Sermon: Love Your Enemy

Love, Bless, Pray, and be Merciful

            Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, pray for those that abuse you.  There is a lot packed into these three statements.  Love, bless, and pray, just those three words can be challenging enough, but to love, bless, and pray for those that aren’t our friends, that don’t seem to be treating us correctly, that perhaps are even causing us harm.  Does Jesus really expect us to live into this?  These are things that we aren’t even sure we want Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit to do.  We want God on our side, why would we want God to extend love to those that oppose us, that want to harm us, that are greedy or violent or cruel?  Aren’t there teachings against these things?  So why would we extend love, and blessings, and prayers for those that seem to be living outside of God’s teachings?  Isn’t there even a teaching about separating the goats from the sheep?  I truly think, this is one of the hardest teachings of Christian discipleship. 

            And so, in order to love your enemy, you first have to identify the break in relationship that has caused this division.  Were you once friends?  Do you have values that are on the extremes of the other?  Did the person break your trust, disappoint you, or betray you?  Or is your enemy someone you have never even met, such as the terrorist group Isis? 

            After 9/11 there were so many hate crimes committed against Muslims, mass stereotyping was happening, and suddenly anyone that had any kind of connections to those terrorists must also be the enemy.  Trauma and fear created this incredible sense of distrust of the other and many innocent people were targeted.  And so churches began to reach out to Mosques in their community, they began to create relationships and build trust with one another and fight against the hatred and stereotypes and negativity that had formed over this horrific event.  In so doing, we put into practice the concept of loving our enemy, or at least loving our presumed enemy, extending love to neighbors in our communities instead of buying into the fear. 

            Apparently, our nation is extremely polarized right now.  I don’t know if our division with one another has created enemies amongst each other.  Every once in awhile I will read a post that a relative shares and I have to say to myself, okay, you completely disagree with this, but she is your aunt, or he is your cousin, let it go. 

            Often times, in order to love or to forgive, one first has to overcome anger, anger at a person, or an event, or some deep hurt that has not healed.    I’ve been working through a book on spiritual disciple and one of the activities was to name 50 things that you are angry about.  I was shocked at how easily I was able to name 50 things that either have angered me in the past or make me angry right now.  Some of them our personal, but some are for the hurts of the world, such as homelessness, human trafficking, and hungry children.  Anger can harm us, but it can also motivate us to make changes in the world.  In order to move yourself out of destructive anger into transformational anger, God reminds us that we have the tools of love, blessing, and prayer. 

Anger is often a response that comes out of fear.  If someone cuts you off while driving, you might become angry at that person, perhaps even honking your horn or flashing your lights at them.  But the anger is driven from the response of fear, fear that that person could have caused an accident, could have harmed you, could have even killed you.  The fear is also driven from the loss of control.  I try to be a defensive driver, always looking around me, always doing my best to be in control of the situation, but someone else’s negligence can wipe out everything I have done to keep myself safe, I am no longer in control and that creates fear. 

What is it like for us as a people to be constantly living in a state of fear and anger?  Well, it pushes us to stress which can then wreck havoc on our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves.  So, if we find ourselves continuously stressed out, or angry, or just feeling out of control, God reminds us, God calls to us, God offers us a better way.  And yes, that way involves loving your enemy, bless those that curse you, and pray for those that oppress you.  More than anything, it is going to push yourself into spiritual practices of growth and perhaps even transformation, it is going to push you into positive ways to deal with fear and anger rather than harmful negative behaviors. 

From the Book:  The Way of Forgiveness, Flora Slosson Wuellner is quoted as saying:  “Acts of cruelty and evil cannot be condoned or forgiven…When we are the victims of radical evil, we are not asked to forgive the evil act  We are asked to remember that the perpetrator, even though trapped for now in the evil, is nonetheless a child of God.”  If you have seen the movie:  The Shack, there is a scene where the father and the Holy Spirit are in deep conversation about this.  The Holy Spirit pushes the father into trying to understand judgement, it can seem so easy to judge on our part.  Murder is wrong and a murdered is an evil person.  But what kind of brokenness is going on in that person’s life, what caused the murderer to become the person he has become?  And to God, are we able to accept that that person is still a child of God?  We want to control God, we want to be the judge, we know how wrong some actions are, and yet, God calls us to love, to bless, and to pray. 

There is such a powerful scene in the movie:  Deadman Walking.  A nun becomes a spiritual guide to a man on death row.  He has committed horrible acts including murder.  The family of the deceased cannot understand why the nun is offering God’s love to this person.  In a standoff between the family and the nun, the grieving father shouts: don’t you think we could use some of God’s love as well?  His anger at her was so complicated, but it seemed he grieved so deeply that the criminal had the attention of the nun and no one came to them.  Perhaps they too needed saving. 

Again, from the book: the way of forgiveness, the reader is encouraged to start with small steps, we can’t be expected to love the worst offender of our lives right away, we need to build into the spiritual practice, we need to begin with smaller areas of disconnect and begin to grow from there. 

I also can’t help wondering, is Jesus preparing his followers for the new community of faith that will grow?  A community that crosses boundaries of culture?  A community that will include both Jew and Gentile, both masters and slaves, both women and men?  In this teaching, he is preparing where people that were once separated by rigid boundaries and social construct can now gather together as one.  How hard would it be to gather with someone you once considered your enemy but is now a part of your faith community?  In the Kingdom of God, there is no space for this, Jesus breaks down the dividing walls, he calls into question who belongs and who does not, and infuses the conversation with Love, Blessing, Prayer, and Mercy.  Let us live into being a community of faith that is welcoming to all, filled with love, generous with blessings, infused with prayer, and always erring on the side of mercy and grace.  Amen.