February 23, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Seriously Jesus? I mean, seriously? Have you SEEN what is going on here in the US?
Sometimes I can imagine a conversation with Jesus going like this: Jesus and somebody, let’s say their name is Ollie, are sitting on a bench somewhere. Ollie has just heard this bit from the sermon on the plain, and says:
Ollie: Yeah, I hear ya, but you know… look what they are doing – abusing God’s beloved children and creation too. I mean, come on, didn’t even the Hebrew scriptures say there was “a time for love and a time for hate?”
Jesus: Good song by The Byrds too.
Ollie: Yeah, the 60’s – good music.
Jesus: Yup. So, here’s the thing. There is a time for love and a time for hate, but not in the way you’re thinking.
Ollie: Oh, here it comes – you’re gonna tell me I have to love and forgive and all that. But Jesus, I don’t want to. I am really pissed off right now.
Jesus: And well you should be too.
Ollie: Huh?
Do you ever feel that way? Wanting to love as you are called to do, but being so hurt by what is happening to you and others that hate feels so much better and forgiveness, oh the hell with that? Well, you are not alone.
Now last week, on the Jesus channel, he was in a level place, looking up at his disciples, and telling them that the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are persecuted in his name are blessed. Then he said that those who were rich, full, laughing, or well liked – well, things aren’t going to go well. He was doing his usual table flipping of how things work in God’s kingdom. Well, that’s good, right?
And now for today’s episode. He is still standing on this plain, and continuing in his sermon, he tells his followers “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
I sometime think he should have added, “for nothing will annoy your enemies more.” Seriously, it’s true. You should see the venomous reaction I get when I reply to a social media post meant to hurt me with “I will pray for you.” It really pisses them off.
Now first, I want to be absolutely clear about something. Jesus is not telling us that we should allow ourselves to be abused – not at all. He is saying that we should not allow that abuse to be continued by holding tightly to our anger and desire for revenge, because that only condemns us to that deep and dark place out of which hatred is born. And that hatred will not only kill others physically, emotionally, and spiritually – it will kill the one who bears it too.
We see that type of hate emerging in our time, don’t we? Yet we know what we are experiencing in this country is not new. Hate is as old as humanity.
When our lives are not what we hoped for, when things are tough, we look for someone to blame. That someone is rarely those who are perceived as stronger than us, is it? Yes, we sometimes blame whoever is in charge, but those leaders then tell us to look elsewhere for targets, and we foolishly believe them. “You know, it’s because of that group of people that my crops aren’t growing, or my job was lost, or I can’t provide for my family.” And “that group” is nearly always a more vulnerable bunch of people. The bully in us comes out.
We saw it in Nazi Germany when high inflation and depression level poverty hit the country after WWI. And, out of the ashes of that misery rose someone who promised that he would fix it – and told them who to blame for it – Jews, and then also those with disabilities, oh, and also non-Germans, homosexuals, trade unionists… It’s all their fault. Yup – get rid of them and all will be fine.
We see it today in our country and others. Immigrants – they are to blame for our problems – “those people” who don’t look or speak or pray like us – get them out. Even today, Germany is having an election in which a fascist party, the AFD, is gaining ground, and supported by our nation’s leaders, if you can believe that. It seems we do not learn the lessons of history, and it is to our own peril.
Here’s the thing though – once “they” are all gone, are things ever better? No. What do you imagine happens then? The snake begins to eat its own tail. Because that is what fear, anger, hate, and bitterness does – it kills the bearer of it, not the target of it.
Jesus knew that, and he also knew what is the cure for it – love and forgiveness.
The thing is, when every day we are bombarded in the news cycle by the hateful rhetoric and actions of a wanna be king and his lieutenant wielding a chainsaw as he puts tens of thousands out of work, denies the dignity of whole groups of people, and spews vile comments on social media, these words of Jesus can seem a bit too altruistic, even downright unreasonable.
I am reminded of something the Rev. Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr. said in a sermon in Montgomery, Ala. about this very scripture passage. He said, “far from being an impractical idealist, Jesus has become the practical realist. The words of this text glitter in our eyes with a new urgency. Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.”
If we consider the condition of the world in which Dr. King preached, marched, and ultimately was killed, and the calls by some in the civil rights movement to fight the violence against them with violence, we come to realize that if his faith could place this knowledge in his heart, perhaps there is hope for us too.
And as for this type of love being unreasonable, well hell yes – it is! Love…when seen through the eyes of Jesus…looks unreasonable, and that is what makes it life changing. Yet it can also seem impossible to us. I mean, come on…how possibly are we to do that?
