(Luke 6:27-38)

“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.  Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  If you do good to those who do good to you what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same.  If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.  Instead, 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, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, 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.”

            You know, we have evidence that some of the very earliest people on our planet, people almost from the beginning of time, have made art and lived in such a way that lets us know that they worshiped a God of some description.  They must have thought and wondered about the possibility of a Higher Power and sought out a relationship with him or her.  They, and we today have just known that there is something beyond ourselves. 

When we go about describing God, we use the images that our minds have access to or that have been suggested to us.  What we have to work with are often our own experiences of God.  Ancient peoples observed weather and seasons and the sun and the moon and the planets and stars and understood God through all of that and more.  To help them understand, they had stories of creation and the beginnings of human beings and of nature that had been passed down from generation to generation.  Along the way people were given visions and glimpses of the Divine.

We, of course, depend upon our Biblical witness, the writings of our fathers and mothers in the faith, our reasoning power and our own experiences of God. 

            Theologians and religious folk through history have described God in various ways: all powerful, all-knowing, always present, above all, as Creator, as Redeemer, as a Comforter, as a Father, as a Mother, as a warrior, as a farmer, as a sculptor.  Some have said God is love, God is just, God is merciful, God is gracious.

            Each of us has an understanding of God.  This is apparent when we pray—by the way we address God.  For example, Almighty God, Father, Mother, Creator, Forgiving God, Everloving God.  There are so many ways.

            Our understandings of God are also apparent by our requests in our prayers.  Dear God, feed the hungry, heal the sick, release the captives, guide our leaders, comfort those who mourn or, as Janis Joplin sang, “O Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?”

            Among the many human understandings of God can be seen in the way we praise and thank God: as the One who brought the people out of Egypt to the land of promise, or the one who stands by us in any trial or, perhaps, we praise God for answering our prayers or for acting as our conscience.

            We describe God in different ways in our hymns: O God our help in ages past.  Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, How Great Thou Art, Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise.  And that only scratches the surface.

            There are so many ways in which we can know God.  In living each day we gain more understanding about God; in being together we know more of God; in reading the Bible we broaden and deepen our knowledge and feelings about God, in making music or art we experience God in new ways. 

            The text from Luke that you just heard communicates a certain knowledge about God.  This is Jesus speaking in verses 35 and 36: “As you follow the ways of God, your reward will be great because God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful just as your Holy Parent is merciful.”

            This is the way that God is understood by Jesus to act in the world.  God is kind to those who may not be deserving of kindness. 

            Our text speaks of so much more as  Jesus really lays out what he, and God, expect from us.  This reading is full of directives—hard ones.

            It tells us how people ought to relate to one another in light of how God relates to us.  We hear a lot about how we ought to act with one another: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you…  and it goes from there with these seemingly impossible ideas about how we ought to treat each other. 

            When we ask the question, the question which is like the elephant sitting in the room, we can pretend that we know what in the world Jesus is talking about.  But if we’re honest, we have to wonder, why should we love our enemies or why should we do good to those who hate us or why should we bless those who curse us or mistreat us.  But, fear not.  Jesus is ready with the answers.

            “If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Or if you do good only to those who do good to you, why do you think you should be honored for that?”  Rather, Jesus tells us, “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.”

            In other words, God’s relationship with us is to set the tone for the way in which we relate to others.

            Oh man!  I know that all this sounds good on paper, but how can it work in practice?  It’s hard! It’s impossible!  When I’ve been hit, I’m supposed to turn the other cheek?  When my coat has been taken, I should hand over my shirt as well?  If I lend someone money, I can’t expect to get paid back!  What’s that about?  I want to be paid back!  The practical approach to love and relationship is to love those who love you, to do good to those who do good to you.  …But in this passage, Jesus is telling us that love is impractical.

            Now, back to our understanding of God.  My rational understanding of God is that God loves us all unconditionally.  Think about the story of the Prodigal Son.  Younger son comes back after blowing through all his inheritance.  Dad welcomes him with loving, open arms and kills the fatted calf for him.  Is this fair to the older son who has hung in there doing his duty to his father?  No, it is not, but it is God’s unconditional love in action.  Way easier said, though, than lived, right?  God’s love is impractical, and, yet, here is Jesus calling us to it.

            Now, don’t get me wrong here.  We are not to accept the unacceptable, including actions that are hateful or unjust nor are we to support policies that are intended to bring people down and keep them there, policies that endanger people’s lives and their livelihoods… 

            No, what we’re talking about today is the New Order that Jesus has brought.  We are to fight hatred with love, not more hatred.  We are to fight evil with love.  We are to fight grudge holding with love.  It is hard.  It is impractical. 

            A story….  At the lunch following my brother’s funeral, I got to talk with a nephew.  We had the best conversation I had ever had with him and with most of the males in my family.  This guy is a straight shooter, and he could have just greeted me and walked away, but he was willing to have this hard conversation. 

Now, it is no secret that I have had issues the last few years with both my brothers.  I will probably spend the rest of my life trying to sort it all out, but it’s okay.  God will sort it ultimately.  I said to Patrick, my nephew, “Your dad and I haven’t been on the best of terms the past few years.”  Now, his dad is the brother who is still alive, who is just a couple of years older than me.  Patrick knew of our troubles and wisely didn’t try to go into any details that he may or may not have known. 

(Now, I’m going to use a word that, kids, we should not use, so don’t say it).  I’m going to quote my nephew.  He said, “You know that we Mahans are grudge-holding bastards.”  I said, “I know.”  Because we are…. 

Now, up until I woke up in the middle of Friday night, I had been seeing my conversation with Patrick as confirmation that my brothers had done me wrong.  I was seeing this dissonance between them and me as something that they were doing to me.  I was seeing myself as a victim in all this, but what I realized was that I have had my own narrative playing out in my head, though I wasn’t saying it to them.  My narrative said that they were bad and nasty, and I was the one taking the high road.  I didn’t take responsibility for my own arrogance and self-assurance. 

            Today’s text is calling us all to something better.  It is speaking directly to grudge-holding people.  It is speaking directly to people who think they only need to be kind to their immediate families or to love only those who show love to them, to respect only those who agree with them.  It is speaking to folks who intend to get revenge on those they’re mad at. 

Jesus is calling us to a higher plane, and it’s hard, it’s unnatural.  It’s something that we will never be able to do perfectly, but it’s what Jesus in God’s name is laying out for us.  Being this kind of loving person is only possible if we are filled with the love of God.  …If we’re preoccupied looking for something else, we’ll miss God’s love in our lives.  We just will.  If you’re grudge-holding people like us Mahans, you will be blinded to the love around you. 

            …I want to try to be better, and today’s text is the blueprint for that.  Will you join me in this hard journey?