Genesis 45:3-11, 15
3Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
4Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5And now, do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11I will provide for your there - since there are five more years of famine to come - so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.
15And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
Luke 6:27-38
27”But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35But 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 he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.
I was talking with someone after Lunch Bunch on Tuesday, and we got to talking about hymn selections in worship. Each week, I pick the hymns for the upcoming Sunday. While sometimes they’re just my favorite hymns, and other times they’re requests from the congregation, every once and a while, every once and a while, the middle hymn is the final refrain of my sermon.
Not often, but every once in a while, I put the conclusion of my sermon into your mouths and have y’all sing the good news to which I’ve tried to point. This morning, however,
This morning we reached back two months and grabbed a Christmas hymn, and lifted our voices out of season to sing “What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping.” This is the child who grew up to fulfill God’s promises. “But I say to you that listen, Love you enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
The warm feelings of Christmas have consequences, and they don’t stop when the decorations and wrapping paper finally make it back into the attic. The Son of Mary is also the Son of Man. “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”
So this Sunday, our opening hymn is also the introduction to the sermon. Remember when we all cooed at how cute the little baby is? Remember when we sang silent night, holy night? The calm and quiet has given way to commandments and challenging faith. “Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
This, this is Christ the king, whom shepherds guarded and angels sang. This commandment is difficult, it cuts across the grain of human nature.
Human nature is to love those who love us. Human nature is to do good to those who do good to us. Human nature is to lend to those from whom we hope to receive. None of those are bad things, they’re just the bare minimum. Doing these things makes us feel good about ourselves. But it leads to the divided culture in which we live.
If I love those who love me, then we end up with a very loving group, but it becomes almost impossible for anyone new to join that group. The love becomes a barrier, and the group closes itself off from the world. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” When we do good to those who do good to us, we end up with a group that thinks of itself as warm and generous, but nobody else knows the goodness they can do, and the needs around us are increasingly unmet. “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” When we lend only to those from whom we hope to receive, then we end up sharing things, but only with those whose gifts we value. Those who don’t fit, who have little to offer, or things to offer we hadn’t considered, are excluded. “If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.”
The whole fabric of human society is built on these kinds of social contracts. I will love you, if you love me. I will do good to you, if you do good to me. I will lend to you if you will return to me. But the social contracts are stained by the same sin that makes our salvation necessary. Two political parties who see one another as the enemy are the result. Divided groups who refuse to do good because there’s a chance the good might benefit one group more than the other. Haves and Have-nots grow increasingly distant from one another and each begins to resent the other.
It’s human nature to expect something in return for our efforts. We expect a reward for our good works. We expect others to get punished for their failures. We go to heaven, our enemies go to hell. It’s human nature to expect that.
But then we look again, more closely, at this passage.
There’s no if/then in this passage. Jesus’s verbs for how his listeners ought to act are not in the mood for that conditional possibility. We do not trade or bargain for the reward we are promised. We only receive what God has given us, “for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” God has elected to be merciful to us unconditionally. “Christian behavior and relationships are prompted by the God we worship who does not react but acts in love and grace toward all.”
Jesus is the embodied love of God. His command is for us to embody our love. Speaking love is not enough. Thinking love is not enough. Feeling love is not enough. Embodied love takes you mind, your heart, your cheek, your shirt, your generosity, your goods, your whole self. If you do all of these things, you can still expect nothing to change. Faith is not about changing the world, that’s God’s office. Faith is about responding to what God is doing in the world, especially the mercy God has already given us. When a Christian acts like a Christian, we’re not investing in good behavior, we’re showing grace. We are saying “this, this is Christ the king.” Loving even through he knows it will lead to his execution. Showing kindness to the ungrateful and the wicked is how the king of kings salvation brings.
Sometimes, loving our enemies will change them. But not often. Jesus tells us that we’re supposed to love them expecting nothing in return. After all, he loved his enemies from the very beginning, and the crowds still turned on him before the end. Sometimes loving our enemies will change them, but much more often, loving our enemies changes us. Loving our enemies brings us more closely in line with the will of God who loves us, God who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
You do not belong to your abuser, your hater, your curser, or your enemy. You belong to God in Christ. Their abuse does not define you. Their hatred does not limit you. Their curses and opposition don’t weaken you. You belong to God in Christ, who frees you to love them as Christ loves you.
Do what Jesus tells us to do, not because we’ll earn some new reward or avoid some new punishment. “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” We have already been shown grace, kindness, and steadfast love beyond what we could ask or even imagine. Do what Jesus commands because he’s Jesus, the embodiment of God’s love, who has claimed you forever even though we had him executed for challenging our human nature. God has chosen to love you, to love y’all, to love us, simply because God chooses to. Therefore, as Jesus promises, “Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” God has already redeemed us. So let’s act like it.
