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Preached by Ken Pennings on Sunday, August 1, 2010
Each Sunday this summer, we’ve been looking at the Phoenix affirmations developed by a group of progressive Christian pastors in the Phoenix area, some UCC pastors and some from other denominations.
They felt the public face of Christianity that now pervades our society does not reflect the way most Christians view and practice their religion. The Affirmations express a more traditional, inclusive, and expansive role for Christianity.
Today’s affirmation — Christian love of neighbors includes: Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies.
I was particularly drawn to this affirmation, and I asked Winton if I might preach on this one, because it is for me the greatest test of my own Christianity.
Many of us don’t have the luxury of associating only with people we like and who like us. Many of us live and work with people who consider us their enemies, who do their best to make our lives a living hell (present company excluded, of course).
With such people, can we, as progressive Christians, continue to walk humbly with God and acknowledge our own shortcomings? Can we seek to understand and call forth the best in even our enemies?
Last week, I was talking with my friend who is a Catholic priest. Throughout the summer in his parish, he has invited church members to submit written prayers on the theme of the week. Many prayers have been submitted every Sunday except last Sunday when his theme was “Love Your Enemies.” He shook his head, and asked me, “We pray for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why is it so hard for us to pray for the Iraqis and Afghanis themselves?”
Loving our enemies is tough.
The Dali Lama said, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
Do we progressive Christians agree with that? Is it always possible to treat others with kindness, even our enemies?
As progressive Christians, we know that the way we behave here with one another and toward other people beyond our walls is the fullest expression of what we believe. We’re more concerned for the way people treat each other than for the way people express their beliefs.
Nowhere are our true beliefs tested more than in our attitude and approach toward our enemies.
We read in chapters 5-7 of Matthew how Jesus led a crowd up a mountain and preached a sermon. He said some astonishing things, like “Love your enemies, pray for those who abuse you.”
My life-partner of German descent looks in vain to the Sermon on the Mount for the principles that guide HIS life, like “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” and “No rest until the work is done, and the work is never done,” and “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing perfectly.”
Jesus didn’t say any of those things, as I’m quick to remind John. But Jesus did say, “Love your enemies.”
I picture the crowd scratching their heads saying, “You can’t be serious! Love my enemies? Love the Roman soldiers oppressing us? Love the tax collectors who are extorting us? Love the religious leaders who are laying heavy judgments on us?”
Jesus said other astonishing things, like “Judge not, that you be not judged… Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
–A profound question we should ask ourselves every time we point the finger at someone else thinking, “It’s your fault. You’re to blame.” Every time we point our finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at ourselves.
What is the log in our own eye?
Haven’t we all been brainwashed into believing that we’re not right unless someone else is wrong? …We’re not good unless someone else is evil? …We’re not worth anything unless someone else is worthless?
Jesus challenges our brainwashing and says, “In the realm of God, in what we’ve come to think of as ‘the Jesus community,’ there’s another way to live. That way is not passing judgment on anyone at all, even oneself. Not finding fault with anyone at all, even oneself. Not vilifying, demonizing or making an enemy of anyone at all, even oneself.
Here’s the reality: others may make an enemy out of us, but there’s no need for us to make an enemy out of them.
As soon as I wrote that last statement on my computer, my mind jumped to a colleague of mine whose adult daughter was brutally murdered. Her murderer was apprehended, tried and convicted. She has met the man in prison and has met his mother. She empathizes deeply with the man’s mother because both of them have lost their children. My friend now travels all over the world telling the story of how she practices love, mercy and forgiveness for this inmate, and others like him. Despite the evil he perpetrated, she chooses not to make an enemy of him. In my mind, she embodies the sermon Jesus preached better than anyone I know.
I doubt the crowd listening to Jesus on the mountain side was really able to embrace his teaching any more than we can embrace the idea of loving someone who might have murdered our own son or daughter.
I’m sure Jesus perceived this. So what does he do?
He leads them down the mountain to the plain, to the city of Capernaum, where he embodies the very sermon he preached. It’s their practicum. He demonstrates for them exactly what he means when he said, “Love your enemies” and “Judge not that you be not judged.”
On the plain, Jesus and the crowd following him encounter all kinds of people in all kinds of life-situations – a Roman soldier, a tax collector, a religious leader, and a number of sick people. Jesus loves and heals them all.
Love your enemy, says Jesus. Why here’s one now! (Matt. 8: 5-13).
A Roman soldier approaches Jesus and explains that his servant is paralyzed and is suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”
With humility, the soldier responds, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
Jesus was astonished and said to those following him, “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” And he said to the soldier, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And the servant was healed that very hour.
Jesus sees faith in a very unlikely character, in a Roman soldier. Jesus sees God in someone we wouldn’t expect to find God at all. In the ENEMY!
And the Roman soldier was bringing as much of God to Jesus as Jesus was bringing to the Roman soldier.
Bewildering, isn’t it, that God is in the very people we fear, distrust, and find fault with? Look in their eyes. Whom do we see? We see God.
And THIS is the way Jesus turns a crowd into a community. One after another, Jesus sees God in each and every person.
In the realm of God, in the Jesus community, all are brothers and sisters; there are no outsiders; and the community includes even the enemy.
