Loving your enemies is exhausting

Epiphany 7

February 23, 2014

Matthew 5:38-48

This past week I received an e-mail from one of my best friends, Kirsten, who is a fellow pastor and missionary at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church and Refugee Service in Cairo, Egypt.  In her e-mail, she reflected on the violence that has been going on in Egypt, violence that almost forced the ELCA to hold her back from going over there this August, even though her husband was due in Cairo to begin teaching at the American University in Cairo.  The last time this Gospel text came around, three years ago, there were peaceful protests taking place in Cairo.  Folks demanding that President Mubarak step down during a wave of peaceful revolutions that happened in the Arab Spring.  But now things are not so peaceful.  Here is a portion of what Kirsten wrote to me this week.

“There are days when I want to shout and scream, "Why? What do you want to accomplish?  Do you really think this is working?"  It is so frustrating and sad to see the violence that has become regular news.  My Twitter feed on Saturday morning almost always includes the "body count" from Friday protests around the country.  In that case, it's primarily State Security Forces firing live ammunition at Muslim Brotherhood supporters, who continue to insist that Mohammed Morsi is the legitimate president and should be returned to power.  In the last 6 weeks or so, there have been more attacks from Islamist groups targeting State Security (police and army) posts, vehicles, members, etc.  There was a horrible bombing in Mansoura on December 24, where the city's security building was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing 16 and injuring well over 100 people.  On January 24, a bomb exploded outside a security building in central Cairo, killing 4 people and injuring several others.  In that case, the bomb exploded early in the morning (6:30 AM on a Friday, which is like 6:30 on a Sunday in the States) so there were not many people out and it could have been so much worse.  Sunday, a tour bus was attacked in the South Sinai (coming from St. Catherine's monastery), killing 3 tourists and the driver.  All of these attacks have been perpetrated by Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an al-Queda linked Islamist group based in the Sinai.  It is horribly disturbing and so very, very sad.

Granted, I am not Muslim and, while improving, my Arabic is pitiful, so my Egyptian contacts tend to be well educated, English speakers, and are mostly Christian.  But among the Egyptians I do know, everyone reiterates, this is not the country we know and love.  The violence & hatred are limited to such a small, but loud, powerful, and well-armed group, who are making life tense for everyone, Christian, Muslim, Egyptian, and foreigner.  The Egyptians I have met are kind, generous, and want peace in their country.  While there are sometimes tensions between Christians and Muslims…for the most part, people seem to generally want to mind their own business, go about their lives, and do what they need to do to care for their families”

“You have heard it said ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evil doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;”  In a continuation of exhortations that began last week, Jesus has changed focus from relationships with families, friends and spouses, to relationships with our adversaries.  And he begins with a very familiar passage that originated in the Code of Hammurabi but also found its way into the Hebrew Scriptures.  “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,” (Exodus 21:24).  It sounds harsh, but this rule was actually put in place to limit one’s ability to retaliate for a wrong done to them and made sure that the punishment for a crime committed was not outlandish in comparison to the crime committed. In other words, it was a law written to prevent incidents like what has happened in Florida under the poorly written Stand Your Ground Law which has gotten so much press with the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and Chad Oulson.  But Jesus takes eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth one step further…’do not resist an evil doer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. If someone sues you for your coat, give them your cloak as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” 

Now, taken the wrong way, this text has been used in some inappropriate ways.  Some have used it against people who are being abused, that if they continue to turn the other cheek, they will eventually be delivered from their abuser and their reward will be great.  Others have used this passage to convince people to accept where the injustices of life have left them, because God put them there for a reason.  I’m convinced that this is not what Jesus is saying.  If this was what Jesus intended by turn the other cheek, the concept of non-violent protests to stand up against injustice for the oppressed, like those of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Arab Spring would not have been inspired by these words of Jesus. 

