A Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock
[Genesis 45:3-11, 15; 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50; Luke 6: 27-38]
On the heels of last week’s rendering of Jesus’ sermon – what we refer to as the “Beatitudes”, St. Luke conveys the fact that life on God’s terms is radically different from the way the world offers and orders life. I believe that it is fair to say that the gist of Jesus’ sermon in last week’s gospel lesson can be summarized with words we use a lot around here – Confession: With words that I use a lot around here! “Everyone is religious. The issue is what we worship, what we hold at the center”.
In his teaching, Jesus seeks first to make clear what life is like with the Maker of heaven and earth at the center and by comparison what life is like with any and all attempts to replace God with someone or something more manageable. For instance, Jesus says that being poor has the capacity to be a blessing, but only if the room such poverty creates allows God’s presence and life to enter in. On the other hand, Jesus also teaches that if we see the hunger in our life as a haunting emptiness that we must satisfy in order for us to be happy, then (Jesus truthfully says) the reward for such unbridled consumption not only never touches our deepest hunger; but tragically that hunger also continues to haunt our souls into a deadly obesity.
So it is that Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke’s version) or his “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew’s version) raises the fundamental question: What’s at the center of our lives? What gives us life – even and especially in the face of fear and death? Moreover, in today’s gospel Jesus gives us some very specific things to do when we allow the God-life to guide us. Enter this week’s gospel lesson from Luke: Part II of “Life on God’s Terms”.
Today’s gospel begins in such a matter-of-fact way that its essential point is easily overlooked. That opening verse says: “…I say to you who listen…” Then, he conveys some of the things that need to be done, as a reflection of God is at our center. Jesus instructs us to: “Love [our] enemies; do good to those who hate [us]; bless those who curse [us]; pray for those who abuse [us].”1
Anyone still listening? “Can you hear me now?”
Jesus continues: “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. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.” And just in case our hearing and our willingness to listen haven’t completely shut down, this overarching punchline: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”2
So, are you listening? What do you think? I am reminded of what a former South Carolina parishioner once quipped: “Now he’s gone from preachin’ to medlin’.” What’s the reason that this set of Jesus’ teachings is hard to hear, hard to absorb, hard to live? The answer to these questions stem from last week’s gospel and its inquiry about what we hold at the center of our lives: God’s life or the world’s life?
Ed was a parishioner of mine a long time ago. In fact, he was a member of the parish’s “Search Committee” that called me to be their priest and rector. Ed earned his living as a member of the Human Resource Department of the most influential corporation in that region. I assume that his professional skills and experience counted for his membership on the parish team that was seeking a new priest -- Human Resources and all.
In this vein, I recall a conversation with Ed, in which he revealed his approach to how his “Human Resources” skill worked. With a twinkle in his eye and a wry smile on his lips, Ed instructed me on what “resource” directed the “human” part of the relationship. With a bit of triumph in the tone of his voice, he said, “Well, first I make a deposit; and then I make a withdrawal.”
With all due respect to Ed, that is the world’s way life is conceived and operated. Relationships are transactional. Deposits are made with the purpose of making withdrawals. Life together is about making a deal: “You scratch my back, and I will scratch yours.” However, what often remains unsaid in the transaction is that if I am really clever, if I’m a really good negotiator, I’ll get you to do more for me than I return to you. “The Art of the Deal”, as “they” say.
Transactional living, transactional “religion” produces winners and losers. And between the two options, we all know which of those we want to be. But Jesus speaks and Jesus demonstrates something very different than life as one series of transactions after another. Jesus teaches and demonstrates what relationships are like when they are grounded in the nature and reality of God, when life’s connections are grounded in the abundance of grace (that is, getting something that we don’t deserve: a gift) and mercy(that is, not getting what we do deserve). For the record, Grace and Mercy are the two sides of the coin that is love.
So, to that part of each of us that argues with Jesus about the ethics of the God-life, how impractical, how unrealistic they are in this transactional, power-hungry, grabbing world – to that part in all of us, I beg you to “listen” – to listen beyond our kneejerk tendencies and fears to see what is behind the moral (that is, the life-giving) principles of Jesus’ teaching. And what lies behind the ethics of the God-life is God and the life God eagerly, abundantly, lovingly gives.
“Ethics:” Ethics have to do with how our actions are shaped by the principles that occupy our deepest selves. At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles that affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics (how we make choices) reflect the “why” (the purpose) of our lives. Be that as it may, the ethics of the God-life as Jesus presents them are not intended to function as a new rule book but rather as a way to provide an orientation, an attitude of our hearts that is rooted in God’s heart. So, the fundamental question of what is called “moral theology”, what directs how folks like us choose (step by step) to be more and more Christ-like, depends on what “God” we believe in and what we believe is in God’s heart.
Listen to and look at Jesus, if you desire to know what God’s heart is like.
For instance, if our notion of “God” is colored as a gloomy, demanding father, then our reflection of this “god” in our choices and actions will also be cold and demanding, never satisfied with us or what we do. This “God” is to be feared and avoided at all costs.
A real-world example: If in relationship to Elon Musk, I must make a deposit to him, the truth is that Elon Musk doesn’t care about my puny deposit. He has already sized up his withdrawal from me. The transaction is rigged.
Yet, if our notion of “God” is rooted in what we see in God’s Christ, then all our choices have consequences but our choices (even the ones that oppose God in our lives) will always be met with grace and mercy – which is to say met with love. And therein lies the reality of new and abundant life with God – no matter what.
Now be clear; “listen”: God’s love does not “kiss everything and make it all better”. That’s a fairy tale, which lets those who subscribe to fairy tales off the ethical hook. No, God’s love, God’s grace and mercy mean that there is more to our lives than our bad choices; and to the extent that you and I can keep this God at the center and keep the one Jesus calls “Father”, “Abba” in mind and in our hearts, we can risk loving our enemies. We can risk not cursing those who hate us or abuse us. We can risk not hitting back when hit, not rendering evil for evil. And therein lies the reality of our hope and our redemption.
So, we pray: Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
The ethics of Christ surely do not come to us easily or naturally, but we can gradually come to that place of non-violence and the soul’s health, wholeness, and peace, not to suffer evil as hapless victims, “losers” of the transaction. No, in confronting the destructive evil that “enslaves us” (as our “Confession of Sin” expresses it), we are not victims. Rather, we expose evil by the way we live. And we all know what light does to the darkness.
And lest you think that “Emmanuel: God with us” is AWOL (and sometimes I think that), God-in-Christ has fully entered our circumstance, which is what the cross is about: exposing evil that God’s light may shine upon it and transform, redeem what is broken into new life. So, could it be that the Cross of Christ is God’s turning his other cheek? The result is that fear and death are overcome, transformed, and liberated because with God there is more than fear and death.
I close with two references about all this – references I offer for your Lenten listening, prayer, and reflection.
The first comes from the Prayer Book’s “Collect for Fridays”, which speaks to what God’s people face in the world because this is what God’s Christ faced. The Collect says this: Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace…3
The second is this proclamation of God’s grace and mercy:
We could not become like God, so God became like us. God showed us how to heal instead of kill, how to mend instead of destroy, how to love instead of hate, how to live instead of longing for more. When we nailed God to a tree, God forgave. And when we buried God in the ground, God got up.4
With all the noise around us, listening is hard. God help us to listen to life and love, and help us to follow Jesus, that we have the integrity and courage to accomplish what you give us to do, and endure what you give us to bear. Amen.
1. Luke 6:27-28
2. Luke 6:29-31
3. Book of Common Prayer. “Morning Prayer”, p. 99
4. Rachel Held Evans (6/8/81 – 5/4/19)
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