Redeeming Love
Sermon
THE GREENING OF THE GOSPEL
SERMONS FOR ADVENT, CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY SUNDAYS 1-8 IN ORDINARY TIME)
When Jesus began his message on the mountain, the common people in the crowd rejoiced. They nudged each other and shook their heads approvingly as he showered them with "blesseds." And when he began to unwind the list of "woes" on the privileged and the rich, the great congregation was visibly moved, but respectfully withheld their inward rejoicing. But neither the rich nor the poor in that gathering were quite prepared for what followed.
In the whole recorded history of religion and philosophy no teacher, priest or prophet had ever appeared to be so out of touch with reality. Undoubtedly, the estimate of some of his followers began to change. He sounded like a dreamer. Since that day neither his disciples nor their successors have been fully able to embrace the Master's unequivocating standard of righteousness when he said: "Love your enemies!"
The admonition to love one's neighbor had been heard before. One of the predecessors of Jesus, Rabbi Hillel, affirmed that teaching. And Confucius, 500 years before the coming of Christ, included similiar phrases in his "analects." But neither of these gifted teachers came close to the radical declaration of Jesus in Luke's record of the Sermon on the Mount.
Some of the living religions of the ancient East have laid great stress on meditation as a path to godliness. Body position and precise posturing is emphasized to facilitate what might be called concentrated spiritual relaxation. Christians and others have benefited from these disciplines. But once the seeker has gained the proper physical and spiritual poise, one must center one's attention on a single object or thought as a basis for unwavering reflection. Otherwise, the mind will wander or the eye will fall victim to the visual distractions.
For the Christian, no thought on earth is more deserving of our uninterrupted contemplation than the new commandments of Jesus:
Love your enemies,
do good to them that hate you,
bless them that curse you,
and pray for those who abuse you.
When you are slapped on one cheek
offer to receive a blow
on the other cheek as well.
If your cloak is demanded
by one with power,
take off your tunic and present
that to him also.
And when anyone requests a
favor of you,
respond, but do not expect
to be repaid.
Treat everyone as you would like to be treated.
This composite expression of Jesus is a call to be like God since God bestows the blessings of sun and rain, and all other divine benefits, on the "just and the unjust" alike. (Matthew 5:45) Jesus places before the faithful an interpretation of good religion which has an indiscriminate relational obligation. When he included the enemy and the oppressor, in order to illustrate his ethic, he eliminated the possibility that anyone could exclude anybody from love's redemptive embrace.
Like millions of pretending Christians, scattered across the earth, when I quietly study these weighty words of Jesus, I am humbled and embarrassed. As one sage has said: "Christianity has not succeeded because it has never really been tried." Honesty would prompt most of us to say that we have hardly tried it. But Christian determination, through the years, has encouraged us to keep on trying. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "If we go back to the old ethic of an eye for an eye, we'll all be blind."
Evidently, Jesus anticipated the unreadiness of his hearers. The rich and the poor, both of whom were present, were puzzled at the unilateral demands of the Master. His words sounded like a rebuttal to the inaudible questioning of the crowd:
If you only love
those who love you and hate those who hate you,
you are just like all
the other sinners.
If you only lend to or help
those whom you know
will pay you back,
what good have you really done?
You are like all the other
selfish sinners in the marketplace.
If you do good
only to those who
return the favor,
your good deeds are a pretense:
you are bargaining like all the other sinners do.
In his threefold comparison (vv. 32-34) Jesus forced his hearers to face the contrast between his standards of righteousness and prevailing practices. Then, as if to summarize the impact of his message, he said, "If you do all the things I tell you, you will show clearly by your godly acts that you are the children of God."
Some scholars have been careful to point out that the message of Jesus that day must not be compared to St. Paul's instruction to "overcome evil with good." (Romans 12-21) Jesus is saying: Do these things because this is the way God works in the world. This is the way God expresses to us continually the essence of the divine being. As the children of God, Jesus calls us to imitate the conduct of God.
There is a phrase in verse thirty-five that reads: "Accept nothing in return." The medieval church associated this with the Old Testament prohibition against the taking of usury. A Jew could not require interest from his kinsman, but he could from a non-Jew. There was also a period in the life of the church when Christians were not supposed to take interest for usury from other Christians. But, as in ancient Judaism, all kinds of subterfuges were employed to get around the rule.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his "Summa Theologica," christianized the notion of reasonable interest-taking. John Calvin, in the sixteenth century, accelerated this emphasis, requiring only that the wealthy tithe their usury profits and thus add benefit to the church. So the admonition against usury is seldom considered in connection with the so-called Beatitudes of Jesus.
In our day, interest-taking has become the financial backbone of the capitalistic system. Nonetheless, the abuse of interest-taking and usury does work to the disadvantage of the poor and to the advantage of the rich. The abuse of interest-taking remains one of the corrosive economic problems of our society.
