First Reading: Genesis 45:3-15
3Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. 4So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. 10You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ 12And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. 13You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” 14Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.
Psalm 103:1-13
1Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. 3He forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities; 4He redeems your life from the grave and crowns you with mercy and lovingkindness; 5He satisfies you with good things, and your youth is renewed like an eagle’s. 6The Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed. 7He made his ways known to Moses and his works to the children of Israel. 8The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. 9He will not always accuse us, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. 11For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is his mercy great upon those who fear him. 12As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. 13As a father cares for his children, so does the Lord care for those who fear him.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30-42
21For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
30Why are we in danger every hour? 31I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. 35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
Gospel: Luke 6:27-38
27{Jesus said,} “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. 32If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. 37Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Playing By God’s Rules
I brought this up last week. So it should come as no surprise that God is an “out of the box” thinker. When it comes to how we’re to love God and others, who is blessed, and what constitutes being cursed, Jesus loves to flip the script on what the world teaches. Think about it. God is the ultimate “outside of the box” God – He can’t be confined to a tabernacle, won’t be pleased by a simple sacrifice, definitely won’t tolerate us having other gods before Him, makes relationships in terms of covenant, created humankind in His own image, gives people more chances than we deserve….and the list goes on. God can’t be confined or defined by our rational or calculating minds nor described in terms of our limited, “rational,” or “equitable” perspective on life or the universe. God is simply bigger than all these precepts, or any precept for that matter. That’s why God is God, and we’re not!
So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that God is constantly catching us off guard with unexpected outcomes and writing our stories with unexpected endings. And yet we’re always amazed, to say the least, and somewhat perplexed, possibly even angered, when God defies our human conclusions. Today in our Old Testament, epistle, and gospel readings, we see examples once again of situations that annoy and confuse us, because the challenge to our way of thinking is just so “outside of the rules” for us.
Of course, we must admit that the rules we’re talking about are our rules, the world’s rules, even the rules that we live our lives by. These are the rules that we unconsciously live by, measure things by, even measure others by. Like it or not, we’re a rules-loving people. Truth be told, rules help us to figure out how to live life fairly, justly, morally, and in an orderly fashion. They give us limits.
But rules also give us ways to measure each other’s success in living the way we “should.” Ah –the “shoulds!” We so love the “shoulds!” Do anything outside of the unspoken, confessed norm, and you’ll be slapped immediately with an admonition about what you “should” have done instead. I’m right, aren’t I? But here’s the kicker. God the Father and Jesus His Son are, more than anyone else, notorious rule-breakers. The question is, what on earth do we do with that?
Again, truth be told, when we really stop and consider it, God’s rule breaking can drive us crazy! That’s because God, and Jesus, are always, always, always confronting us with our “shoulds.” Additionally, God also challenges us about our “rules.” Questioning our sense of equity. Jarring us from our certainties. Like any challenge, it often takes us awhile to climb out of our boxes and get with the program of what God is trying to help us to see.
Today, Luke tells us about a particularly pointed conversation between Jesus and many who have come to hear Him. Some no doubt, there on that plane, thought He was completely off the reservation and discounted much of what He said. Others who were willing to learn and listen I’m sure were perplexed and curious. Those who were His disciples must have thought what He said was mind-blowing, but completely off kilter with the “way things had to be.” Or at least unrealistic. Why?
To answer this, we need to look at the story again. It’s no mistake that Jesus starts off by saying, “I say to you who are willing to hear.” Those who are willing to hear are people who can open their minds enough and put their preconceived notions aside of “the way things are” in order to contemplate something completely different and “out of the box”: loving one’s enemies. Let’s face it, the enemies of the Hebrew nation were the Romans. These were the people who taxed them, made them live by Roman rules and stationed Roman guards in towers that overlooked the Temple complex.
At any time, a Roman soldier could force you to become his pack mule and you’d have to carry the load for 1 mile. Tax collectors, Jews commissioned by the Roman government, could cheat you out of whatever they felt they could get from you. And if you spoke out openly against Caesar, well, you probably, at best, would be made an example of what not to do, or at worse, would never be heard from again. So I can imagine when Jesus said, love your enemies, some must have busted out laughing. Quite possibly some were even offended.
Most would have thought Jesus was defying the natural order of things or denying the way things were in the world. But then again, Jesus was never interested in maintaining the status quo, the “way things were.” Instead, He was interested in proclaiming the way things should be. Otherwise, why would He need to be there? Why give up His divine position in heaven to come in human form to preach about the kingdom of God, deliver prophesies, and to demonstrate God’s love to Jews and Gentiles alike, if we already have all the answers?
