The Rev. Kristin Krantz, St. James’ Mt. Airy
Epiphant 7C, February 20, 2022
Genesis 45:3-11, 15, Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42, Luke 6:27-38
Gracious God, take our minds and think through them, take our hands and work through them,
take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.
Today we pick up where last Sunday’s gospel left off and continue with the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of Jesus’ most famous sermon. Having opened with a series of blessings and woes, Jesus now turns his attention to instructions for living.
How shall we live? The first thing he says is to love your enemies, and it doesn’t get any easier from there. Jesus’ list goes on to include doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you, and praying for those who abuse you.
As if those weren’t enough, he then instructs to turn the other cheek to those who strike you, give your shirt to those who take your coat, give to everyone who begs, and not to ask for the return of items people steal from you.
Before I go any further, I want to be clear on something. Like any teaching, this one is vulnerable to distortion. Any of the above situations can be misconstrued to prohibit withdrawing from abusive situations. But that confuses love with acquiescence.[1]
True love acts to end abuse – primarily for the sake of the abused, but also for the sake of the abuser, who harms them self as well as their victim. Thus withdrawing from abusive situations and relationships, and holding abusers accountable, is not only consistent with “loving our enemies” – they’re expressions of it.[2]
With all that being said and taken into account, all of the precepts Jesus laid out are hard live by, not the least of which is because they are not fair.
Well Kristin, you may be thinking, life isn’t fair! And you’re right – it’s not.
But think about how much of our lives, and the world we live in, are “return-oriented.” Terms like quid pro quo, return on investment, and fair exchange go beyond classrooms and boardrooms and are a part of our everyday lingo. Sure, we may treat each other with respect, but only so long as it’s reciprocated, right?
Which leads us to verse 31, what at first appears the climax of this passage: Do to others as you would have them do to you.
The so-called Golden Rule wasn’t invented by Jesus, it was a common maxim in the ancient world. Over the centuries it has often become shorthand for “be fair,” which is interesting because that is nearly the opposite of what Jesus meant. Hang on, I’ll circle back to that in a moment!
Because far from being the climax, the Golden rule is actually the foundation of this passage. From there we see a crescendo begin to build with the next three verses.
In each, Jesus posed a question and asked what credit it was to you if you do something expecting fairness, because even sinners do it for that reason.
Like a rhetorical drumbeat it leads us to the heart of Jesus’ sermon which is found in verse 35: But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.
Expect nothing in return is the center of this teaching. It is the thread that ties everything together, and it’s what Jesus was pointing to in the Golden Rule.
Do to others as you would have them do to you is a practical way to begin living a faithful life, with the emphasis on would.
It’s a concrete way to invite us into loving our enemies – treat them like we would like to be treated. It’s a tangible way to lead us into doing good – do things for others we would like them to do for us. It’s demonstrable way to be generous – give to others like we would like for them to give to us.
Would is not about fairness, and it is not reciprocal. It may lead to reciprocity, but it is built on the assertion of doing something because it is the right thing to do – because it is the loving thing to do, expecting nothing in return.
And that’s what this entire sermon is about – self-giving love. Jesus is telling us to love like God loves us.
God’s love does rest on reciprocity or quid pro quo. It is a love that keeps no accounts. It is a gift, not a payment. It requires neither prior merit nor subsequent compensation. It’s completely free. It is truly a love that gives and expects nothing in return.[3]
This is the love Jesus calls us to live out as “children of the Most High,” human beings created in God’s image. When we love this way we embody the imago Dei, that is, the image of God – making God’s love known to the world.
And so, as we come close to the end of this season after The Epiphany where we’ve been exploring what it means to live our baptism, today’s gospel directly answers the question, “How shall we live?”
We are to live by loving and expecting nothing in return – to love beyond fairness, and beyond exchange. We are to love extravagantly, a love filled with mercy and grace. And we are to do this because through our baptism we are children of God and members of this family of families we call the church.
This love is what we were born for, let us live it every day of our lives. Amen.
[1] SALT Project Lectionary Commentary for Epiphany 7C.
[2] SALT Project Lectionary Commentary for Epiphany 7C.
[3] SALT Project Lectionary Commentary for Epiphany 7C.