In verses thirty-six and thirty-seven, Jesus warns against the exercise of merciless judgment. Those who deserve judgment also deserve mercy. Since utter honesty finds us facing our own faults, compassion needs to govern our processes of adjudication even as we expect God to show compassion and forgiveness toward us.
Verse thirty-eight presents something of a problem. These words were quoted each Sunday by my childhood minister in the ritual just before the receiving of the Sunday morning offering. But certainly Jesus did not encourage giving on a "God-will-pay-you-back" basis of stewardship. If so, that would seem to contradict all the Master had said in early sections of his sermon. This promise of recompense to the giver I interpret to mean that genuine generosity is an act of love and tends to elicit a loving response. Therefore, if one gives abundantly, our lives are more apt to be blessed by the response we inspire in others.
In our lifetime, two men have appropriated the love ethic of Jesus in remarkable ways, affecting massive individual and social change: Mohandas K. Ghandi, India's "Mahatma", and Martin Luther King, Jr., the apostle of "the beloved community." Ghandi attached the dignifying title "children of God" to India's untouchables. He employed the mutually redeeming love ethic of Jesus in his struggle with the British colonials. He outlawed hatred for the oppressor.
Ghandi mobilized India's bedraggled masses and the restless young intellectuals by giving a socially aggressive interpretation to the ancient Hindu doctrine of "Ahimsa." This committed his revolutionary movement exclusively to the strategy of nonviolent direct action, without hatred, in order to prod the unwilling British to grant India its freedom.
Dr. King had a dependable linkage with the Christocentric AfroAmerican church and the Anglo-American church as well. He was inspired by Ghandi's successful demonstration of the effectiveness of nonviolent direct action. He started his movement in Montgomery, Alabama, the seat of the Confederacy. King was able to prove that a spiritually-disciplined people could effect social change. He took literally the direction of Jesus to "turn the other cheek." With undiminished determination his followers accepted the angry and violent opposition of their oppressors without hatred or reciprocal violence.
The singular ingredient in the leadership of both men was their consistent rejection of hatred toward their oppressors. They both envisioned a reconciliation, beyond conflict, that would benefit the oppressed and the oppressor alike. So, in a nominally non-Christian country and a nominally Christian country, the Master's gospel of love won a greater victory than all the wars of history combined!
Jesus envisioned that the weak and the poor and the oppressed would absorb brutal blows. But bearing the brutality, without returning the blows, would have a lasting redeeming affect.
Though Jesus himself never orchestrated a mobilization of the masses, his example of the "suffering servant" of God has contributed much toward the empowerment of the meek. Facing the prospect, as we do, of intercontinental nuclear war and reprisal, the so-called idealistic solution to human conflict espoused by Jesus, seems now to be a more sensible approach to peace.
In the whole recorded history of religion and philosophy no teacher, priest or prophet had ever appeared to be so out of touch with reality. Undoubtedly, the estimate of some of his followers began to change. He sounded like a dreamer. Since that day neither his disciples nor their successors have been fully able to embrace the Master's unequivocating standard of righteousness when he said: "Love your enemies!"
The admonition to love one's neighbor had been heard before. One of the predecessors of Jesus, Rabbi Hillel, affirmed that teaching. And Confucius, 500 years before the coming of Christ, included similiar phrases in his "analects." But neither of these gifted teachers came close to the radical declaration of Jesus in Luke's record of the Sermon on the Mount.
Some of the living religions of the ancient East have laid great stress on meditation as a path to godliness. Body position and precise posturing is emphasized to facilitate what might be called concentrated spiritual relaxation. Christians and others have benefited from these disciplines. But once the seeker has gained the proper physical and spiritual poise, one must center one's attention on a single object or thought as a basis for unwavering reflection. Otherwise, the mind will wander or the eye will fall victim to the visual distractions.
For the Christian, no thought on earth is more deserving of our uninterrupted contemplation than the new commandments of Jesus:
Love your enemies,
do good to them that hate you,
bless them that curse you,
and pray for those who abuse you.
When you are slapped on one cheek
offer to receive a blow
on the other cheek as well.
If your cloak is demanded
by one with power,
take off your tunic and present
that to him also.
And when anyone requests a
favor of you,
respond, but do not expect
to be repaid.
Treat everyone as you would like to be treated.
This composite expression of Jesus is a call to be like God since God bestows the blessings of sun and rain, and all other divine benefits, on the "just and the unjust" alike. (Matthew 5:45) Jesus places before the faithful an interpretation of good religion which has an indiscriminate relational obligation. When he included the enemy and the oppressor, in order to illustrate his ethic, he eliminated the possibility that anyone could exclude anybody from love's redemptive embrace.
Like millions of pretending Christians, scattered across the earth, when I quietly study these weighty words of Jesus, I am humbled and embarrassed. As one sage has said: "Christianity has not succeeded because it has never really been tried." Honesty would prompt most of us to say that we have hardly tried it. But Christian determination, through the years, has encouraged us to keep on trying. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "If we go back to the old ethic of an eye for an eye, we'll all be blind."