Jesus’ words to the people on the mount are revolutionary and they are inspiring.  I believe that what Jesus is trying to teach the people is that when faced with situations where injustice and oppression are bearing down, don’t let anyone take your dignity, humanity, or your child of God-ness away from you.  Instead, show them by your peaceful actions that you will not sit idly by while you or your neighbors are being trampled upon. 

Jesus doesn’t stop there, however.  He goes yet another step further. “You have heard it said ‘love your neighbors and hate your enemies.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” So not only are we to not retaliate against those who oppress us, we are supposed to love them, too, and include them in our prayers.  Now, gathering for peaceful protests Tahrir Square is one thing, it’s an entirely different thing to summon up enough love and prayers for our enemies…and yet, this is what Jesus is asking us to do. 

If you took a poll of Egyptians today, I am guessing that very few would admit to having prayed for Al-Queda…I doubt that many members of the Muslim brotherhood would admit to having prayed for the State Security forces, and so on.  And if you were talk to the average American mother of a teenage boy, many of them may be surprised that Jordan Davis’ mother has said publically that she has forgiven Michael Dunn for killing her son over loud music. 

But this is what Jesus is telling us that we should do, love our enemies and pray for those who we would rather not love. It’s a hard task to contemplate and an even harder one to carry out.  In fact, it would probably be much easier to be a good Lutheran and respond to Jesus by saying “well, that’s interesting, Jesus…but to be honest, we’ve never done it THAT way before.”

But if we take a look at the bigger picture, here, like in the rest of the sermon on the mount, Jesus is calling us into kingdom living.  A way of life in which we do radical things in response to the love of God.  And if we look at it this way, it is possible to suggest that Jesus is not telling us that we should pray that we may return to a relationship with those who persecute us in hopes of reconciliation, but rather that we forgive, and by doing so, release our persecutors and enemies from their ability to hurt us.  When we forgive, our enemies might not be changed, but we will be changed for the better.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t an easy thing to do.  And to be fair, Jesus never said it would be.  However, amidst the difficulties and the struggle to be good disciples and to live lives following in Christ’s example, there is also amazing blessing.  When it seems that the world is crumbling around us, we have a call and a challenge to be agents of love and forgiveness.  Love and forgiveness that bring freedom, for ourselves and for those around us.  And, though we are not perfect and sometimes we need help engaging in this kind of living, we can always look to the cross and there we will see an innocent man beaten and bruised praying these words for his persecutors:  “father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing.” May Christ’s example empower us to peacefully stand against injustice, to love those that we find the hardest to love, and to look beyond the letter of the law to find the radical nature of God’s love for the world. Amen.     

It's not enough...

Epiphany 6

February 16, 2014

Matthew 5:21-37

If there were ever a text that revealed to the world that there is truly no such thing as a biblical literalist, this is one of them.  “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.”  You can’t be serious now, Jesus, can you?  And the answer is no.  Jesus is merely using an exaggeration.  He really doesn’t want us to maim ourselves.  But he does want to get our attention.  And if telling you to tear out your eye or cut off your hand doesn’t do it then, well, you may be physically present but your mind definitely isn’t.

As we become witness to this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, we really have come a very difficult portion of the message this week.  Anger, lust, cutting off hands, divorce, vows…so much time and so little to think about…wait, strike that, reverse it.  A sermon on this passage, if we got really in depth, would keep us here until midafternoon...and seeing as though football season is over, NASCAR starts next week, and Olympics coverage doesn’t start until 2pm…let’s dive in!

Don’t worry, I’m only joking. 

There is a whole lot in this passage to unpack, but here is really what it all boils down to…God cares about our relationships.  God wants us to be in relationships that are healthy and life giving.  That was the ultimate purpose behind why God gave Moses the Ten Commandments in the first place, so that people would have a guide for how to be in relationship with one another and with God…so that they could, in the words of Deuteronomy, Choose Life.  But the problem is how these commandments have been interpreted.  According to Martin Luther, the 5^th Commandment – Thou shalt not murder – in the eyes of the Jewish community, only condemned a person as a murderer if they had physically committed an act of murder.  Therefore – as an example- in their eyes, David was innocent of murder when he had Bathsheba’s husband killed on the battlefield…because he was not the one to strike Uriah down, though we all know that David sent Uriah to the front lines because he coveted Uriah’s wife. 

