Love Your Enemies And Right Relationship

 This past week in the Administration from Hell has really pushed all of my buttons. 

Our president has decided that Ukraine...which was invaded by Russia three years ago today...started this war, their leader is a dictator, and we are going to do peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin, one of the most evil and reprehensible foreign leaders in the world, without Ukraine's Volodymer Zelensky. 

Our vice president has lectured European leaders as if they are kindergarteners. 

The administration has fired two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--a Black man and a woman--claiming they were "DEI hires." 

Park rangers, biologists, JAGs in the military, any federal employee still in their probationary period with a government agency (so a lot of young professionals) have been fired with a mass email and locked out of their computers, so they can't download information like their performance evaluations to help them get new jobs. 

All of this benefits billionaires...specifically one billionaire: Elon Musk. He is eliminating the federal agencies that kept a check on his business interests, and appears to be data mining to get access to the trade secrets of his competitors who had government contracts. 

So imagine the joy of opening the Scriptures for the week and reading that Jesus wants me to "love your enemies."

I needed help...big time...to write and preach this sermon.

Thanks be to God for those men of God....the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Rev. Sen. Raphael Warnock. 

All of us who aim to do our best to walk with Jesus need to help each other. Maybe this sermon helps you. I hope it does.

Let me know what you think. 

Texts: Luke 6:27-38; Gen. 45: 3-11; 15....and Gen. 4:1-11

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I don’t think there’s a tougher piece of Scripture to hear than this week’s Gospel.

There is nothing more challenging…more counter-cultural…than a message to “love your enemies.”

And this Scripture is especially hard to hear right now in our country.

The animosity between groups of people has been building for years.

Distrust of the “other”…whichever “other” that is.. has been spreading like a wildfire.

Verifiable facts…like who started a war in Ukraine… are being re-written.

People are angry…families are split.

And here comes Jesus with “Love your enemies.”

If hearing it is hard…preaching on it is even harder.

And doing it…that’s the hardest!

It’s not as if Jesus was ignorant to the difficulty of his message.

He saw the abusive behavior of the Roman Empire.

And he understood the seething anger of his fellow Jews.

Remember last week’s Gospel lesson with the blessings and woes?

Jesus is there…on the plain…on the level with them in their tired and weary lives.

And yet…he still said…don’t return their hatred with more hatred.

Be different. Don’t behave like them.

A word we must still consider today in 2025.

How can we… when we’re witnessing chaos…and learning about people losing their jobs for no reason…how do we bring ourselves to a place of “loving” the enemy?

I think the best place to start is by thinking through some definitions.

When we hear “enemy” we might be thinking about those we see as foes.

That’s who those listening to Jesus had in mind with the Empire.

But an “enemy” might also be that person who we don’t like. The person we don’t want to be around.

Jesus doesn’t ask us to “like” people.

He says to “love” them.

So what does Jesus means by “love” here?

This is a particular type of “love.”

In the Greek of the New Testament…there are three different types of “love.”

There is “eros”…which is the romantic love; there is philia…which is where we get Philadelphia being “the city of brotherly love.” That idea of a kinship and bond.  

And then there is “agape” love.

This is a redemptive love…the creative and overflowing goodwill that doesn’t seek anything in return. The love that wants good things for all people.

It’s this “agape” love that is the “love of the enemy”…that Jesus is talking about.

In his book “Strength to Love” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. does a deep dive into what it takes to reach a place of having that agape love for the enemy.

Dr. King certainly knew the hardship of finding love for those who were prejudiced against Black Americans in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

King says the first step toward this agape is to do some inner work.

You can’t get to “loving the enemy” until you work on forgiveness.

One must be able to forgive the wrong that was done.

That doesn’t mean you gloss over what happened…or try to label an evil act as “good.”

Evil is never good.

And this also isn’t about being a doormat.

What forgiveness means is seeing the wrong for what it is…but not allowing that wrong to put up a barrier to relationship.

It’s that part of the Lord’s Prayer: forgive us our trespasses…our wrongs…our refusal to be in relationship to people and the planet…as we forgive those who trespass against us.

We can see an example of that in our first reading with the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph’s brothers had initially tried to kill him but instead they sold him into slavery in Egypt. Joseph, who had the gift of dreaming and interpretation, then went on to became so valuable to the Pharoah that he was now in a position of power in Egypt.

His brothers had no idea he had become so successful.