Evidently, Jesus anticipated the unreadiness of his hearers. The rich and the poor, both of whom were present, were puzzled at the unilateral demands of the Master. His words sounded like a rebuttal to the inaudible questioning of the crowd:
If you only love
those who love you and hate those who hate you,
you are just like all
the other sinners.
If you only lend to or help
those whom you know
will pay you back,
what good have you really done?
You are like all the other
selfish sinners in the marketplace.
If you do good
only to those who
return the favor,
your good deeds are a pretense:
you are bargaining like all the other sinners do.
In his threefold comparison (vv. 32-34) Jesus forced his hearers to face the contrast between his standards of righteousness and prevailing practices. Then, as if to summarize the impact of his message, he said, "If you do all the things I tell you, you will show clearly by your godly acts that you are the children of God."
Some scholars have been careful to point out that the message of Jesus that day must not be compared to St. Paul's instruction to "overcome evil with good." (Romans 12-21) Jesus is saying: Do these things because this is the way God works in the world. This is the way God expresses to us continually the essence of the divine being. As the children of God, Jesus calls us to imitate the conduct of God.
There is a phrase in verse thirty-five that reads: "Accept nothing in return." The medieval church associated this with the Old Testament prohibition against the taking of usury. A Jew could not require interest from his kinsman, but he could from a non-Jew. There was also a period in the life of the church when Christians were not supposed to take interest for usury from other Christians. But, as in ancient Judaism, all kinds of subterfuges were employed to get around the rule.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his "Summa Theologica," christianized the notion of reasonable interest-taking. John Calvin, in the sixteenth century, accelerated this emphasis, requiring only that the wealthy tithe their usury profits and thus add benefit to the church. So the admonition against usury is seldom considered in connection with the so-called Beatitudes of Jesus.
In our day, interest-taking has become the financial backbone of the capitalistic system. Nonetheless, the abuse of interest-taking and usury does work to the disadvantage of the poor and to the advantage of the rich. The abuse of interest-taking remains one of the corrosive economic problems of our society.
In verses thirty-six and thirty-seven, Jesus warns against the exercise of merciless judgment. Those who deserve judgment also deserve mercy. Since utter honesty finds us facing our own faults, compassion needs to govern our processes of adjudication even as we expect God to show compassion and forgiveness toward us.
Verse thirty-eight presents something of a problem. These words were quoted each Sunday by my childhood minister in the ritual just before the receiving of the Sunday morning offering. But certainly Jesus did not encourage giving on a "God-will-pay-you-back" basis of stewardship. If so, that would seem to contradict all the Master had said in early sections of his sermon. This promise of recompense to the giver I interpret to mean that genuine generosity is an act of love and tends to elicit a loving response. Therefore, if one gives abundantly, our lives are more apt to be blessed by the response we inspire in others.
In our lifetime, two men have appropriated the love ethic of Jesus in remarkable ways, affecting massive individual and social change: Mohandas K. Ghandi, India's "Mahatma", and Martin Luther King, Jr., the apostle of "the beloved community." Ghandi attached the dignifying title "children of God" to India's untouchables. He employed the mutually redeeming love ethic of Jesus in his struggle with the British colonials. He outlawed hatred for the oppressor.
Ghandi mobilized India's bedraggled masses and the restless young intellectuals by giving a socially aggressive interpretation to the ancient Hindu doctrine of "Ahimsa." This committed his revolutionary movement exclusively to the strategy of nonviolent direct action, without hatred, in order to prod the unwilling British to grant India its freedom.
Dr. King had a dependable linkage with the Christocentric AfroAmerican church and the Anglo-American church as well. He was inspired by Ghandi's successful demonstration of the effectiveness of nonviolent direct action. He started his movement in Montgomery, Alabama, the seat of the Confederacy. King was able to prove that a spiritually-disciplined people could effect social change. He took literally the direction of Jesus to "turn the other cheek." With undiminished determination his followers accepted the angry and violent opposition of their oppressors without hatred or reciprocal violence.
The singular ingredient in the leadership of both men was their consistent rejection of hatred toward their oppressors. They both envisioned a reconciliation, beyond conflict, that would benefit the oppressed and the oppressor alike. So, in a nominally non-Christian country and a nominally Christian country, the Master's gospel of love won a greater victory than all the wars of history combined!
Jesus envisioned that the weak and the poor and the oppressed would absorb brutal blows. But bearing the brutality, without returning the blows, would have a lasting redeeming affect.
Though Jesus himself never orchestrated a mobilization of the masses, his example of the "suffering servant" of God has contributed much toward the empowerment of the meek. Facing the prospect, as we do, of intercontinental nuclear war and reprisal, the so-called idealistic solution to human conflict espoused by Jesus, seems now to be a more sensible approach to peace.