And then there is 6^th commandment – Thou shalt not commit adultery.  When it came to marriage and divorce in the time of Moses there were a couple issues going on.  The first is that when a woman was married to a man, the act of marriage was seen as a business deal in which the woman was transferred as property from her father to her husband.  It then became her job to care for the house and provide children for him.  According to Deuteronomy 24, if a wife found no favor in the eyes of her husband, he could write her a certificate of divorce.  In some circles, the grounds for divorce were unfaithfulness.  But in most circles divorces could have been granted because the woman was unable to bear children, or because she did not provide her husband with a son, or, in the teaching of the rabbi Hillel, a man could write a certificate of divorce because the indecency he found in her was that she could not cook.  So, in essence we are looking at a situation in which women were seen as disposable and could ultimately be cast off from their husbands for any reason.  

Finally we come to the oaths.  There really is no commandment that speaks directly to oaths, however, the second and eighth commandments are related to it.  In the Old Testament, God set up a system for taking oaths.  In Leviticus 19:12 God says ““Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.” and then in Deuteronomy 23:21, we hear “If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.”

So God takes oaths seriously.  But the interpretations of these commands from the Lord, like the interpretations of the 5^th and 6^th commandments, became so skewed that it actually became a basis for telling lies.  You see, back in the time leading up to Jesus’ day, there were considered to be stages of truth telling and stages of telling falsehood.  The system of taking oaths when telling truth and telling falsehood became so convoluted that you couldn’t tell whether a person was lying or telling the truth. 

So we have murder, adultery, divorce, and oaths.  All in one passage.  What in the world do they have to do with each other?

If we are looking at the trees instead of the forest, we see in all of these laws a violation of human relationships.  And, as Jesus said last week, he did not come to abolish the law but, instead to fulfill it so that now one letter or stroke of the letter of the law would be removed.

But it is not enough to not physically commit the act of murder, we must also refrain from letting angry words and actions prevent us from treating others with respect and value. For we know that the old adage, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, isn’t true…I’d prefer a stick or a stone to a word that breaks me down any day. 

It is not enough to not physically commit the act of adultery, we must also refrain from treating people as objects that satisfy our sexual desires.

It is not enough to keep the letter of the law when it comes to divorce, we must also refrain from treating our spouses as disposable and protect those who are most vulnerable when marriages do dissolve.   

It is not enough to take an oath so that people will believe that you are telling the truth, we must also be truthful and faithful in what we say and do so that people will believe our yes when we say yes and our no when we say no. In the Amish community, this portion of scripture is taken so seriously, that the Amish are exempt from taking oaths in a court of law. 

What Jesus is saying is that it is not enough to keep the commandments, we must go above and beyond so that we may do everything that we can to show those around us that we value who they are as human beings and that we honor and respect them.  And in relationships that have become broken beyond the point of reconciliation, that we would at least have peace so that any anger or hurt does not prevent us from fully living our lives.

God cares about our relationships. 

Jesus knows the importance of being in relationship with others.  His ministry was ultimately about the relationships that he had with those around him, those he taught, those he fed, those he healed, those in his inner circle.  Jesus showed us, through his own life, that every human life is valuable, if you notice in the Gospels, the people who labeled the folks that Jesus hung out with as sinners were the Pharisees and the scribes…never once was it Jesus.  He helped people who were lost to see that they are people of value because they are children of God and that as children of God, that they deserved to respect, love, and life giving relationships.

And not only did Jesus focus on the importance of relationships, he experienced firsthand the hurt that happens when the trust of a human relationship is violated.

That was not the end of it, though. For even on the cross, Jesus cried out “father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”  

You are the salt of the earth

Again, another messy manuscript.  But I've learned in my short time in the ministry that messy manuscripts don't always mean messy sermons.  My mentor once told me that when it comes to the proclamation of the Word through preaching, the preacher can only do 50% of the work...the other 50% is the work of the Holy Spirit, and to think otherwise is arrogance.  