The problem is, we humans love to claim God’s high, holy throne for our own, and declare we know the way God thinks; surely Jesus thinks the way we do! I’ll leave you with that thought for you to ponder. In our Luke passage for today, Jesus is playing with a popular Jewish phrase called “midda k’nessed midda.” It translates “measure for measure.” It means that what you do will return to you in like fold. The Hindu’s call it Karma. We like to call it tit for tat. It’s the way Jewish thinking had been for thousands of years. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. It was the Jewish sense of equity that said, if someone does something to you, you do it back in even measure. What goes around, comes around, we say. The punishment should meet the crime. This, for the people, meant fairness, justice, equity, retribution.
But now Jesus comes along and says this, to “all who are willing to hear: love your enemies.” I can almost hear the pregnant pause Jesus used here for effect. He then continues: “Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks, and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.” That pesky Golden Rule! Needless to say, this was a revolutionary thought. And before you say, “well we all know that….,” ask yourself, do we really? I think this statement is still as revolutionary today as it was back then.
We love to think we’ve got it down, but dare I say, we hardly have it mastered. Think about our culture. How much of our culture today is still about rules, equity, justice, fairness, and laws, when it could be about love, mercy, giving, forgiving, and breaking apart the boxes that define us and confine us? Sure, we do good things, but most of the time it’s toward our friends, those we know and love, those we feel a cause for, our pets and pet peeves.
But how many times do we really do “good things” for the people who defy us, hate us, reject us, or disagree with us? The division in our culture right now would pretty much state, “no, we don’t.” Listen again to Jesus’ “out of the box” point here: “If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full.” It’s easy to live by our human rules of measure for measure: You do good to me; I do good to you.
But Jesus challenges that assumption and turns it upside down: “Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return.” This is what God does. God is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. “Be as compassionate as your [heavenly] Father is compassionate.” Stop for a moment and consider how good God has treated each of us. He has saved us, forgave us, and reconciled us to the Father, all at no cost. And He has given us the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. All we have to do is obey, love God and treat others with the same kind of love and generosity God shows us. But Jesus doesn’t stop here, He continues to flip the world’s script.
Jesus further drives His point home by taking our own concept of “measure for measure” and throwing it back in our faces: “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn and you don’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. The portion you give will determine the portion you receive in return.” Well, I don’t know about you, but that right there would have stricken terror into every listener that day. Think about it. Would you want God to do to you, the way you do by others?
Would you really want God to treat you exactly the way you’ve treated others in your life? Love you the way you’ve loved? Forgive you the way you’ve forgiven? I for one don’t think any of us would. No, when we pray, we don’t pray that God gives us what we deserve. When we pray, we don’t say, God, please give me justice for all I’ve done. Instead, when we pray, we plead with all our heart, mind, and soul, we throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus and pray, Lord, have mercy.
Our prayer is that God gives us mercy, forgiveness, love, and redemption. Truth be told, we can be a fickle bunch of people. So, says Jesus, if you really want to live by your own rules instead of God’s rules, then apply them to yourselves: Do you want an eye for an eye? Do you really want God to reward you with what you’ve done? You want justice for what’s been done to you? Do you really want God to exact justice from you for everything you’ve done? Do you really want equality –measure for measure? Do, you really want God to give you grace equal to your sins? No! No one wants that.
What we expect from God is total mercy, even while we want equal justice. No, what Jesus is asking of us is still challenging for us today: to throw away our rules-based thinking, and to take on “divine ways of thinking.” To get rid of our rigid boxes and start playing outside of the world’s rules. Face it, Godly love always, always plays outside human rules. Always. But this passage comes with a warning for us today.
In a few minutes we will pray the Lord’s Prayer as part of our Communion liturgy. Stop and consider this: When we demand our rules of tit for tat instead of giving love, and then pray the Lord’s prayer, we’re asking God to grant us forgiveness, “measure for measure.” Stop and think about the fifth petition…..forgive me my sins, even as I forgive the sins of others….. If that doesn’t stop you dead in your tracts, well, it should. But there is good news!
Jesus, knowing how difficult this is for us, sacrificed Himself for our sins, suffered and died for our redemption, all so that we might live, because He lives. Is this truly measure for measure as the world sees it? Not even close. That’s what we call unmerited grace and ultimate mercy. Love beyond love. That’s God’s way of playing entirely outside the rules. And I for one thank God for that! So, the next time you’re about to think about fairness, rules, equity, or the “way it’s supposed to be,” think instead of Jesus. Instead of tit for tat, choose love, forgiveness, kindness, mercy. That may not be the human way. But it is God’s way. And the way to achieve God’s will “on earth as in heaven.”
Amen
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