Being Real

Luke 6:27–38 NRSV

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse 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 begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them 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 hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But 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 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.”

Sharon King, our church administrator, gave me a sweet little Christmas gift, which included a new little drink coaster. Sharon knows that I am a big Mr. Rogers fan, and so she found me the perfect coaster with this statement on it:

“Mr. Rogers did not adequately prepare me for the people in my neighborhood.”

Love your neighbors? Love your enemies? Jesus, have you seen the people in my life?

Let us pray.

Be merciful, just as the Creator God is merciful.

Ok, let’s be real.

Love your enemies?

How does that statement hit you?

We might approach this teaching from different directions.

First, we might respond with fraught concern — “I don’t have enemies. I can’t imagine it. I do everything in my control to be nice to the people I meet.”

Or, we might simply scoff — “Yeah, right, Jesus. Do you know my enemies? Do you know these wicked people I see in the world? How could I possibly love them, you don’t get it Jesus.”

And of course, we may have a justifiable response of fear and worry — “I can’t love my enemies. They hurt me, they take advantage of me, they’ve wronged me too many times.”

All of these responses are understandable.

And I have to confess — I am not always sure how to fully live out this teaching. Those who I perceive as enemies, they’re hard to love. Now, my perception of who is an enemy may be different than yours, but the truth remains — it is challenging to love our enemies. Said another way, we are not socially conditioned to love each other, much less our enemies. We reserve love for a few and defiant resistance to anyone else. Social niceties allow us to move through the world without having to confront our hatred and disdain, most of the time. We move on, politely.

But, what do we do with this teaching if we claim to have given our lives to Jesus’ way.

And I could lay out a Christian ethic on the subversive nature of loving one’s enemy. Theologians have argued FOR this for centuries. What we’re interacting with here is wisdom — something that of course accounts for the facts of our existence, but also stands outside of business as usual to point us to or align us to a more excellent way. To love, whether it be our enemies or our dearest people, to love is to embrace wisdom.

And wisdom directs us to reorient our lives unto it’s way. You see, ways of loving those who love us, as you hear Jesus speak about, that’s not wisdom. That’s just common sense. Love those who love you. Reciprocate. Have each other’s back. And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s good to love. It’s good to be loved, am I right?

But Jesus is always calling us to deeper understanding, to wisdom.

And so, he tells us to love our enemies.

Notice, this is not some kind of “kill them with kindness” teaching. I appreciate that Luke does not include the part about how loving our enemies will “heap burning coals upon their heads.” No, this is a genuine love for the unloveable, the ones who are unmistakably antagonistic or harmful. Love and pray for them.

Again, I ask, who are your enemies?

Often these days, we hear about certain kinds of enemies. I want to note three important categories of enemies.

The enemy without: First, we have the enemy without. What I mean is, the enemy at a distance. We might call them “the other.” In many ways, these are our common enemies, especially if we live in a relatively homogenous world. Sadly, it is this kind of dynamic that gets framed in geopolitical and social conflicts as the enemy who we must not let cross our lines, the kinds we resist and feud publically with.

I think about it even in this context: Who are our enemies? Who do we exclude, other, resist, and keep at distance?

Jesus instructs us to love the other. And, truthfully, the sense of “other” is a facade — in God’s way, there are no outsiders, no others. Only those who willingly order their lives around Jesus’ way and those who

The enemy within

A second category of enemy is one we also hear about often in the news these days, a category we might call the enemy within. Sadly, this term gets used to frame anyone who dissents with the status quo or disrupts the powers that be. They are the rabble-rousers, the resisters, the ones we just wish would “get it” like we do. Sadly, this is a category that we witness very often in family or close community circles. It’s the racist uncle or that “alternative” teen. We belong to them, but we still other them and wish to change them.

The enemy I am.

Finally, and I hope you see this one coming. Another category of enemy is the enemy I am. I am my own worst enemy. I hope you’re like me and you get this one. It’s not a comfortable category, but it is certainly a true one. I am my own worst enemy much of the time. Self destructive patterns or lack of self confidence or feelings of self-critique — we “other” and enemy ourselves. Do you know this category.

A few months back, on of you loaned me this really great book called “How to Have an Enemy” by Melissa Florer-Bixler. The subtitle is “Righteous Anger and the work of peace.” Her writing inspires me, because it takes seriously the reality of enemies AND seeks ways to live this wisdom of Jesus out in their proximity, nonetheless.

Essential to Jesus’ teaching is once again this reminder that his way reorders our entire lives. When the world tells us fight back, Jesus tells us, “turn the other cheek.” When the world tells us to build walls and protect ourselves, Jesus tells us to give our possessions to any who ask for them. Jesus is directing us to a radical reordering of our entire world, one where those who would seek to destroy us, our enemies, are treated like friends, given to generously, collaborated with, cared for, by the church. The people of Jesus, the Church, do this work of loving our enemies boldly, knowing that it is only through this love that we can break the hardened heart, tear down the pain of sin, and find restoration in a reconfigured wholeness where we see our common bonds with all others and prioritize love, love that disrupts, reorients, calls to repentance, and bears out resurrection. This is the way of love.

Let’s be real — loving our enemies is not our first reaction. But, as our hearts are formed in the way of Jesus, we see that it is only through such provocative, disruptive, restoring love can break down walls, build new relationships, and restore this world to the shalom it is intended for.

Close with a the closing reading of Florer-Bixler’s sermon, pages 200 and 201.