Scripture
All translations by the Rev. Dr. Wilda A. Gafney, from “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W.”
Give thanks to SHE WHO IS MAJESTY, for she is good,
and her faithful love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of SHE WHO SAVES proclaim,
that she redeemed them from the hand of the foe.
And she has gathered them from all the lands,
from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
They wandered in the wilderness, in the desert;
no path to a city fit for settling did they find.
They were hungry and thirsty,
their souls fainted within them.
Then they cried to SHE WHO HEARS in their trouble,
and from their distress she delivered them.
And she led them on a straight path,
to a city fit for settling.
Let them give thanks to the WOMB OF LIFE for her faithful love
and her wonderful works for the woman-born.
For she satisfies the thirsty soul
and the hungry souls she fills with goodness.
They cried to the MOTHER OF ALL in their trouble,
and she delivered them from their distress.
She sent forth her word and healed them,
and saved them from their pits.
Let them give thanks to the WOMB OF LIFE for her faithful love
and wonderful works for the woman-born.
Let them sacrifice sacrifices of thanksgiving
and tell of her acts with shouts of joy.
~ Psalm 107: 1-9, 19-22
“You have all heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ Yet I say to you all: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of the One in heaven who begot you; for the sun—which belongs to God—rises on the evil and on the good, and God rains on the righteous and on the unrighteous woman or man. For if you all love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your sisters and brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Sovereign is perfect.”
~Matthew 5:43-48
Meditation
We are having an adventure.
I don’t know about you, but this morning my heart is drawn to what we read in Genesis, in the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible:
So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. ~Genesis 1:27
To be made “male and female” is to be made in the image of God.
Before moving on to the passage from Matthew, I want to acknowledge that hearing the words of the Psalm incorporating feminine language for God is brand new for all of us, including me. It’s uncomfortable. It’s thrilling. It’s confusing. And yet, we have an opportunity to listen for newly-revealed nuances of meaning. What, for example, does it feel like, to hear that a God who is called “Mother” hears her children’s cries? What does it feel like to have the classic Biblical euphemism for humanity—sons of men—replaced with the phrase “woman-born”?
The changes in our gospel reading are fewer, and more subtle, but still vital to understanding more fully what we are reading. First, notice how the translation emphasizes something we might forget about when reading this excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus is speaking, not to a few friends, but to a crowd. “You all have heard it said…” “… but I say to you all…” Notice how “all” modifies that “you,” something we might miss otherwise.
And of course, we can see that “sisters” are included as well as “brothers.” There’s even equal opportunity to be evil or good, as we name women as well as men.
Now, let’s get to the heart of that gospel reading.
Love your enemy. Pray for the one who persecutes you, because your enemy will feel the warmth of the sunrise, just like you. Your enemy will see both sunny days and rainy days, just like you. Love your enemy, because guess what? God loves your enemy, just like God loves you.
This feels like bad news to me. The idea that we must love those who may have wronged us, may have harmed us, may have left their mark, physically and/ or psychically… that just feels like bad news. How can we love our enemies?
And, hey, Jesus, I’d like to point out an uncomfortable truth here: the way you talk about tax collectors and Gentiles at this moment in your sermon—it kind of feels like you’re identifying some the crowd might consider enemies. You might consider them enemies, too. [Spoiler alert: we’ll come back to this next week.]
Here is a timely reminder: Love isn’t a feeling, or, at least, it isn’t merely a feeling. It isn’t only a feeling. Love is a verb, as well as a noun. We “love” by our actions, not in proportion to the residue left by others’ actions. We don’t have to “feel” loving toward our enemy in order to actually behave in loving ways towards them. With that in mind, I’d like to offer a three-part plan for loving our enemies.
1. We can love our enemies by remembering they, too, are made in God’s image.
2. We can love our enemies by praying for them.
3. We can love our enemies by being kind to them.
1. We can love our enemies by remembering they, too, are made in God’s image.
One way to love our enemies is to begin to re-train ourselves about how we think about them. Our society is filled with evidence that groups of people are labeling other groups of people in harmful, deadly ways. People are being called “animals.” They are being called “groomers.” One essential piece of loving as God wants us to love is to refuse to categorize human beings in dehumanizing ways.
As for personal enemies: We can’t erase the things they may have done to harm us—we are stuck, as it were, with the reality of unkindness, even cruelty. But somewhere in that person we have labeled “enemy” is a human being, whom God fashioned in their mother’s womb, just as we were fashioned.
Imagine what they might have been like before life twisted them into someone who was able to cause such pain and hurt. Could it be that they, too, experienced pain and hurt? Hold the knowledge of God’s loving creation of them, in God’s own image, side by side with your experience of them, and know that both are true.
2. We can love our enemies by praying for them.
In 1964, when a Federal judge ordered that the schools in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, should be de-segregated, one little girl was sent to be the first Black student at an all-white school. Her name was Ruby Bridges, and she was six years old. An interview with Bridges recounts what happened next:
The first day, a crowd gathered, shouting and throwing things. [Ruby] thought it was a Mardi Gras celebration.
When she entered the school, every other child was removed by parents. Teachers refused to have her in their classrooms. Only one, Barbara Henry from Boston, agreed. Children gradually came back, but for most of that first year, Ruby and her teacher were alone in a classroom. The daily threats and protests continued.
Protests were so violent and relentless that federal marshals were assigned to escort the little girl to school every day.
But something else happened every day. Every day Ruby prayed for the angry white mobs who didn’t really see a little girl so much as they saw something they thought was being taken from them. Every day she prayed asking God to forgive the people who were yelling at her. Ruby’s parents and her church had taught her that forgiveness and love were the only correct response to hate.
Some of us have prayed for our enemies because we know that’s what we’re supposed to do (Jesus said so). So, your motivations don’t have to be any more complicated than that. We pray to God, telling God the truth—which is really our only option. And we lay the brokenness of the relationship at God’s feet and, if we’re not quite where Ruby was, spiritually, we can even put our own angry spin on it. But eventually God will have her say and have her way with us. Eventually, our desire and God’s will sync up, until it is God’s prayers that are coming through us. Pray for your enemy. This is one of the best ways we can love them. It also happens to be one of the best ways we can experience God’s love at the same time.
3. We can love our enemies by being kind to them.
In the 12th chapter of the letter to the Romans Paul writes,
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. ~Romans 12:19-21
Scholars have been wondering, pretty much for the last thousand years, what on earth Paul meant by that part that goes, “this will heap burning coals on their heads.” He’s quoting Proverbs there, but still, what does it mean? A plain reading of the text sounds like this is Paul at his passive-aggressive best, basically saying, “Be kind! It will drive your enemies bonkers.” Session and Deacons who are reading the book on kindness, take note!
As it turns out, that phrase about burning coals stems from an ancient Egyptian practice. It is an idiom meaning, “repentance.” Being good to your enemy leads to the very real possibility that they will change their ways.
Love your enemies, Jesus insists. And we can do that. We don’t have to have warm fuzzy feelings toward them. All we need to do is to ensure that our actions are loving. We can love our enemies by remembering they, too, are made in God’s image. We can love our enemies by praying for them. And we can love our enemies by being kind to them, in whatever form that takes.
Imagine what a revolution that would be for our world, if all who claimed the name “Christian” truly entered into this commandment of Jesus’ wholeheartedly.
Imagine what an adventure THAT would be.
Thanks be to God. Amen.