Love Your Enemies

Reflections on Luke 6:27-38

Jesus said, “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.” 

When Asher and his sibling Isak were in the 5th grade, they went to a classical Christian school in Central Florida, Orlando to be exact. There were so many things I loved about that school. I loved the way they taught history and writing, and I loved most of the books that they read. In the 5th grade, they read the Christian classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which, most fortuitously that year was made into a movie that showed at the Christian movie festival at Winter Park Village. All of the 5th graders piled into cars and we drove on over. The movie was not spectacular, but afterwards there was a moment I will never forget. An old fire and brimstone preacher gave a rousing sermon that ended in an old fashioned altar call. It was enough to incite all of the 5th graders to go up and accept Jesus anew. That is all of the 5th graders but one, my child, Asher. Asher. John Michael E., one of Asher’s classmates, did not find this to be acceptable. He asked Asher why he didn’t go forward. Asher’s argument was simple. “Because I’ve been baptized. I belonged to Jesus as a tiny little baby.” John Michael did not stop. “There are no shortcuts to heaven, Asher!” “Baptism,” Asher retorted, “is not a shortcut to heaven.” 

There are indeed no shortcuts to heaven, and if we thought there might be, today’s gospel hits us in the gut, reminding us that the path we’ve not been called to walk is not an easy path. This passage offers one wallop after another. They come faster and faster and by the 3rd injunction, I get overwhelmed, wondering quite rightly if I’ll ever qualify for the land of light and life, if I’ll ever be good enough, and honestly, because all of this seems right near impossible, I’m not sure I even want to try. 

But just because I’m not there yet, just because you’re not there yet doesn’t mean we get a pass. I’m not even sure we want a pass. Because what is it that they say? Resentment is like drinking poison hoping it will kill your enemies.

I think our baptismal vows can come alongside and offer us a little bit of perspective.  Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? And what’s the answer y’all? I will, with God’s help. God’s help, that’s what’s required. That’s why we ask in our collect for this morning that “God pours God’s love into our hearts” because without God there just isn’t hope for us. 

This is the beginning, isn’t it? But that isn’t enough. There’s still a whole lot to live into, a huge chunk of the sermon on the plain that challenges this morning. 

That’s why I thought I’d begin at the beginning with that bit about the enemies. 

Jesus said, “I say to you that listen. Love your enemies.” Maybe this morning we’ll stop here, because this might be all I can lean into this morning.

For years, I didn’t admit I had enemies. What? I think it all came from a Sunday School lesson where someone told little Molly that if she hated it was like killing people, and I never wanted to kill anyone, but I still disliked and hated. I just didn’t call it that. Hating people is un-Christian, un-Christ-like. It seemed like I should just be able to squash my dislike and envy and hatred and just let it go. But I couldn’t. Not really. I was in denial, deep denial. I hated. I disliked. I had enemies. But I pretended I didn’t but I did. And then came some really hard years, filled with enemy-like people, and one or two people who really are my enemies. I can’t even absolve myself and say it’s all their fault because it’s not. I know myself. I understand why people don’t like me, I understand why I’m their enemy even. It goes both ways. And honestly, I needed to understand an even deeper truth, that hatred and enemies and envy and dislike are part of what it means to be human. I’d guess this is why Jesus hits this so hard.  

But maybe your enemy isn’t exactly another physical person. Maybe it’s someone who doesn’t think you like you, nameless, faceless. In our times, there’s a whole lotta that going around. It touches every single one of us. 

And once we do that, then what? Because if you indeed hate someone, loving them is the last thing you want to do. You want revenge. You want to squash them like a bug. You want to TP their house. You want the just deserts to gobble them up, you want them to suffer. 

And maligning is so deliciously fun sometimes! Complaining about that one little thing that someone did, that one detail that proves that you’re in the right, that shows you to be the “better” person, to shout from the hilltops that wrong they did to you or to society, or to someone you love. It’s really hard to let go of these habits. 

There is no room for revenge or squashing a like a bug or hatred. Jesus reminds of this over and over. No revenge y’all. No hatred. 

The first step in loving your enemies is to admit that you have enemies, that we all have enemies. So we all have enemies, what to do? 

The next thing is to begin the work of prayer. Whenever you think about them, give them to God. Don’t hold onto them, letting them stick all over you, instead, ask God to give you the desire to begin to make a change. God always participates in these prayers. It doesn’t happen immediately, it might take a season, a year, but then something in you shifts, and it’s not love yet, but it’s closer to love than hatred, closer to love than revenge, closer to love than just deserts. 

And once you’re not hating but not yet loving? Not yet willing yet to lend to them, while getting nothing in return? And then you pray that you can, with God’s help, forgive them. 

It’s a long process, learning to love our enemies. It takes time, a long time. And I don’t know about y’all, but there are a few people that I’ve forgiven, gotten almost to the love part and then something shifts in my life and I have to start the work all over again. This work is never over. Loving our enemies takes a really long time and there are no shortcuts. It also helps if you have a good therapist. Just sayin’

Now there’s one point that we preachers always have to make when preaching this passage. If you’re in an abusive relationship, leave. This passage is not saying that you should be turning the other cheek to an abusive partner. Please leave if you’re not safe, emotionally or physically in your intimate relationship. If you have questions about whether you should leave or not, talk to me or a therapist

But back to the enemies thing.

Today, we also hear the story of Joseph and his brothers. The brothers were the ones who hated him, threw him in a pit, and then sold him as a slave, opening a long and pain-filled journey for Joseph. And then Joseph forgives them and all is well. But is it? Our story today is part 1, but that is only the beginning. there’s also a 2nd part. That’s the one that happens after their father dies. The brothers, the ones who did all kinds of evil toward him; they come to Joseph afraid. “Are you going to kill us now? Now that our father is dead, who would keep you from revenge?” There it is. There’s the unvarnished truth. In part 2, Joseph again assures his brothers that they are safe with him. Yet it’s always complicated

And it’s possible. 

Did I mention that that quote, the one about drinking the poison, was from South African activist, Nelson Mandela? He spent 27 years unjustly serving a sentence of life imprisonment in a 8 by 7 concrete cell with a straw mat. I’ve heard rave reviews about visiting Robben Island and seeing Mandela’s prison cell. It’s so unlikely that Mandela could have ever forgiven. It’s so unlikely that in that time and space that he had to think, he began to love his enemies. It’s so unlikely that he would become the president of a reforming South Africa and that he would join together with that beautiful Archbishop, Desmond Tutu and dream up something like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where the entire country could see the wrongs of the past, holding those who did wrong to account, while moving forward. It’s almost impossible. But it happens.

Don’t lose hope. Beginning is our first step.