All kinds of people are in what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the beloved community.” –Jews and Gentiles, privileged and unprivileged, healthy and sick, soldiers and civilians, sinners and saints – this is God’s community.
And who are we to point a finger at ANYONE, and say, “You don’t belong to the community!?”
We who listen to the Sermon on the Mount (in chapters 5-7) now see modeled on the plain (chapters 8-9) just who IS included in the household of faith. We open our eyes to everyone around us and see the one-world family of God, what Dr. King called “the world house.”
Wouldn’t it be marvelous if all humans began living like they’re part of the same household!?
Wouldn’t it be transforming if rather than judging or making enemies of others, we see God in every person we meet?
My partner John and I own a couple rental properties in Madison. Believe me, being landlords is NOT an easy job. We’ve had altercations with tenants who have considered us their enemies, and who’ve attempted to make our lives a living hell. The challenge for us is to live our Christianity in these situations, with these very people, to walk humbly before God, acknowledge our own shortcomings, and to seek to understand and call forth the best in these tenants.
After the last difficult episode with a tenant who was threatening to sue us, I kept my cool and said, “Remember Ken, when you look in her eyes, you’re looking into the very eyes of God. Whatever you do, don’t demonize, vilify, or make an enemy out of her. She is the revelation of God to you.”
Don’t get me wrong – we’re not friends. But at least we worked things out without killing each other.
The Dali Lama said: “If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.”
Mother Teresa stated, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
Mohandas Gandhi mused, “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
Years ago, a colleague phoned and left a message saying, “Ken, you need to do two things: 1) Call me immediately, 2) send out an email to the entire board apologizing for your actions. You had no right to include the entire board in a conversation about the purchase of new equipment. I’m handling it.”
In the scheme of things, I knew the tension between us over the purchase of new equipment was going to subside. We’d had run-ins before, and had always found ways to work through the conflict.
But for me, it didn’t change my immediate reaction to her voice message. It triggered a whole print-out in my heart and mind that was coded in me from early childhood. “What’s wrong with you? You’re a failure. You can’t do anything right.” These thought of self-doubt and self-loathing then triggered other thoughts of self-defense and self-elevation, like “What did I ever do to deserve this? She has no right to talk down to me in this way.”
And I was trapped in the tit-for-tat power struggle of winners and losers, right and wrong, good and bad, insiders and outsiders. She made an enemy of me and now I would make an enemy of her.
After a number of sleepless nights, I eventually prayed, “God, this anger and hatred is eating me alive. I know my only option is to love her. I choose not to enter into a power struggle with her. I will not make an enemy of her. I will forgive her and pray for her.”
Isn’t this what we progressive Christians are about? Turning a crowd into a community?
Dropping the club of judgementalism, using both arms to invite, embrace and assist others? Some in our community are people we’ve overlooked and ignored. These we now seek to love up close and personal.
Others have hurt, harmed, and abused us and we’ve feared, demonized, or made enemies out of them. These we now seek to love, but from a safe distance, if necessary.
Those we least expect to be part of God’s community are the very ones who bring as much of God to us as we bring to them.
Amen
Related material:
Don’t criticize because you don’t know all the facts.
Ill. I read about an owner of a manufacturing plant who decided to make a surprise tour of the shop. Walking through the warehouse he noticed a young man just lazily leaning up against some packing crates with his hands in his pocket doing nothing. The boss walked up to him and angrily said, “Just how much are you paid a week?” Well, the young man’s eyes got rather big, and he said, “Three hundred bucks.”
The boss pulled out his wallet, pealed off three one hundred bills, gave it to him, and said, “Here’s a week’s pay. Now get out of here and don’t ever come back!”
Well, without a word the young man stuffed the money into his pocket and took off. The warehouse manager was standing nearby staring in amazement. The boss walked over to him and said, “Tell me, how long has that guy been working for us?”
The manager said, “He didn’t work here, he was just delivering a package.”
When I look at your life and see your faults, I am, in fact, blind to the problems that dwell within my own heart. For instance, if my heart was as pure and as holy as I would like to believe it is; I would not be focused on criticizing and condemning you for your failures. I would, instead love you, pray for you and try to help you. I would not be in the business of tearing you down, but I would be seeking how I might build you up and restore you!
John’s “lay down your weapon” to “embrace, invite, and assist.”
Ill. There was a lady in an airport who bought a book to read and a package of cookies to eat while she waited for her plane. Well, after she had taken her seat in the terminal and began to read this book, she noticed that the man sitting one seat away from her was fumbling to open up the package of cookies on the seat between them. Well, she could hardly believe her eyes that a stranger would just open her bag of cookies and eat them. He took one and ate it. She was so hot and steamed. She reached into the bag and took one and ate it. Well, the man didn’t say anything. He just reached over and took another cookie. This woman thought to herself that she wasn’t going to let him eat all of her cookies, so she took another cookie. When they finally got down to one cookie, the man reached into the bottom of the bag, broke the cookie in half, ate it, glared at the woman, got up and left. This lady couldn’t believe this man’s nerve. She was thinking to herself how fresh and arrogant he was. Soon the announcement came to board the plane. This lady got on the plane, still hot and bothered at the audacity of this man, sat down, buckled her seat belt, reached into her purse for a tissue, and there was her bag of cookies.
