Sermon prepared
for
by Gregory S.
Kaurin, pastor
traditional services,
Texts: Luke 6:17-35
Sermon:
“Because…they are like you!”
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Jesus
preached this message in our gospel lesson just after he chose his twelve
apostles. We are told that there were many
other disciples and a whole crowd of people—sick, tormented, and otherwise—who
were gathering around him.
In
Matthew’s gospel, he wrote that Jesus saw the size of the crowd, and ascended
up a mount where he could be seen and heard.
There, it is traditionally called Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.”
In
Luke’s gospel, it says that Jesus came down after praying on the mountain, and he
found a flat-level place where all these people could sit or stand to hear
him. So, in Luke’s gospel it is called
his “Sermon on the Plain.”
Whether
Jesus preached on a mountain or a flat plain seems like a huge difference. Some people have made a mountain out of this
mole-hill, calling it one of the great “contradictions” of the Bible. One commentator answered that Jesus must have
preached to them while on top of a butte, a flattened hill. Maybe. I think the answer is even easier than that.
If
you know someone who worries about such things, you can explain it to them this
way.— In English, whether we say “hill” or “mountain,”
we usually have two different things in mind.
In the area Jesus preached, anything bigger than a pitcher’s mound was
called a mountain. I exaggerate a little
bit, but it had something to do with perspective. I have found that this is just as true in
parts of our own country. Wherever real
mountains are scarce, a hill is called a “mountain.”
Likewise,
when we hear the word “plain,” we picture the expansive grassy fields of our
So,
this “mountain-plain” was probably a flattened spot near a hill just big enough
to hold the people. Jesus stood a little
way up the hillside so that he could be seen and heard. Whether you would say he preached from the
mount or among the people on the plain would depend on whether you saw it from
Matthew’s perspective or through Luke’s eyes.
Well,
this is interesting, but why am I taking time out of today’s sermon on
this? Is there a lesson to be learned here?
One
lesson this might teach is one of humility and assurance. Those of us who relish the powerful mountain
vision of Matthew are called by Luke to also remember Jesus’ compassion for the
people on the plain.
And
for those of us who get mired in all the needs of the people immediately around
us, Matthew calls us to lift our eyes to the
Jesus
leveled us as a people. He lifted up the
poor and suffering, loved them blessed them.
In the next breath he cut down the laziness of those of us who live
comfortably without concern and without helping those who have not. He leveled us.
He
didn’t stop there. “Love your enemies,”
Jesus said. Pauline and I listened to a
comedian who said that we need to be very careful about the people we choose to
hate. We need to be careful who we hate
because, without fail, “If you hate them enough, they always end up in your
family.”[*] Be careful who you hate.
Jesus
went further. He turned us to them and
said, “Love your enemies. When they slap you, offer the other
cheek. Give more than they demand. When they’ve taken your coat, give them the
shirt off your back. Give and loan, but
expect nothing in return or in addition. Love them.”
These
are some of the hardest commands of Christ.
In the wake of
I
do not believe that Jesus was telling us to let wicked people, robbers, or
tyrants walk all over us. Moreover, we are
clearly not to let them walk all over other
people, our family or neighbors, or even over their own families and people. We are called to step in on behalf of the
needs of our neighbors, all of them.
Jesus’
point in this gospel lesson was this: Do
not allow evil people and misdeeds in this world to destroy the love that is
within you. Do not allow the evil and
misdeeds in this world to stop your actions of love. Do not become evil, and do not do evil, just
to get back at evil. Be better. Even at risk: be loving.
Do
good for those who have no reason to expect kindness
from you. It doesn’t mean that all our
soldiers should throw down their weapons or hand them over to the Al-Quaeda. It doesn’t
mean we throw open the prisons for rapists, murderers and drug dealers to
return to our streets.
It
does mean, on a societal level, we Christians advocate for healthy food and shelter,
for fair trials, for basic physical and spiritual needs, no vengeance, no
torture, but only fair sentences. We do
this, not just for their sakes, but with the dignity and safety of all clearly
in our mind.
