Feb. 20 "Love Your Enemies"

"Love Your Enemies" Matthew 5:38-48

What if God really IS love? What if it's truly in God's nature to love all of us! What if, when God makes the sun rise on evil people, it's not because that's the only way to get the sun to shine on the good. What if when God sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous, it's because God WANTS to bless the unrighteous right along with the righteous. God could park a cloud to blot out the sun over the head of everyone whose sin-quotient gets too high. God could make it rain only on the fields of Presbyterian farmers, say, if God WANTED to!

Jesus teaches that vengeance and violence are out of the question, and that we need to practive loving our enemies, and we hit the hardest of all the hard sayings: "You must be perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect." What if this is not a call to pristine purity, or absolute moral rectitude. What if it's an invitation to experience perfect love, the love of God. To love friends and enemies, to love family and foreigner, just as God does!

We imagine that God likes us more than other people, because we go to church, even on three-day weekends. But God's love is perfect. Perfectly equal. And with practice we can do this!

Martin Luther King Jr., taught us love for enemies: Do to us what you will and we will still love you….But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.

There are so many examples of the transformations wrought by love of enemies. Egypt's non-violent revolution is already replete with them.

We can't teach love of enemies until we understand Jesus' "third way" of non-violent resistence.

WALTER WINK'S LESSONS. Turn Cheek, Give Cloak, Go Second Mile.

So… Non-violent resistence is not passivity. "Loving your Enemy" = enabling them to see their sin AND offering them the opportunity to change. [I invited the congregation to consider the "Intention for Non-violence" below.] Examples, then, of strategies that might come from love of enemies:

LICE — Once, a squatter community in South Africa found its shelter infested with lice. When the authorities refused to fumigate it, the leadership committee took bags full of lice-infested blankets to the administrator's office and dumped them on his floor. They got immediate action.

SPIT — A black woman was walking on a South African street with her children, when a white man, passing, spat in her face. She stopped, held up her youngest child and said, "Thank you, and now for the children." He was so nonplused he was unable to respond.

WALK — When Bishop Desmond Tutu was walking by a construction site on a temporary sidewalk the width of one person, a white man appeared at the other end, recognized Tutu, and said, "I don't give way to gorillas." At which Tutu stepped into the mud, made a deep sweeping gesture, and said, "Ah yes, but I do."

Our challenge from Jesus' heart teaching: "Love Everyone!" Completely, and without restriction or exception. Love Everyone! Especially including your enemies.

John Dear, S.J.-- We can never talk about this commandment enough. For me, it sums up Christianity. If we do this, we will obey Jesus fully, because it encompasses everything--reflecting God’s universal love, working for disarmament, seeking justice for the poor, practicing forgiveness, living in hope and trusting in the God of peace. I’ve long considered it the most radical, political, revolutionary words ever uttered. And by and large, for the last thousand years at least, we’ve done our best to avoid them and disobey them. Why? Because they go against everything every nation teaches. Perhaps because we are afraid; we don’t believe God will protect us. The whole world is based on the commandment: hate your enemies, punish your enemies, kill your enemies. Jesus reverses the entire nation/state system. He invites us not to hate, punish or kill anyone, especially those targeted by our nation/state.

Love your enemies comes from the collection of sayings known as "the Sermon on the Mount." It begins with the "Beatitudes," and then you know what Jesus says. You heard it read by Paula Wiles Sigmon from the New Revised Standard Version. Let me use Eugene Peterson's version called "The Message" to reinforce it:

"You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

"In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."

Of course it's hard to love your enemies. But we can practice by loving ourselves, our family and friends, and those strangers who are diffrerent from us. We can try being more compassionate towards people who get on our nerves or offend us in little ways. Whatever we do, we can:
• Shun violence and anger – with self, spouse, children, parents or others.
• Free yourself from abusive situations.
• Be courageous and honest in admitting when you need help and get it.
• Focus not on life’s disappointments, but on the blessings God’s given you.
• Build healthy relationships of mutual respect, support, trust, honesty and open communication.
• Forgive the faults of others and your own failures.
• Celebrate the fact that God loves you, no matter what.
• Thank God for being a loving presence in your life.
• Sign on! Golden Rule Real. Intention of Nonviolence

Sisters and brothers we want to be a church that welcomes everyone, that stands with the poor and oppressed, and that teaches our children how to grow into compassionate adults. As we live OUR faith, as we pour OUR love into action, as the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco tries to love each other and our neighbors as God has loved us, we are that church. There's no reason to wait! We may not be able to perfectly love our enemies, but we love ourselves and our neighbors. We may not be as merciful as our God is merciful, but we are trying! With God's help, let's try. And let us pray.

O God, whose name is Love, why don't we open ourselves more to love? What are we protecting, or holding back from? Could it be that we fear the power of love? That we will be overwhelmed with emotion, or wounded by the encounter?
When we look at images of Jesus, we are in touch with the love in his eyes,
When we see him on the cross, we see the wounds of love,
We have a rich heritage of faith, taught to us by Jesus' followers, who offered themselves in love.
God, give to each of us just a hint more faith and courage, that we may echo the prayer attributed to Richard of Chichester:
Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ for all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother, May I know Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly, Follow Thee more nearly. Amen.

~INTENTION OF NONVIOLENCE~

(adapted from paxchristiusa.org)

RECOGNIZING THE VIOLENCE IN MY OWN HEART, yet trusting in the goodness and mercy of God, I commit myself to practice the nonviolence of Jesus who taught us in the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.... You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour 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 Creator in heaven.
Before God, I commit myself to carry out in my life the love and example of Jesus
• by striving for peace within myself and seeking to be a peacemaker in my daily life;
• by accepting suffering rather than inflicting it;
• by refusing to retaliate in the face of provocation and violence;
• by persevering in nonviolence of tongue and heart;
• by living conscientiously and simply so that I do not deprive others of the means to live;
• by actively resisting evil and working nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from my own heart and from the face of the earth.
God, I trust in your sustaining love and believe that just as you gave me the grace and desire to make this intention, so you will also bestow abundant grace to fulfill it.
I commit myself to living according to the Intention of Nonviolence for a period of________________.
Signature _______________________________________ Date ___________________

--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor