Saturday of the First Week of Lent Yr 1 and 2 2025
Lent • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 10 viewsWhile rules and laws sound strange in a land in which freedom means one can do or be anything one wants, when they come from God they help us avoid chaos and move freely towards an excellent goal. Our first reading speaks of rules or statues as allowing Israel to live freely as “a people specially’s God’s own.” In our Gospel loving one’s enemy means becoming “children of your heavenly Father,”that is, living according to his character, or maturing so that we are like him. This leads to intimacy with God. This helps us personally to have a deep reason for keeping the law, second , with explaining the deep reason for the rule to others, and with empowering us to live in thankfulness when we reflect on the good goal God is forming us for.
Notes
Transcript
Title
Title
Why Love Your Enemy?
Outline
Outline
Rules or laws sound strange in this land
Rules or laws sound strange in this land
In a land in which freedom means I can do or even be anything I want when I want and that anything less than that is bondage or oppression, rules and laws sound strange if not oppressive. But that is literally non-sense.
I was born a Davids but to live that birthright I learned various unwritten rules which ranged from what was polite and what not to being a Plymouth Brother, all of which went into existing freely as a Davids.
The same would be true when I was an orderly in a hospital so I could work on a psychiatric ward, when I was a chaplain in the US Army Reserve, so I could function effectively, and especially when I became a biblical scholar, so I could function and rise in that particular world and do so with freedom, with ease.
The enlightenment sense of freedom would have meant chaos in any of those worlds.
That is the reason for the “laws” in today’s readings
That is the reason for the “laws” in today’s readings
In Deuteronomy the various statues and ordinances, when internalized, allowed the Israelite to live freely as part of “a people specially God’s own,” to be “a people holy to the Lord,” to remain within the covenant.
In our Gospel it becomes more personal, for loving, that is seeking the good of, our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, which is embodied in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, is a component of being “children of your heavenly Father,” for that is his character and we are to grow into maturity, which is what “perfect” means, so that we are “just as your heavenly Father is mature in his character.” That is part of becoming one with him, “chips off the ole’ block,” or, because he is God, in a position to freely come close to him without fear of destruction.
This should help us in many ways
This should help us in many ways
First, if we have those hostile to us or those persecuting us, it gives us a pattern for and good reason to love them. We do not want our return hostility to separate us from our Father.
Second, if we are dealing with those struggling with this or some other “rule,” it helps us explain that God will give them the help of his Spirit to live the rule because he wants them in close fellowship with him. Being holy is for their good.
Third, we can all give thanks for the rules, since they are an expression of the love of God saving us from chaos and drawing us into oneness with him. Life cannot get better than that.
