Today's Sermon

 

"Especially Them:  Do Unto Others 1"

 

First Reading - Proverbs 27:19
Just as water reflects the face,
so one human heart reflects another.

“Especially Them:  Do Unto Others 1”

         Let us get back to basics.  It’s the beginning of our ministry year and we are staring a series, “Do Unto Others” as in, “as you would have them do to you.”  Don’t get stuck on the surface, for it is not saying impose your preferences on the other.  Rather, treat others with the full humanity you would expect.  It is a basic teaching of Jesus, though one found in many forms across many spiritual traditions.  Still, how many who claim to follow Jesus or another tradition fail to grasp or enact it? Too often the enacted edict is, “Do unto others, unless…” 

         Our “Do unto others” comes from the sixth chapter of Luke and Jesus continues:

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for [God] is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as Abba, God, is merciful.

It is easier to do well to others when they have done so to you.  What about when they have not?  Love even them?  Yes, says Jesus, especially them. 

         We went up to the Mt. Shasta area, a last bit of summer getaway before the full force of the year sets in.  We camped in this beautiful setting on a lake, in the shade of pines, with a clear view of the mountain only to be surrounded by people blasting music, drinking, smoking, partying, yelling and cursing, all around their small children till 2:00 in the morning each night.  Love them?

         My point is not to be anyone’s buzzkill.  It’s at least part curiosity.  What an interesting phenomenon –going out into nature, but bringing in truckloads of stuff, running generators, bright lights and speakers, bringing in everything to the place you usually go to escape things.  I don’t mean to judge.  Maybe they’re not into nature at all.  Maybe it’s just an affordable way to get together with people you enjoy.  I brought creature comforts too—a tent, a sleeping pad, a cookstove.  I just wonder why go there if you don’t want what “there” uniquely has to offer?

         It hit me; this can be a metaphor for faith.  Sometimes people come to faith but don’t want to leave behind anything of their old life:  wealth as life’s ultimate pursuit, violence as a means to solve problems, and vengeance for those who have done them wrong.  Why come then?  Why go into nature if you don’t want the nature?  Why turn to Jesus if you’re not interested in following?  Am I to love not only my friends but my enemies, even them? Especially them. 

         We might thinking being faithful means having no enemies, but Jesus’ teaching presupposes the opposite.  Jesus taught us to love our enemies because he knew we would have some.  Don’t pretend they don’t exist; love them.

         I wondered what today’s first reading had to do with the second:

Just as water reflects the face,
so one human heart reflects another (Proverbs 27:19)

It’s poetic, but what does it mean?  Does it mean one heart will offer a true reflection of another the way a mirror does?  In that sense, hate would beget hate, as it seems often to do.  Does it mean one heart can give another the chance to notice something about oneself as a mirror can, giving an opportunity for change? Does it mean there is a base commonality among all people, a beating heart, that connects?

         Here’s a connection to Jesus’ teaching.  Somehow all of this is about the human heart.  When Jesus is speaking about loving our enemies, he is speaking about a disposition of the heart.  He does not tell us to tolerate abuse, though he endures it himself.  He does not say to live without boundaries.  Jesus even teaches elsewhere to be shrewd (Matthew 10:16). What he never says is to be cruel.  He is as concerned with our inward disposition toward others as our actions:  “You have heard that it was said…‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sisterwill be subject to judgment’” (Matthew 5:21-21).  We are not to foster an ugliness of the soul.  Let your actions flow from a good heart space so it may reach the tough places and people.  The love Jesus is talking about is not small, superficial, or merely sentimental.  It’s a transforming love for the lover and sometimes for the loved. 

         I watched a documentary this past week about those who had escaped a cult.  One woman sued the cult leader, and just after serving him with papers, she had an interesting reflection.  She felt badly.  Perhaps there was a bit of Stockholm syndrome, that she had understandably mixed-up feelings, but I sensed it was something deeper.  She didn’t regret serving him papers, trying to hold him accountable and prevent further harm.  Yet, having been hurt, she didn’t want to perpetuate more hurt, even to the one who had hurt her.  Hmm. She had internalized a love for enemies her so-called spiritual teacher never had.

         It’s easy to worship when we’re doing well, live out our values surrounded by our friends, have integrity when it’s going our way, but as Jesus puts it, “what credit is that…?”  Jesus calls us to the hard.  You practice the faith in the easy times forthe hard times.  Maybe this is the moment is you’ve been preparing for, right now. Now is when we see how serious we are about following Jesus.  Are we ready to stand up to those doing harm without trying to cause them harm ourselves? Are we ready to risk some measure of our wellbeing to protect others?  Are we willing to join a losing cause now on the sure and certain hope—I know that’s a loaded paradoxical phrase—the sure and certain hope that in the mornign love wins?  In the end, the cross is made of weak wood and the stone is brittle compared to the love made flesh? 

         Speaking of mornings, it was maybe 4:00 one morning on our camping trip.  By then, even the most committed partiers had gone to bed.  I unzipped the tent and stepped out into the night air.  All was quiet except the night sounds, though even many of those had faded, that time of the changing of the shift from night animals to day. Before I turned on my headlamp, I looked up was greeted by the most marvelous of star-filled skies.  When you go out into nature and are willing to leave behind all the other stuff, it’s not deprivation; it’s fulfillment.  It’s more.

         The is true faith.  You can leave a lot of what you carry behind because what you will find is better than what you have given up.  Love even my enemies?  Especially them.

         Amen.