Epiphany 7
GOSPEL READING:
Luke 6:27-38 – (NIV)
27 Jesus said: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
(after reading)
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise be to you, O Christ.
SERMON
Did you know that as part of our training for pastoral ministry we were required to do a course called clinical pastoral education. Now I went to the Seminary for 2 years, and then had two years at home with chronic fatigue syndrome, and then went back. This requirement came in while I was away, so I graduated without doing it!
Don’t worry though.
I did do it, just a few years after I was ordained.
Kind of like counselling, although we're not trying to be counsellors. It was to help us in our pastoral care.
One of the things that I found interesting is that people would come to us and talk about the problems they were having with someone else and ask us to “fix” that other person. And we had to tell them that we can't fix anyone, but we could try and help them: the person who was in front of us right now. And they would say that “the problem isn't with me it's with this other person.”
And you would hear things like “this person did this to me which made me have to do this or which made me upset or which made me react in this way…”
But do you realise that no one can make you do anything? In every situation, you actually have a choice as to how you will act or speak. In other words,
“What you do does not dictate what I do.”
This is such a hard thing to get through our heads. Over our lives we have reinforced in ourselves certain ways of dealing with things that we go to without thinking. Someone attacks us and “bam!” we fight back. Our default setting is to use defence mechanisms that we might feel are completely justified but can still cost us friendships and relationships. “After all” we say “they started it.”
But remember:
“What you do does not dictate what I do”
A story:
I had this particular situation years ago where I was driving from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast. Now I can't remember exactly what they did but this person I believe cut me off in traffic, with a move that I thought at the time was downright dangerous as well as inconsiderate. As a perfectly justified defence mechanism (I thought) and for my own safety my left hand ended up in the middle of the steering wheel, as I hit the horn to let them know my displeasure, and that I was in fact there.
Instead of the contrition I perhaps had been expecting I received a very Australian salute out the window of their car, and my blood started to boil. How dare they?
As they raced off at speed my foot went to the accelerator to chase them, and as I found my speed creeping up I suddenly realised (in a moment of self-awareness) that I had to make a decision. How was the rest of my day going to go? What happened next would determine that one way or another. If I continued with this anger, if I ended up doing something stupid in return because they had done something stupid, my day could get a whole lot worse.
But here's the stupid thing, I was actually going on holidays. I was on my way to relax and unwind. A quick check of my emotions told me that I was not relaxed, and was I ever wound up. Now I'm not trying to brag but I believe I did the most adult thing that I had ever done in my life up to that point.
I took my foot off the accelerator, I slowed back down to the speed limit, I took a deep breath and realised that I was about to give someone that I didn't even know an immense amount of power over me. I was about to give them the power to ruin my day.
I decided then and there that they had no right to have the power over whether I had a bad day or not. That choice was up to me. So I kept intentionally deep breathing, letting the adrenaline of the fight flight or freeze reaction melt away, and I put some music on, and went on my way to relax.
That event stands out for me not because of the actions of that person. It's telling isn't it that I can't even remember what they did now or what kind of car they drove but I can remember that I learned a very important lesson.
“What you do does not dictate what I do. “
Jesus said love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
By the way, now if I'm ever greeted by that very Australian salute in traffic I tend to freak people out by making the sign of the cross in response. I think that scares them more than anything else. And it reminds me who I am and whose I am. I recommend you try it sometime.
I will not give someone else the power to let them ruin my day.
The late American philosopher, mathematician, scientist and author David Hawkins said “Everything is an invitation to react.”
We can jump straight back into those knee jerk reactions and defences that we have used all our lives. We can take an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. But to quote the Indian cleric Mohandas Gandhi: “an eye for an eye makes the world blind”.
We can learn so much from this that is of benefit to us personally, in our spiritual lives, in our inner self, in our social and work situations. But this was not the main group to whom Jesus was speaking with these words:
This is about life lived in a group. Luke records in the sermon on the plain that Jesus was speaking to two groups, the smaller group of his chosen disciples and a larger group of those who would be his disciples. Even that group was made up of two different ones, those from the religious areas of Jerusalem and Judea and those from the more commercial areas of Tyre and Sidon.
So if Jesus is talking to his disciples (plural) then he's not talking to me or you so much as he's talking to us as a church.
So how do we respond in a way that is considered, that is gracious, when someone or something hurts us as a church, and that could be as a congregation or a wider church body. How do we respond to those who have been making false accusations against the LCANZ since the October synod made the decision to read and interpret the word of God in a more consistent way than ever before?
We have never faced physical persecution as a church but many around the world have. How do we love our enemies?
How do we give as God gives?
I found it really interesting when Jesus talks about this good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. This is the way God will give to us. Do you think this sort of giving from God to us is in reaction to what we deserve what we have done for him? No way.
Jesus said in John 14: 27 “I do not give to you as the world gives”.
The way God gives is not repayment, it is not salary or remuneration for work done. Thank God we do not get what we deserve.
What God gives is gift: not because we are worthy of the gift no this talks about the nature of God, and who he is.
This is a God of love and a God of grace.
He gives just when we need, just when we are empty.
He fills just as we are at our most hollow.
We have become so used to grace that we almost consider it a birthright. But it isn't the grace of God should astound us every day. It is our undeserved joy. That's what makes it grace. It is rich blessing beyond anything we deserve well beyond anything we need.
And as disciples of Jesus Christ grace is our ambition. It is how, if we do not react but act in love we have the privilege to respond. What are honour it would be to be known as people of grace, people not blown about by every wind and storm, a church not snapping back at every slight, but one that cares four and welcomes those who speak against it, who accuse it of all sorts of things.
Prayer: Lord Jesus make us like you: slow to speak or defend ourselves quick to love and to forgive, help us pray for those who persecute us & love those who would do us evil. As you have been gracious to us make us people of grace in return. Amen.
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