Loving our Enemies – Yeah Right??
Gate Pa – Year C 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022
Psalm Psalm: 37:1-11, 39-40
First Reading: Genesis 45:3-11,15
As we listen to more of Jesus’s sermon on the plain, I wonder who are my enemies, and what does it mean to love them? The Parihaka story helps us see this teaching as how we are to live God’s non-violent resistance to all that seeks to destroy life giving community. AS MLK says, we are to be extremists for love: blessing, giving, praying for and living for those beyond our borders.
· who are our enemies?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
What a week to be given this text. Worst
timing!
I was quite happy in my outrage at what is
happening in Wellington; at the protestors’ actions, and the police’s inaction,
and along comes Jesus with all this “love your enemies” stuff.
So, who are my enemies? Does it include those
in Wellington, and those who support them? And what does it mean to love them?
If I am honest, I am not at all sure about any
of this.
2. Communal Reading
Today’s gospel reading is part two of part
two. It is part two (well, in the way the lectionary writers have broken this
section up, not in the gospel itself) of Jesus sermon on the plain or level
place. And this sermon acts as a part two to what Jesus read from the scroll of
Isaiah in Nazareth, declaring it all fulfilled.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18 and 19)
Also,
as I said last week this teaching is a continuation
of what Luke has offered in his gospel so far. It echoes Mary’s song of
protest. It nods to lowly shepherds being the ones who are told of the coming
saviour, not the rich and powerful. It lays out the value system that lies at
the heart of the year of the Lord’s favour.
The year of the Lord’s favour in Torah pushed the reset button so
that God’s people could again look to live the kind of community that is life
giving for all, and for all life. This is the kind of community that Isaiah
longed for. The kind of community longed for throughout scripture. The kind of
community that Jesus came to bring about, is still working to bring about. The
kind of community we pray for every time we pray the Lord’s prayer – “Your
kingdom come; you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
And so here he is on a level place, where no-one is more elevated
than any other person. The geography reinforcing his words.
He
reverses his societies reverence of the rich and powerful and describes the poor,
the hungry, the homeless, and the grieving of utmost importance.
And
now he goes on to describe how those who look to follow him, were to join him
living in the reign of God, living as we pray “your will be done.”
3. Non-violent resistance
The
trouble is that we often read this as addressed to individuals, which it isn’t.
And we read it as requiring us to just take whatever is being dished out. In
the worst cases women and children in violent and abusive situations were told
to turn the other cheek and take the abuse. Indigenous people were told to give
to whoever asks and not demand the land back.
And so it goes. The wealthy and powerful have used this to entrench
their entitlement and to justify their abuses.
But
this is not what Jesus is asking people to do. His examples of loving, doing
good, blessing, and praying for were not about being a doormat. They were about
non-violent resistance.
For
example, in a world where the honourable way masters can publicly strike their slaves
and servants was with the back of the right hand, imagine if all slaves and servants
then turned the other cheek. There is no honourable way they can be struck.
One
of the most famous exponents of non-violent resistance is Mahatma Gandhi and
the campaign he led to end British rule in India.
Gandhi himself was in part inspired by the story of the prophets Te Whiti Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi of Parihaka in Taranaki. Their community resisted the actions of the settler government which sought to claim land confiscated 15 years earlier. They pulled up survey pegs and fenced and ploughed up roads and paddocks. In doing so they asserted in a non-violent way, continuing Māori ownership of the land. The government responded by arresting the ploughmen and sending them to the South Island. Māori Hill in Dunedin is a reminder of that time.
Bryce, with artillery on the hills overlooking the village, the people of Parihaka welcomed the invaders. Children were at the front singing. Food was offered. Men and women sat in silence. The men were arrested, much of the village destroyed, and some of the women were raped. Over the next weeks the inhabitants were forced to leave. Te Whiti and Tohu, with the others arrested, and like the ploughman before, were held without trial until 1883 when they were released. Just as in Jesus’ time, they did not avoid the calamity, but they did avoid a massacre. And they kept their mana, and the village and the work of peaceful resistance continues today. It was not the end of their kaupapa.
4. Martin Luther King Jr
One of those inspired by Gandhi is MLK who used non-violent resistance to advance the civil rights cause in USA. There were many who disparaged his approach. Malcolm X wanted Black Americans to have the right to protect themselves from abuse and violence from white vigilantes and police officers. Many white people claimed that his civil rights movement was causing divisions within America society. But the scenes on national television of unarmed protestors resisting the brutal tactics of police and others using non-violence persuaded President Kennedy to support civil rights legislation and helped President Johnston win an election with overwhelming support to enact change. If only the Vietnam war had not distracted him.
5.
These words
of Jesus
These
words of Jesus are not about my attitudes to Wellington protestors. Well, in
part they are. But they are about how we as a community resist the powers that
seek to destroy life giving community. How we as a community live in ways that
through loving, doing good, blessing, and praying for, build God’s community in
this place, where all might thrive. Gandhi, Te Whiti and Tohu, and MLK show us
what that might look life.
And
if I am honest that mostly feels beyond me. Because that does affect how I see
those protestors, whether I want it to or not.
And
Jesus knew that. We can see in this text that Jesus knew that what he was
offering was tough. And Luke knew that too. He is supposedly writing to the
wealthy Theophilus. I wonder what he was making of all of this.
Jesus
begins with, in the CEB, “But I
say to you who are willing to hear,” One of the commentaries I read suggested
it can also be read “But I say to you are still listening,”
- Are we still listening, or did we switch off during the beatitudes?
- Are we still willing to hear?
- To live this way is not easy.
6.
Advent
Conclusion
I
have been carrying on with an Advent reflection process that I did not complete
in Advent. With the themes of waiting and expectation, it felt relevant as we wait
with expectation for omicron to sweep through us. Last week one of the words
was magnify. As I reflected on that, and on Mary’s words of protest, and on
this reading, I was aware of my struggle with all of this. But I was also aware
of the invitation to at least take a step on the way Jesus offers – the way of loving,
doing good, blessing, and praying for “my enemies” however I understand that.
Sometimes
all I can do is pray for them. That sometimes is enough. Because that little
start allows the Spirit of God to work, sometimes gently sanding, sometimes
radically altering, my attitudes and actions. So I offer my theme again and
invite you to reflect on
- who are our
enemies?
- what does it mean
to love, do good, bless, and pray for them?
"Love your enemies"
Love those who bug us,
who climb up our nose,
who make us so angry,
and we fail to love
as much as we might.
Maybe just love a bit.
And somehow in the mix
that smidgeon of compassion
is magnified
enlarged
stretched beyond our imagination
and we learn
to love
to let go
to breathe.
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