Reverend Philip Stringer
Luke 6:27-38
Genesis 45:3-11, 15
LET US PRAY: Enlighten our hearts, O God, through the hearing of your word and the meditations of our hearts, that we may be strengthened in faith and bear a bright witness to the world, through Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. Amen
The ancient Greeks were great students of human nature. Their wisdom has been passed down to us through the great philosophers, like Aristotle, Socrates and Plato — and through a remarkable tradition of mythology. Zeus. Apollo. Aphrodite. Hades. Athena. Artemis. Poseidon.
One of the things I find interesting about Greek mythology is that the gods are really like us. The only difference between them and us is superpowers. Otherwise, they are like us. They fight each other, steal from each other. Cheat one another. And it’s no wonder they are like us. In human imagination, we have created the gods in our image.
And in this way, grownups are really no different from children. As children we fantasize, “If I had all the money in the world . . .” Oh, the things we would do. The luxuries we would possess! We could live like gods!
Grownups are no different. “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!” We idolize wealth and the control that comes with it.
Jesus turned all of that on its ear.
He once said to his disciples, “You know how it is among the gentiles. Their great ones lord it over them and their rulers are tyrants.”
Jesus said to them, “don’t be like that.”
Oh, we could live like gods! But the problem is that we DO live like gods — like the Greek gods, that is. We hurt each other. We steal from each other. We fight each other, just like the Greek gods who were created in our image.
Jesus wants us to live like gods, too. But rather than being like gods made in our image, he calls us to be like the God in whose image we are made. “Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.”
Being filled with love is hard. As people with a sinful human nature, being filled with love is beyond hard. In truth, it is impossible.
To be partly full of love is not so hard. Parents love their children; lovers love each other; friends love their friends. Most people are at least partly filled with love. But none of us is fully filled with love. We -- each of us -- have those places where we are afraid to let love in. And it is to this part of each one of us that Jesus speaks today. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." Anger and hatred leave gaping holes in the human heart. Jesus doesn't want us to return evil for evil. Jesus wants our empty places filled. He wants our joy to be complete. He wants us to have life abundantly.
If anyone had a justification to hate it was Joseph. His own brothers had become his bitterest enemies. They used him for their own self gain, showing no mercy to him whatsoever. Joseph had expressed only goodness, but out of jealousy, they had cast him into a pit in the desert where they held him until a caravan came along and they were able to sell him into slavery.
The meeting between Joseph and his brothers that is recounted in our first reading, occurred many years later, after Joseph had risen in favor before the king of Egypt, and had been appointed to a position of great honor and power. So here, now, he stood before his unsuspecting and vulnerable brothers. If anyone had a right to hate it was Joseph. If ever there was a perfect opportunity for revenge, this was it.
But Joseph loved those who were his enemies -- the strength for this did not come from himself. Only through faith did he find the strength and peace that allowed him to love. Joseph's confidence in God -- his faith -- delivered him from anger, wrath, revenge -- the things that destroy. Faith sets us free to love. One who is full of faith knows that he or she is fully loved with an unquestionable love. To be faith-full is to know one is loved-full.
Jesus said to his disciples, "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." Jesus was telling them to be like God.
Saint Paul had been an enemy of God, who deliberately and purposely persecuted the followers of Christ. He saw his life changed by love when God did not condemn him but forgave him and called him to a holy purpose. Paul emerged from an existence of death into a new existence of life. He knew he was fully loved with a perfect love, and when this love grabbed hold of his heart, Paul -- the former Christ-hater -- was led to write things such as this: "love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor . . . Let all that you do be done in love . . . Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all . . . Let mutual love continue."
With his confidence in God -- with his faith in Christ, knowing that he was fully loved -- Paul was set free to love in the fashion of God.
So, by the examples of Joseph and Paul, you will see that when Jesus speaks of doing good to one's enemies, he is not speaking of mere outward actions. He is calling us to do two things: FIRST -- to know that you are fully loved with a perfect, unquestionable love. And SECOND, to enter because of it, into a new way of being; a new way of seeing yourself in relationship to the world and to God. A way in which you do not stand as one opposed to others, but as one seeking a loving relationship with them.
Loving as Christ calls us to love is impossible without faith. It is absolutely foolish in the eyes of the world. "Lend without expecting anything in return. Release what is stolen from you." The world knows that to love your enemies with the hope of them returning that love is idiotic. If your peace -- if your hope is dependent upon making your enemy love you, you are a fool.
In Greek mythology — everything the gods do is done to exact revenge and wield control over others; to syphon power from them and turn it against them.
What Jesus calls us to do has nothing to do with changing the other — neither for good nor ill. Even if someone acts with the intent to change someone for good, that is still an effort to exert power and control over them. That is not what Jesus calls us to do.
Jesus makes no promises on how the other will respond to your love. Perhaps they will respond in love. Perhaps not. But he DOES make a promise about you. Those who let love rule in their hearts are the only ones who will discover the meaning and the fullness of life. For the one who loves with faith, the response of the other isn't what dictates the action -- it's trust in the love of Christ that is the motivator.
This is why — for the same reason — Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Because it is only in forgiving others that we can begin to understand what it means that God has forgiven us. We can never understand the love of God for us until we can see that it is freely given with no strings attached.
Years ago, the British comedy troupe, “Monty Python” made a movie, Life of Brian. It was set in Jesus’ day, and it followed the ordinary life of a man named Brian whose path crisscrossed with Jesus’ life. Throughout the movie they make fun of the failure of people to grasp the significance of Jesus.
In one scene, Jesus is delivering his Sermon on the Mount. There is a group of people near the back of the crowd, struggling to hear him as the people around them talk and bicker. Someone says, “be quiet, we’re trying to listen,” but to no avail as the others keep talking.
Someone asks, “what did he say?” And another answers — somewhat puzzled, “I think he said the Greeks will inherit the earth!”
I think Monty Python was pretty observant — because all kidding aside, it seems to me that Jesus’ words are often twisted into being just that.
In Greek mythology, the great ones are in control. And today, we see those with money and the ability to control others lording it over us. To have power is the ability to take.
Jesus tells us — and more beautifully, he shows us — that God’s ways are quite different from this. To have power is the ability not to take, but to give. You are created in the image of God. You have this power — and to wield it is to live as God lives — or as Luther put it, to live as “little Christs.” To wield this power is to experience life in all of its fullness and abundance.
In Greek mythology the great ones are in control.
In God’s reality, the great ones are in love.
May God grant you faith to live like gods!
AMEN
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