For the Love of Enemies

Matthew 5:43-48

My Junior year in college I attended my first national Lutheran Student Movement Gathering.  The “hot button” question that year was whether the Lutheran churches (the predecessors of the current Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) should divest from South Africa in order to pressure that country into ending apartheid.  During one of the business sessions, two young men got into a heated debate over the issue.  One was passionately for divesting, the other equally opposed.   Voices were raised.  Invectives tossed.  Harsh words exchanged.  Neither one budged.   Following the session, the assembly moved into worship.   As we prepared to come to the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion, we shared God’s peace with one another.  As I shook hands in the aisle, I saw the same two men embrace. 

“The peace of the Lord be with you.”  Said the first. 

“And also with you.”  Responded the other.

And it was clear that they meant it.  In spite of their intense differences, these two young adults recognized and welcomed one another as brothers in Christ.

“Now this,”  I thought to myself, “Is a church I can belong to!”

Today, our nation stands deeply divided on any number of issues:  the recent presidential election, immigration and refugees, interfaith relationships, health care, race, the environment and climate change, and on and on.  Within our churches there are people who feel just as passionate about these issues as the two men  at the LSM gathering did about divestiture.  Yet, sometimes I wonder, as divided as we are, can we still pass the peace with one another?  Can we still see the image of God in each other’s eyes?  Can we still welcome one another as brothers and sisters in Christ while at the same time fervently and faithfully wrestling with the issues of the day?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches his disciples (then and now) to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.   No easy task, especially when there is so much at stake in our world.   But then, Jesus originally spoke those words to people who lived surrounded by the tyranny of the Herods and the oppression of the Roman army.  He spoke those words to people who walked past their crucified neighbors daily.  I imagine some of his listeners made the connection.

By teaching us to love our enemies, I don’t think Jesus was teaching us to ignore injustice, wink at evil, or  tolerate suffering caused by human hands.  Instead, I think Jesus was encouraging us to keep at it when we disagree.  To keep looking for ways to build bridges, work for reconciliation, and seek for peace with justice in the midst of complex, difficult and divisive issues.   To keep looking for God’s image in one another, even as we debate and struggle and disagree mightily about the concerns of the day.   I hope and pray that’s still the church I belong to. 

Hating our enemies only breeds more hate, brokenness and fear.  Loving our enemies in the way of Jesus may be the first step toward making them friends.

Peace,

Bishop Mike.

Thank-you for reading.  Please keep praying for the healing of the nations, and of God’s world. 

Relationships Matter

Matthew 5:21-37

The Meyers-Briggs Personality inventory says that I am an “ENFJ”, (Extroversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judgement). One of the descriptions of the “ENFJ” personality type I’ve read suggests that people with this kind of personality tend to value preserving relationships over being right.  Guilty as charged.  I do value that characteristic in myself.  It underlies my interests in mediation, peacemaking, conflict transformation, bridge building between people, team building, collaboration and many other things.  But it also means I tend to avoid confrontation, am slow to take “positions” on issues (even those I feel strongly about) and am prone to being indecisive.  That’s me.  I share that so you understand how I come at Jesus’ teaching in the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7).

When I read Jesus’ Sermon, I see the importance of relationships all over the place.   Some, when reading Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5 throw up their hands and say, “How could anyone be that righteous?!”  To which Paul would say, “There is no one who is righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10)   But, to simply see Jesus’ teaching as impossible tasks meant to shame us into admitting our failure at meeting God’s expectations, makes it too easy for us to dismiss them as irrelevant in any practical application.   But, I think there is more going on here than just that (if, in fact, that is going on at all).   Throughout the Sermon, Jesus is concerned about how we tend to our relationships with one another and with God.  In the Beatitudes (at the beginning of the Sermon) he calls those who live lives of mercy, compassion and peacemaking blessed.  In what follows, he shows us just how far we need to go to live lives like that.

It is true, we get angry and have deep disagreements with one another, we have lustful thoughts, marriages fail, and we make promises we don’t keep.   When those things happen they cause pain, shatter relationships, and tear at the fabric of human community.  As imperfect human beings, and as followers of Jesus, we need to work hard to address those things that divide us, even going beyond what the “world” might expect of us.  That, I think, is Jesus’ point.   Reconciliation, and generosity need to lay at the heart of the Christian life.

Jesus’ life and ministry shows us how that can be done and the cost it can exact.  Jesus shows us a God who is always in the mix working reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy and new life among us.  But, even more, Jesus reveals a God who values relationships so much that God was willing to come and walk with us through the messiness of human relationships and carry us through to the other side.   In the freedom of that hope and promise, we can strive to live out of the vision and values for human relationships Jesus lifts up in the Sermon on the Mount.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank you for reading.  Please keep praying for our nation and for our world.

Me First?

Matthew 5:1-12

America first!  Oklahoma first!  Tulsa first!  Me first!   Self-interest seems to be the rule of the day.  I find this deeply troubling.  Of course, this attitude is nothing new.  Humans have always had a propensity for putting their own interests above those of others.  Call it survival instinct.  It has rarely ended well.   But, altruism has never held a majority position among humankind.  It seems so unwise.  Counter-productive.  Pointless.   The position of losers and fools.

And yet, Jesus went to a cross… and invited us to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow.  (Mark 8:34)

The Apostle Paul writes, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” to a community suffering persecution from without and division within.  He tells them that this is the mind of Christ who humbled himself and took on the form of a servant.  (Philippians 2)

It is clear, I think, that putting ourselves first above all others is not a New Testament teaching.   It certainly was not the way Jesus did business.

The Beatitudes (“Blesseds”) from Matthew 5 are a litany of those the world calls  losers and fools, and of those who willingly put their self-interest aside to walk in the way of Christ-like servanthood.  The poor in spirit, the bereaved, the meek, those who yearn for what is right and just have been stripped down by the world.  The merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers live for the sake of others;  building bridges of reconciliation, compassion and healing in a broken world.

People of faith!  We must work together on behalf of those who have been crushed by hatred, violence and cruelty, those who have lost much and suffered more, those who the world considers weak and worthless, and the millions of people around the world who are crying out for help and healing. 

We must stand for mercy, not rejection. 

We must overcome hate with love, not judgement. 

We must work for peace with justice, not further bloodshed and violence. 

We need to give sanctuary to those wandering homeless upon the earth.  

We must embrace all those made in the image of a God who revels in diversity. 

We must love our enemies and do everything we can to make them our friends.   

We may be called fools for trying but, would our Lord Jesus encourage us to do any less?

Jesus declares those “blessed” who the people of his day called “cursed.”  We must do the same.

We cannot slam doors in people’s faces.  We simply cannot.  Instead, we need to see Christ in their eyes, and serve them in Jesus’ name any way we can.

It cannot be “me first.”  God calls us to so much more.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

  

Thank-you for reading.