for our enemies? Pray for them to change? That makes sense... that’s easy.
But to pray for them to succeed or have health? Well... the whole point of an enemy is that they are against you too and if they are succeeding your losing so this is almost like praying against yourself...
In other words... we’re asked to love what is unloveable... pray for those that are doing us wrong...
...
But thankfully... it doesn’t stop there... all these things are to be done so that you may be children of your father in heaven...
It all starts to open up now...
Suddenly there is a shift in the lesson plan.
Jesus takes a 90 degree turn and suddenly he’s talking about God sending rain on all people...
He’s talking about tax collectors (who he seems to love too) and Gentiles (whom he also seems to love)
The shift becomes this:
Jesus begins this lesson with what looks like a command for us to follow, and by the end he is describing what is actually the nature of God.
Who is God’s enemy? Well, since the fall, everybody. This of course makes God’s history of coming to the people over and over and over even more impressive. He Loves those who hate him. He knows all our thoughts words and deeds and truly he loves the unloveable.
And so tonight, the lesson can’t be about becoming something that is impossible for us to do. Tonight it is about seeing the kindof God who is loving us.
God is the God of all people... tax collectors, gentiles, Jews, flames fans, and even people who live in Hinton and Ninton Junction... and even the people who live in Edson.
And with this amazing God who draws close in love to his enemies... who on the cross is killed and dies because of the great love he has for his enemies... and then, Jesus rises out of love for the people who killed him...
It is this God who asks us to be in prayer. To be in relationship with.
It is this God who names and claims us in baptism before we could even think to ask.
It is this God who invites all of us to his Eucharistic table of forgiveness... to the feast of new life and the forgiveness of all sins.
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Relationship to God always involves relationship to the community around us... those who God loves... that is... our friends and our enemies.
From here... with the God of all love and reconciliation drawing us close in bread and wine and water... loving and praying for our enemies actually starts to make sense.
Praying for enemies involves a serious attempt to see them from God’s point of view. We cannot earnestly pray for enemies without acknowledging our common humanity; they too have been created in the image of God, and no behavior, no matter how nefarious, can erase that image... We cannot pray fervently for our enemies without reminding ourselves that the God who is able to love us despite our disobedience is able to love also those who are our enemies. (Interpretation - Matthew - Pg. 59 quoted and paraphrased)
Our Father in heaven is perfect... and all thanks and praise be to the Father for loving us. Friends... enemies... children of the same heavenly Father.
Amen.
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