Epiphany 5

February 9, 2014

Matthew 5:13-20

You are the salt of the earth, Jesus said. 

One of the things that I have noticed when visiting with folks who suffer from high blood pressure is that there is a common complaint about the difficulty in finding a seasoning combination that brings a similar flavor profile to food as salt.  Just ask judges in cooking competitions. In the competitions we can see on television, the number one complaint is a lack of salt in dishes.  Food without salt tends to be bland, no matter what else we add to it.  Even sweets taste better with a bit of a salty element to them.

You are the light of the world. Jesus said. 

I learned some very important information this fall.  What I learned is that a deficiency in Vitamin D levels is linked to the occurrence and worsening of depression. Although vitamin D has been added to milk products and naturally occurs in a small number of foods, such as mushrooms, it is the human body’s ability to produce vitamin D from sun exposure that provides a good chunk of the vitamin D that our bodies need.  This is why seasonal affect disorder, a depressive disorder, occurs in the winter in colder climates, when the amount of sunlight we are exposed to is at its lowest because of the cold and dreary days.  Getting out into the sun is good for our health and wellbeing.  Certainly after a winter like this, getting a little sunbathing in can only be good for our mental health after all of this time being cooped up indoors because of all the cold and the snow that we have had this summer.   

The Rev. Anne Howard, the executive director of the Beatitudes Society, tells us a bit about what Jesus’ first hearers would have experienced when they heard that they were salt and light. She writes:

“Jesus’ first listeners knew that salt was necessary for life, a notion reinforced by the many references in the Hebrew Scriptures to salt’s essential nature. Thus the prophet Elisha sprinkled salt into the spring at Jericho to purify the water (2 Kings 2:21.)  To eat salt with another person was a sign of loyalty, sort of a passing of the peace pipe, a breaking of bread, a sign of commonality (Numbers 18:19.)  Priests strew salt on sacrifices, and seasoned incense with salt. Parents rubbed salt all over their newborn baby’s body as protection against all kinds of ills (Ezekiel 16:4.)”

Salt is a basic element, it is something that sits on tables in fast food restaurants and fancy restaurants, on home kitchen counters and on soup kitchen counters.  If we are able to, salt is something that we use every day…it isn’t something reserve for special guests.  But in and of itself, it is not a useful element.  Before it is mined and refined, salt just sits in deposits doing nothing and affecting nothing positively or negatively.  But when it is used, it adds flavor, it preserves, it changes the soil, and affects how our bodies function. 

So if we are going to be salt of the earth, we can’t be content to just sit on the sidelines and let life pass us by.  We have to get mixed in to recipe that makes up life around us, adding flavor and seasoning.

And just like salt is necessary for life and is one of the basic things necessary for us to thrive, so is light. Light illumines the world and helps us so that we can see.  But more important than that, light gives life.  Light makes it possible for plants to grow and produce the food that they need to grow.  Light can be converted into usable energy.  Light is beneficial for our bodies.  And light brings hidden things into view, allowing us to see them in a different way. 

So if we are going to be the light of the world, we can’t be content to let the darkness in this world.  We must spread the light so that every corner of the earth can be illuminated. 

You are the salt of the earth, Jesus said.  You are the light of the world. 

It can be easy to look at this portion of the sermon of the mount as an urging to be salt and to be light.  But when we do that, it can easily become burdensome because so often the world tells us that we are not good enough, loveable enough, worthy enough to be the people that Jesus wants us to be. 

Instead, we should look at these words from Jesus as blessing.  He didn’t say “you will be salt if…” “before you become light you need to…”  There were no conditions put on being salt and light…we already are salt and light.  You ARE the salt of the earth.  You ARE the light of the world.  Salt does not lose is saltiness…and we know this. As it dissolves, it lends its saltiness to whatever it is dissolved in.  And if you hide a candle under a bushel…it’s either going to put the candle out or start a fire.  But maybe this is Jesus’ point.  You are salt, you are light…that is the way it is and that is the way it’s going to be, and nothing is going to change it. 