Yet, countless people through the centuries have offered us examples – real examples of this. Okay, we heard the end of one in the lesson from Genesis today, but we have more modern examples too. Nelson Mandela, for one, whose story is well known. Yet, there is also Corrie Ten Boom, who, along with her family, were arrested by the Gestapo for being a part of the Dutch resistance movement. Her family hid Jews behind a false wall in her home, among
other acts of great courage to aid those people, especially the disabled, in the face of Nazi terror. Corrie, her sister Betsie, their father Casper, and others in their family and those who worked alongside them in the resistence were ultimately betrayed & imprisoned in the concentration camps. Corrie survived.
After the war, Corrie saw that rehabilitation of those affected would be needed, and set up a refuge house for concentration camp survivors and later for those who were jobless. In 1946, Corrie returned to Germany, where she met with and forgave two Germans who had been employed at Ravensbrück, the camp she and her sister were sent to, one of whom had been particularly cruel to Betsie.[1]
I think there are very few of us who could imagine having the kind of love that brings about forgiving on the level of Corrie Ten Boom or Nelson Mandela. Yet Jesus knew something that Corrie and Nelson seemed to know too – that when we allow our pain to build into hate, we will inevitably kill our soul and harm others too. It is the battle we wage within ourselves between love and hate whenever unchecked power inflicts its ruthless acts on the vulnerable – be it the schoolyard bully, the abusive spouse or parent, the ultra-rich, or even the leader of a nation. Yet often, that is how those who abuse others come to that place in their lives – they themselves were victims. That is what it can do to you.
In the book, 8 Keys to Forgiveness, Dr. Robert Enright offered a contrast between power and love, which helps to understand how each affects not only others, but also ourselves:
“…Power is rarely happy in any true sense. Love understands happiness. Power is highly rewarded in cultures that worship money. Love considers money to be a means to an end, not an end itself…
Power wounds—even the one who exerts the power. Love binds up the wounds, even in the self. Power is joyless even when it is in control. Love includes joy.
Power does not understand love. Love does understand power and is not impressed. Power sees forgiveness as weakness and so resentments might remain. Love sees forgiveness as a strength and so works to eliminate resentment.
Power rarely lasts because it eventually turns inward, exhausting itself…Love endures even in the face of grave power against it.”
It is that last one that I think is most helpful to us, and what Jesus also knew would be helpful to his followers. Love will always overcome power in the end. Hate will always destroy, most especially itself.
Does that mean that when we see all these terrible things happening day after day after day, we can only respond with love and forgiveness? No! Hate and righteous anger has a place.
We should hate injustice.
We should hate war & violence.
We should hate abuse & oppression.
But, if we are to love one another as Christ loved us, we must not hate the people who do these things. We will, of course, from time to time. Yet that is why the confession is so important, and why staying rooted in Christ Jesus – here at this table, in scripture, and in prayer – is life giving.
If we are ever to defeat the hate we see, it cannot be through hate and bitterness, but only through love and forgiveness. That is what Jesus was telling us. You may know these words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” It is also on a lot of social media memes – and that is a good thing. But the longer quote tells us why this is so important:
In an essay titled “Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community,” King wrote, “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
Indeed. Hate toward another child of God only makes the night horror darker and longer for everyone.
See, I think that is why Corrie Ten Boom’s story is so good for us to hear. She had every reason to hate, to not forgive, to be angry. Instead, she not only chose another path, but remember what she did afterward? She set up a rehabilitation center for other survivors and later for those without a job. Why do you think she would do that? I suspect that she knew the roots of the hate she saw, and wanted to prevent it.
She knew that by caring for those in need, it is not only just and her call as a follower of Jesus, but she just may prevent the next Hitler from rising up and taking power.
Ten Boom chose instead to stop the cycle and return cruelty with forgiveness and hate with love.
We need to choose that too. And it ain’t gonna be easy, and I am quite certain it wasn’t for her either. Yet we, and so many others, are the only ones harmed when we do not at least try with all our hearts. And when we feel we are falling short, when we fear we are filling up with hate, we come here to be nurtured, forgiven, healed and renewed for the work we need to do.
And from here, together with Christ, we will be the resistance movement of our day – shielding the vulnerable from the powerful, fighting against oppression, and defeating hate in the only way possible – with love.
Amen.
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrie_ten_Boom#cite_note-auto5-21
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
February 23, 2025
Epiphany 7 – Year C
1st Reading – Genesis 45:3-11, 15
2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50
Gospel – Luke 6:27-38
