"Do to others"-A Sermon for Epiphany 7, Luke 6:27-38
Following a different challenging teaching than the one we just heard Jesus share from Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ disciples exclaim, “This is hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Or another translation reads, “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?’” And, perhaps, just perhaps, returning to our Gospel reading today specifically, many of Jesus’ friends and followers exclaimed, or at least thought, the very same thing. For this is hard teaching…so difficult…that it is indeed hard to accept or even just hear. Surely, we can process the words…intellectually get their meaning…but to accept them…that is to really listen to them…let them fill us up and move us…make the great move from head to heart…really let them be written on our bones and take root in our DNA…well that is another matter altogether. For, again, Jesus says things like: Love your enemies, pray for those who abuse you, if struck on the cheek offer the other as well, give to everyone who begs from you, if anyone takes your personal belongings don’t ask for them back…and that’s just a thumb nail sketch of Jesus’ teaching, lovingly and challengingly, placed in our presence this morning.
These sayings are difficult sayings…hard to hear…near impossible to accept. But here’s the thing…these are not mere suggestions…they are…nothing less than…the hope of the world. For the use of violence will never eradicate violence…history has shown that that there is no such thing as a war to end all wars…unless there is one that leaves no humans alive. Systems of justice and retribution and the fear of punishment have little to no power over hate…no power over mob rule…no power over mental illness…no power over passions enflamed in a split second of time. And the profoundly inadequate care and provision for those with far too little…the profound economic inequality that exists even in mature democracies, which perpetuates poverty and institutional forms of racism, will always remain the status quo…so long as Gordon Gecko’s motto, in the movie “Wallstreet”, endures…that “greed is good”…so long as humans live in profound fear of scarcity…of not having enough…of putting their hope and sense of security in the numbers we view when we log into our online bank accounts…for this all leads to a sort of hoarding…a hoarding which makes absolutely certain the fact…that there definitely will not be enough to go around.
But here’s the thing…I suppose I still have just enough faith, faith in the teachings of Jesus, the power of resurrection, and the providence of God over the universe, to believe that love does…that love, God’s love manifest in and through human lives, does have the power to overcome…to overcome violence and greed and fear that has taken root in human hearts…and replace it with peacefulness and kindness and virtue and generosity. I believe this because of the faith that dwells in me and is revealed to me…in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus…and because I have seen it and studied it as a lived experience in the lives of people who have overcome unthinkable abuse and violence and greed armed only with love and generosity that radically transformed the status quo in small and large ways.
Some of those people have names that you would recognize like King and Gandhi and Tutu, and some you would not for they are the saints in my own life…poor and rich and black and brown and white and gay and straight and pure and profane and medically fragile and healthy as a horse…those formed by the school of hard knocks and those formed in the highest echelons of academia…both women and men…who have overcome and torn down tremendous barriers built with the stones of violence and fear and greed…again armed only with love and generosity. Their stories are too many to tell here…and many are not mine to tell…but I have been a witness to them…they have moved me…they have shown me that love does…love does have the power to make Jesus’ difficult teaching entirely real. Remembering, that he asks of us…Jesus asks of us…only what he himself has done…in the life he actually lived…among and for us.
And we shouldn’t miss understand Jesus’ teaching here…he is not asking people to remain in abusive relationships. He is not asking people to place themselves purposefully in situations that can only result in violent confrontations. He is not asking us to give away everything we have to leave spouses and children destitute and on the streets. But he is asking us to believe that our choices matter. That the ways we share, save and spend our money matters. That our willingness to befriend and build relationships of substance with those who look, live, believe and love differently than we do matters. That our willingness to love boldly, even when risk is required, matters. And, our willingness to share…to be profoundly generous with our time, gifts and resources…living open handed to the benefit of those with far too little…matters.
Part of what Jesus shares with us today is the Golden Rule…which we all learn by heart as a child…do to others as you would have them do to you. And I think, at least I often think, of the Golden Rule in a bit of a naïve way. Something like…if only I treat others as I would like to be treated, they will surely do so as well. If I am kind…if I am generous…if I am patient…if I am loving toward another…I will surely, or at least likely, receive the same in return. But this is actually not always the case…and not really what Jesus says. If I can stretch the Golden Rule a bit to make my point, Jesus says do to others as you would have them do to you…no matter what…even when they don’t. This is not a quid pro quo…give and take…Jesus is not saying…if I am kind you must be as well…or, even, if I am kind you are more likely to be as well. He just says…you do to others…you treat others…you love others with the respect and kindness and generosity you believe, and are indeed, worthy of. The Golden Rule is about our own choices and behaviors, regardless of the other…any other. The Golden Rule is about the health of my own heart…about the person I am going to be.
So, the question Jesus’ teaching today faces us with is who am I going to be? And that begins by an honest look at who we are right now…what do we find creeping around in the deep recesses of our own inner most being? We are a good lot here at St. Julian’s, and I want you to hear me say that, but we might find…and it doesn’t mean that something is profoundly wrong with us…for in this life we will always remain fallen and saved…for the line between good and evil always runs right through the middle of each and every human heart…so, again, we might find rooting around in our innermost being…anger and lust, fear and greed. And the challenge then is to not to give up on the power of love to overcome each in our own lives. For the love of God in Christ…the love that overcame even death…indeed has the power to change us…to rule the day in our own hearts. Instead, we must name and lean into the darkness within. Henri Nouwen, the late Catholic priest and beloved spiritual author, writes, “How do we befriend our inner enemies, lust and anger? By listening to what they are saying. They say, “I have some unfulfilled needs” and “Who really loves me?” Instead of pushing [them] away as unwelcome guest, we can recognize that our anxious, driven hearts need some healing. Our restlessness calls us to look for the true inner rest where [anger, lust, fear, and greed] can be converted into a deeper way of loving. There is a lot of unruly energy in [us]! When that energy can be directed toward loving well, we can transform not only ourselves but even those who might otherwise become [our] victims. This takes patience, but it is possible.”
As I said earlier…I suppose I still have just enough faith, faith in the teachings of Jesus, the power of resurrection, and the providence of God over the universe, to believe that love does…that love, God’s love manifest in and through human lives, does have the power to overcome…to overcome violence and greed and fear that has taken root in human hearts…and replace it with peacefulness and kindness and virtue and generosity. Jesus’ teachings are not mere suggestions…they are nothing less than…the hope of the world. And that hope is given birth…in one human heart at a time…as we do the spiritual work required to find rest and healing needed in our own human hearts…such that we begin to love others…not just as we would have them love us…or just as we indeed deserve…but as God alone loves each and every one of us…entirely…and forever. Amen.