Sermon for 2/23/2014 from Pr. Mark T. Peterson at Christ the King Lutheran Church, Holliston, MA.
Gospel: Matthew 5:38–48
38"You
have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39But I say to you, Do not resist an
evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other
also; 40and if anyone wants
to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41and if anyone forces you to go one mile,
go also the second mile. 42Give
to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow
from you.
43"You have heard that it was said,
'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you, 45so
that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on
the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the
unrighteous. 46For if you love those
who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the
same? 47And if you greet only
your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the
Gentiles do the same? 48Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ,
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but every week,
during our prayers, we include a prayer for our enemies.
This is also something we did at the congregation I was
serving on my internship in South Carolina. My supervisor Pastor Will and I
sometimes would ponder what would happen if we went beyond this generalized
prayer, and made things more specific, like saying, “we pray for our enemies…Al
Qaida, Bin Laden, …” We wondered how people would react to this, because it
would really be striking, and unnerving to hear this prayer spoken out loud.
And, since we weren’t 100% serious all the time, we also joked
around about praying for our enemies and then mentioning the other person “We
pray for our enemies….like Pastor Will.”
And, it is good that we pray for our enemies every week,
but when we actually get a little more specific, praying for our enemies
becomes a little more difficult. I don’t know if you’ve ever done it, I have
from time to time and to be completely forthright, it’s very, uncomfortable.
There’ve been times in my life when I’m really angered,
or annoyed, or even hurt by people, and a tinge of guilt comes in and I’m drawn
to pray for them. I mean like actually say or consciously think “God, be with
so and so.” I’d like to say that in these times, all the negative emotions just
melt away and I’m given inner-peace, but really, I tend to find myself just
sort of carrying out a stupid duty for a God who’s a little bit crazy and
overboard in loving all people more than we can comprehend.
The truth is, is that loving your enemy, even just by
praying for them, goes against so much of our human nature. Really, if it was
easy to love our enemies, we probably wouldn’t have enemies. But loving our enemies
is what, among other things, Jesus is calling us to do as we hear once again
from his Sermon on the Mount. And, this teaching is a nice thing for us to say
and put on bumper stickers, but carrying out this command is a little tougher.
For instance, how many of those gathered around the mount
where Jesus was preaching gave this an amen…at least in their heads. And maybe,
those gathered left the mount that day inspired and uplifted by this message of
love from Jesus. But then, later on, how many of those folks, when they saw
Jesus loving even those who had nailed him to the cross, decided that our love
should certainly have limits, that Jesus was taking things a bit far. When
Jesus put loving his enemies into practice, it was really costly.
The concept of loving our enemies isn’t any easier for us
today. What happens to us when we hear names like Zhokar Tsarnaev, Aaron
Hernandez, Westboro Baptist Church, Al Qaida, or the Canadian Hockey team? If
you’re like me, you don’t exactly get happy thoughts in your head. Or think
about someone who has really done you wrong in life, the people who have
twisted your stomach in bitter knots before. Now, if we’re real charitable
people, we might not have great scorn and spite for these people, but we don’t
have love for them either.
Now, as we’re thinking about these people, as we get
anxious and tight, I want you to think about someone else. A baby boy named
Lucas. Lucas is going to be baptized today, right here at Christ the King. In
baptism, we will become Lucas’ family in faith, and we, along with his parents
and family and Godparents will promise to nurture him with love, so that he may
come to trust in the God that we worship today. This God, is shown to us in
Jesus, and this God is shown to us not just in Jesus’ words and teaching, but
ultimately in his act of loving us humans, even while we killed him.
So, how will we, as the Body of Christ, as a family of
faith, show and teach and share our savior with Lucas? Will we show Lucas a savior
who said a lot of nice things a long time ago? Or, will we show Lucas that that
savior is risen and living and doing those nice things, like being merciful and
loving towards us today? Are we called to just tell Lucas the story of Jesus,
or are we called by baptism to be the story of Jesus for Lucas?
Indeed, we’ve been called to be the story of Jesus for
Lucas. We’ve been called to love our enemies not just as a matter of concept,
but as a matter of practice. We’ve been called to be this story for Lucas, so
that he can learn to be a part of that story too. We’ve been called to be this
story, because if we don’t love our enemies, if instead we insist on revenge
and human justice, if we follow our sinful human instincts to take an eye for
an eye, there will be only a world of blind hatred for Lucas and for all our
children.
In this time and place, the price for showing love to our
enemies isn’t high. For instance, we aren’t peacefully marching unarmed into
violent mobs. We aren’t standing between protestors and police like some
Priests in the Ukraine, nor are we urgently sending out messages like this from
the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church, “Every person, no matter which side
of the fence they are on, is a child of God and needs to protect every human
life.” But, there is a
price, there is a call, there is a Savior among us who is here doing something
for us, and that Savior is here freeing us from our hate. There is a Savior who
is here today giving new birth to another human being and feeding us with his
life.
And so, this morning, while we might not be called to
march or face physical threats, we will face down our own instincts and hate
with Christ’s love. We will pray for our “enemies”, the type of people who have
done us harm or wish to do us harm. And when we have moments to pray on our
lips and in our hearts, perhaps you will be called to pray for someone who fits
this description, whether someone on a global scale, or in your personal life.
We will pray for these people so that God will help us to love them in the same
way that God loves them, and each of us. We will pray for these people, because
if we refuse, than we are those people. We will pray for these people,
remembering that as Jesus was dying on a cross, he prayed “Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do” for each of us.
Loving our enemies isn’t easy, it doesn’t seem natural,
but this is how God has saved each of us and the world. May God continue to
make us bearers of this merciful love, so that we may bear it for Lucas and for
all those with whom he will share this life-giving love.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen
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