When they found out who he was…and how powerful he was…they were terrified that he was going to seek revenge for what they had done to him.

But Joseph didn’t use his power over them.

He had had time to reflect…and to see that what they had been meant for bad…had turned out better for him.

And really for them…too.

He forgave them. And a relationship that had been severed could now be repaired.

The brothers huddled together and they wept.

The other thing Dr. King notes about forgiving the enemy is the need to recognize a truth about the human heart.

Each of us is capable of both good and evil.

We all can love and hate.

I recently had a chance to rewatch a video that I had made for one of my seminary classes about the story of Cain and Abel.

If you don’t remember the story…the brothers…Cain and Abel…bring an offering to God.

Cain is a tiller of the ground, so in my video…he presents God with a basket of vegetables.

Abel is a shepherd…so he presents God with a choice sheep from his flock.

God accepts Abel’s offering but rejects Cain’s.

Cain gets angry…and God cautions Cain to be careful about this emotion…and tells him that he must master it or else it is going to take him down the pathway of sin.

Sin meaning a separation from God.

That separation…in this case…manifested in Cain leaving the conversation with God and going off to kill his brother Abel.

That’s an extreme example of what happens when hate gets the better of us.

But it illustrates what happens when we feel wronged and then we transfer our hurt onto the other who we think is getting something we aren’t getting.

That jealousy or envy becomes a barrier to relationship.

I think that’s what’s at the heart of the fear and the anger at diversity…equity…and inclusion.

There’s a perception that someone who is a woman…or is not white…or maybe is gay…is somehow “getting something” that they didn’t “deserve.”

Now this term “DEI” is thrown about as a bad thing.

But as Senator and Baptist preacher Raphael Warnock recently pointed out…those letters “D-E-I” spell “dei”…the Latin phrase: “of God.”

And we are all made in the image of God…the “imago dei.”

The diversity of the people in our workforce is a reflection of the diversity of people in our country…which is a reflection of the people in creation.

And as it says in the Book of Genesis…all those made in God’s image are “very good.”

Both the people we love…and the people we hate are “imago dei.”

We can’t forget that.

The Cain and Abel story is also a reminder that we can choose to either follow good…or follow evil…and that both emotions reside in all of us.

So often…the source of somebody’s hate is coming from a place of fear…or prejudice.

It’s built on the wobbly foundation of simply not knowing a person who is different from us…or not understanding differences.

Those barriers can be broken down if we take the time to listen to each other…and feel safe enough to share our stories with one another.

I can see some of that happening in the Episcopal Church around the issue of the boarding schools where our indigenous siblings were sent in the 19^th and 20^th century to “kill the Indian in them.”

Indian children were taken from their families and shipped off miles away to boarding schools…and stripped of their names and given numbers.

They were punished for singing their songs and speaking in their native languages.

While the trauma of those experiences will never be undone…the fact that the Church is now listening…and acknowledging that these wrongs were done in our name is the start of healing.

It repairs the relationships distorted by hatred by giving those hurt the dignity of being heard.

And it softens the hearts of those who have let their hatred…their fears and their prejudices…consume them and rob them of their humanity.

As we approach the end of Epiphany and the start of the season of Lent…I can’t think of a more important lesson for us than this one about “loving our enemies.”

Because we are going to need a lot more love in these next many years.

Things are not right at the moment in this country.

And I’m not just talking about what’s happening on the macro level of national and foreign policy.

As I said at the start of this sermon…we’ve been increasingly turning on each other in ways that are undermining our ability to be in right relationship with each other.

And when we are not in right relationship with each other…we are definitely not in right relationship with God.

When we see each other as only whatever partisan positions we take…or whatever other characteristics we are…gender…orientation…race…and we retreat into that place in our hearts that feeds on our fears of what’s different….we are starving and fasting our faith in God.

In this time…we are being called again by God to choose life.

Choosing life means choosing to stand for Love.

Because Love is the answer and the only force that can turn the enemy into a friend.

Love…that agape love…is that overwhelming and creative force that wants the good for everyone…and refuses to capitulate to the idea that goodness…life…love and light are in limited supply.

As Dr. King so eloquently said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

If we want to be seen as followers and believers in Jesus…we must be ready to take on the difficult task of Love.

We must be willing to see the imago dei in each other…both those who are friends and those who are enemies.

May Love and light be our guide.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.