Loving those who love us is not always easy. It involves sacrifices. It involves giving. It involves grace, mercy and forgiveness. What does it look like to love, even when it is hard. To not just accept it when others treat us as enemies but actively work to transform and heal the world beginning in that very moment?

Love, British Tea, and the Sea in Between

A few years ago, a photo of hand painted No Soliciting sign went around: If you’re selling religion, we’ve picked one, politics, we decided etc etc Owner is armed. Go away. Well.

Not too long after another hand painted sign made the rounds  I love you. You’re probably thinking, “You don’t even know me.” But if people can hate for no reason. I can LOVE. 

Love was capitalized.

Well, a few days ago, that sign image resurfaced, with the comment, This might be a British thing, but if my neighbor put up this sign I’d take hundred mile detours rather than run the risk of having to meet them.

British was capitalized here.

Is the lesson: If you don’t want British visitors, tell them you love them?

From Paul’s love among friends to Jesus’ Adult Love

There are a few verses about love in the Bible. Go to enough weddings and you’ll Love is Patient, love is kind. But, in our passage, Jesus asks what love when it gets hard. What if the other person decides you’re there enemy? What do you do then?

Hats

I’ve got two hats here.
This is for a school where a general told my Dad to teach ethics and stuff. Let’s imagine Jesus putting on his ethics hat (put on hat and slide glasses down nose)

4 Principles

He starts out with four principles. 

Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who (mistreat, abuse) you.

Even they treat you like an enemy. They curse you, call you names, abuse you, love and pray for then. 

4 Examples

This is where you can imagine somebody’s hand shoots. Professor Jesus, Sounds amazing. But, could you give me some examples?

That brings us to our second hat. This one is for a sports team called the Crew… as in a work crew. Can you make it practical?

If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer them the other one

If someone takes your coat, be willing to give them your shirt

If people demand something, let them have it

Wait… Jesus. Give them my coat?! Have you been to Montana lately?

From Retaliation to Including all

We’ve been dropped into the middle of the sermon. The first part, from last week, the message spoke to the poor and the rich and asked what it takes for each of us, to follow Jesus. The hard part, today, is that our culture teaches wealth comes from hard work and we can all be rich with enough hard work. And, if it really is all just about merit, then being wealthy should come with perks and privilege. To which Jesus would say, being part of my community, means giving up that idea. We all bring riches and poverty to community. This is not about perks and privilege but, as John Wesley pointed out, about taking care of each other out of our abundance.

The Cost of Making Enemies

Now, in this week’s passage, Jesus practical examples are just as hard to hear today as they would have been then. If someone hurt you, you could hire someone to curse them. If they took an eye from you, you deserved two of theirs. The way to make it in life is to be strong and retaliate against your enemies. If they punch you, you punch back. 

A long time ago, in West Virginia if memory serves a Hatfield did something a McCoy didn’t like. Or maybe it was the other way around. But, one thing led to another and the idea that revenge is the way to be strong led to a shooting war between two extended families. We pay a cost when we make enemies and when we are made into enemies.

An Alternative

And Jesus says no. There are cases to let things go. If someone goes to court because you owe them money and demands you coat, maybe even your shirt to pay that debt, you could get angry, you could destroy your clothing, rage against them, let all that eat you up.

Or they slap you. Think about this one guys. They don’t punch you or hit you. They slap you. Would that make you feel like your manhood had been questioned? There was a time that led to a duel. 

The Challenges

Applying this is challenging. 

But, Jesus says Love means that when someone treats you as an enemy, love says there are things to let go. 

In fact, there are times to go a step farther, and offer the other cheek. Are there are times when the very act of refusing to fight back, in fact, offering to go a step further defuses the situation? If the other person is more powerful, is there a point that shame will begin to kick in?

And then there is Jesus last example Treat people the same way that you want them to treat you.

Applying this is challenging. But, if you were in their shoes. If you had decided someone was your enemy, how would you want to be treated? Would you want a chance to vent your anger and be heard? Would you hope that the person you’ve been told to hate could find a way to help you understand that your hate is not about them?

But there is a reward

And then says if you do this, you will have a great reward. 

And folks lean in. Now, this is what we’re talking about. What reward? Gold? Silver? A time share in Maui?

I imagine Jesus switching hats again. If you do this, you will have a great reward. You will be acting like the children of Gd. 

Who do you want to be? Who are you? You want to follow me around, it is about becoming children of Gd. What does it mean to be children of Gd? Children, hopefully, pick up the best of their parents. 

Even when people rage against Gd, She is still full of mercy pouring out grace into their lives. To learn my way, to live the life I am teaching, love those who treat you as their enemy. 

Becoming Children of God is Hard Work

Even as they draw lines in the sand, hurl insult, file lawsuits, demand and take, Love them. Now, this is not just about passively accepting abuse. This is hard work.  

There is wrong in this world. The original goodness that can still be found is, far to often, scarred and broken. We are not called to ignore that but we do not change the world by turning on others. This is hard work.

It means inviting them to fish, too

And it does not stop with us. We are called to invite others into the work. And, if they say they, too, follow this one called Jesus, we are called to invite them to do the work, to be willing to love even those who they see as their enemies, to love even those who see them as enemies. If we are to transform the entire world, we have to invite and challenge and persist in working for reconciliation, in being peacemakers in drawing others to be children of gd. 

This is hard work

You are the Children of Gd

You are the Children of the one who has always loved you

You are the Children of the one who turns the other check, gives up his coat, surrenders his shirt, who loves us even when you are raging why weren’t you there, who gives when you are in need, who sits with your in your sorrow, who listens to your pain.

And, somehow, eventually, that breaks through

You are the children of Gd

Go, be children of Gd

And love even those who have decided that you are the enemy