Seventh Sunday of the Year

Last week Jesus outrageously defined ‘blessedness’. Today we are told to love our enemies, do good to those that speak ill of us, abuse us and reject us. It seems a tall order. The constant call to love one’s enemies is seems inhumanly demanding and unrealistic, especially when so many innocents suffer under tyrants. And it is necessary not to minimise the pain so many people carry. Though some people have caused so much pain for others, and us, we do not need to reestablish the kind of relationship we had with them in the past. We are called to love them. It does not mean liking them. Because nonviolence expresses something at the heart of our faith, people do forgive and love their enemies. It can result in ridicule. For Jesus, this is an alternative to survival of the fittest, doing good for good and evil for evil, or do unto others before they do unto you which has been with us for centuries. It is important to remember that we are told to love our enemies. It does not mean we have to like them. It does not mean we feel good things for the so-called enemy, but that we view them as human, as members of the human family, and often broken as much as ourselves. It means dealing with them differently, to see the human person behind the violence or hurt. We can make the choice to act in ways that can help the other become more fully human and turn away from violent actions. The merciful love of God needs to flow from us to others. It does not mean being a door mat or neglecting injustice or ignoring human rights violations.

Jesus describes how we are called to live in covenantal relationship with God. The thriving of all creatures in God’s realm requires a different ethos from what has been in place. The first imperative, ‘love,’ is followed by some quite concrete examples. Each imperative includes ‘doing.’ Those who follow Jesus are to live as God lives, mercifully and generous beyond expectation, beyond comprehension. He is essentially advising anyone who will listen, ‘have mercy’ and not behave like those in authority who dominate and enslave. The Jewish writer, Peter Beinart tells how he and his family were changed through loving connections with Palestinians. James Baldwin was able to write of the racist situation in which he lived, ‘We, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are.’  (Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza)

Acting and reacting like the majority has got us nowhere. We need to be animated by a different spirit and respond differently. We are called to an entirely new way to live with one another. Jesus inverts life for us. Compassion is the only way to break a spiral of violence.

The words, ‘Love your enemies’ confronts and convicts us today as harsh orders and hateful comments emanate from the White House and our Parliament. Christian leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Desmond Tutu, despite experiencing oppression found a way to love. In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, ‘Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.’ The great deceit is to persuade ourselves that our interests are best served by not loving, which effectively makes everyone who is not our supporter our enemy. What others do cannot be our guide.

I believe we become like the God we adore. Our image of God affects us. If God is self-righteous or judgmental it would be easy to consign others a hell on earth or annihilate them with weapons or neglect the poor, endorse capital punishment, or committing genocide. However, in recent weeks Jesus has revealed a big-hearted and generous God. This God is not neutral or silent before injustice, oppression or violence. Paolo Freire reminds us that, ‘Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral’. When referring to the war against Vietnam, Martin Luther King could be addressing the USA today when he said, ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter … (and) … we cannot remain silent as our nation engages in one of history's most cruel and senseless wars. During these days of human travail we must encourage creative dissenters. We need them because the thunder of their fearless voices will be the only sound stronger than the blasts of bombs and the clamor of war hysteria.’ Elie Wiesel swore ‘never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.’

The genius of nonviolence is that we reach out and love those who hurt us because we see them as brothers and sisters. We are not called to passivity in the face of evil towards others or ourselves. Jesus resisted it and expected us to do the same. Resisting is loving. Loving our enemies is not about rolling over and allowing evil to have its way. It is just the opposite. It’s about active and resistive engagement with our enemies.

Though ‘Love your enemies’ sounds naïve when dealing with fascists and corporate oligarchs, this religious teaching is actually a form of resistance. Jesus drew on Scripture teaching that we must reprove, rebuke, and correct our neighbour when they are doing harmful things. Leviticus 19:17 calls us to refrain from hate and to reprove them when doing wrong. Confronting wrongdoing is an act of love, not hatred. Ezekiel 3:18-19 tells us that failing to warn others makes one accountable before God. This means we are responsible for saying something and doing something about what is happening around us. It is incumbent upon us to reprove, rebuke, and correct them. So, stopping fascists and oligarchs from doing evil is the loving thing to do! Peter Beinart says that when South Africa’s legal team charged Israel at the International Court of Justice, it seemed not only about ending genocide but trying to pass a torch. We need to take hold of the hands of wrongdoers  as a way of noncooperation with hatred, violence and injustice. Our task is not only to care for the afflicted, but to stay the hand of the one causing the affliction in the first place. As people of faith, we must take hold of the hands of the wrongdoers. It is a way of noncooperation with evil. It is the way to love our enemies. We must join hands with each other in order to stay the hand of those with patriarchal, racist, Christo nationalist and kleptocratic agendas. We need to take hold of the hands that do wrong. When Bishop Mariann Budde addressed Donald Trump during his Inauguration Service, she was effectively using her words to stay the hand of one causing pain, hurt, anxiety and asking holding up a light and asking him to practice mercy. And there was pushback and vitriolic backlash. She, like so many in our neighbourhoods, in our communities, stand in a long line of people who take their faith out into the world to create what we proclaim in our churches, synagogues and mosques. We create new coalitions and connect with existing ones. And we stay the hand of those doing evil because that is the way to love your enemy.

In the Manual of Hadith, the Prophet Muhammed says: ‘Help thy neighbour whether he is the doer of wrong or wrong is done to him.’ His companions said, ‘O Messenger! We can help a person to whom wrong is done,

but how could we help the one who is the doer of wrong?’ He said: ‘Take hold of his hand from doing wrong.’ (Hadith 2444, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.)

As Lent approaches, let us grow in our awareness of who Jesus is and experience much more deeply God's boundless, unconditional love for each of us. When we have experienced that, we will be able to love others, even our enemies.