Why? Because Jesus faced us toward enemies and
said, “Love them, even them.” Why? Because they are like you.
Now,
you might think I’m nuts for going that far, “Terrorists, rapists, murderers,
drug dealers? —I’m nothing like them!” You
might think I’m nuts, but hang on for a moment and listen carefully to what I
said, “Not just for their sakes, but with the dignity and safety of all clearly in our mind.”
Jesus
faced us to our enemies and said, “Love them,” and I believe that our humanity
and our morality—as Christians and as a people—our humanity and morality is displayed
by the way we treat the lowest common denominators. We show our humanity in the way we treat the
lowest people in society, including those who are in custody, and those who
have hurt us deeply, horribly.
Are
they hungry, or are they being fed? Are
they tortured? Will they receive a fair
trial? Are we rebuilding and
rehabilitating that which we, or others, have torn down? These are the questions we Christians are supposed
to be asking.
Are
we giving them the treatment and dignity that we would hope to receive …if we
were their place, standing in their feet, because—in other circumstances—we
could be. Before God, we are. We are like them. Jesus said in our lesson, “Treat others as
you’d have them treat you.” Elsewhere he
summarized all this in the second greatest commandment of scripture: “Love your
neighbor as yourself.”
I
was listening to a tape of a sermon last week.
The sermon was on both the Old Testament Hebrew command and Jesus’ command
to “love your neighbors as yourself.” Listen
for a moment to what that preacher said here in this very sanctuary one week
short of 17 years ago about Jesus’ command:
Providing
money, cooking meals, and all that, are not in themselves acts of love. It depends on how we do them and why we do
them—whether they are an act of love or not.
Now, before we
can be truly loving persons, we have to experience
love…ourselves. We have to be loved
before we can love. Like the man said, “You
can’t give what you haven’t got!”
“Love your
neighbor as you love yourself,” says the Old Testament lesson, carried on over
to the gospel lesson. Well, I’m going to
say something that might sound strange…but I’m not so sure that I want to be
loved as some people love themselves, because some people don’t love themselves
at all! They hate themselves. Some people are masochists, like to suffer,
and have very bad feelings about themselves.
I wouldn’t want that kind of love given to me!
That’s not what
the Old Testament text means. I’m not a
Hebrew scholar, but I have—through my years of ministry—read very carefully
what the words of the Hebrew mean, by Hebrew scholars in their commentaries,
and that’s not what the text means.
Let’s talk
about it a little more. The Hebrew text
really means this. (Linda, you can check
on that at the seminary if you haven’t gone too far in your Hebrew yet.) What the text really means is this: “Love
your neighbor because he is like you.”
Love your
neighbor because he is like you! In
other words, our neighbors are like we are: in
need of love, and all part of God’s creation and,
therefore, deserving to be loved.
They’re in the same boat! That’s
why you and I should love them.[†]
Love
your neighbors because they are like you.
Treat others as you would be treated.
And even …love your enemies, see them as like you.
Is
this really possible? This is not just
about loving people who irritate you, or that gross you out a bit. This is not just about Republicans and
Democrats being nicer to each other. This
is Jews being told to love Romans, and Jesus loving Pharisees and the crowd of
people that called for his crucifixion. Jesus loving us.
This
is about us loving and forgiving those who disgust us, or have hurt us. It doesn’t mean you necessarily change the
consequences of their actions. It
doesn’t mean you let them walk over you or others. It does mean letting go, forgiving, offering
the basics of human need and dignity. Mostly
in your own life this is about letting go: of your own anger, of hurts, and of
grudges. We let go for our own sakes, and for theirs…with the dignity and safety of all clearly in our mind.
Loving the enemy. Is
it really possible? No, it is not possible …for us. It is only
possible through the Holy Spirit working within us.
Slowly,
over time, he can help us to let go, to forgive and move on. You cannot force it. In time, with one prayer, and one action at a
time, Christ’s Spirit works through you.
He can help you to let go and to forgive. Pray
for it… because it is freeing, and also because—before God’s throne—they are like us: deeply sinful,
and needing grace.
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