God love us and made us as part of his good creation.  When darkness was starting to show itself, he sent Jesus into the world to be the light of the world.  But the great thing about light is that when it is divided and shared, the original light isn’t diminished, and so as light is spread – it only gets brighter. 

We are the light of the world.  We gained Christ’s light in our baptism when we were joined to Christ in his death and resurrection.  It’s a light that can never be taken away from us, just as our saltiness can never be taken away.  It can only be spread. 

Let us go and be light, let us go and be salt. Let us add flavor and zest to the lives of others, let us change the world and, through our words and our deeds, continue to spread the light of Christ.

Jesus is the light of the world who came into the world to break the darkness

Jesus gives us his light so that we can bring light to the dark places of the world

We are the light, we bring the vitamin d that the world needs

Think of the times when your life has been seasoned

Think of the people who are the salt in your life

Think of when you have been salt to others

Presentation of our Lord

This sermon didn't get preached.  It looks a bit messy at the end, but what I needed to preach it was all there.  Then on the way to church, I heard a piece on NPR from a physicist who made two assertions: 1) There is no free will, we are all governed by the laws of physics...it just looks like we are using free will. 2) He will accept the existence of God, but chooses to be agnostic because he has no use for a deity since he has physics.  I knew at that moment, that the Spirit wanted me to preach something other than what I had written.  So, what was heard at St. John this morning was an extemporaneous sermon. 

February 2, 2014

The presentation of our Lord

Luke 2:22-40

Good morning, my name is Jennifer Kiefer and I am an addict. 

Not something you want to hear from your pastor now is it?  But it’s true. I do have an addiction.  To my smart phone…my kindle…my computer.  I am a technology addict.  I had my first taste of technology when I was in first grade when we were introduced to computers…with floppy disks…and not those little ones that fit in your pocket, the old school floppy disks that actually flopped when you moved them around.  I received my first cell phone at the age of…wait for it youth…18…when I went to college.  Texted for the first time at 24, and my first smart phone two months shy of 26.  And it wasn’t until the smart phone that the addiction began.  But through this little device, I can make phone calls, send text messages, emails, post to Facebook and twitter, check on my bank account, make purchases online, listen to music, track what I’ve eaten, set up a workout, video chat with my sister, entertain Eleanor…put a working corkscrew and a Swiss army knife on this thing and I’m set.

I realize this is a generational thing.  My generation, on the whole, has a technology addition worse that my parent’s generation, and their generation has it worse that their parent’s generation…and I know that Eleanor’s generation is going to have an addiction to technology worse than my generation does…at 9.5 months, she already knows how to get into my phone and move my icons around. 

Technology has improved our lives in so many ways. The invention of the automobile allowed us to get from point A to point B in a shorter amount of time.  The airplane has made that travel even faster, making us capable of traveling around the world in a matter of hours instead of days and weeks.  Medical technology has allowed us to live longer and healthier lives.  The television allows world news to get to us at a moment’s notice, the internet and e-mail and video chat allow friends and family from different towns and states and countries to communicate with one another in real time. 

But as great as technology can be, it’s also getting in the way.

There was a report on the news the other day that the instant access of employees via smart phone technology now allows companies to require employees to be ready at any time, day or night, to respond to an e-mail that could have waited until the morning.  The average working adult now gets less than 6 hours of sleep because of the demands that the instant access of smart phone technology has put on their time management.  So, in a manner of speaking, technology is getting in the way of our sleep and our health.

And in 2012, 3,328 were killed and an estimated 421,000 injured in car crashes in which the driver at fault was distracted while driving, whether it was texting or talking on the phone, or even eating.  When we are not careful, technology is getting in the way of our safety.

There is a game now, that was started in 2012, I think, where, when a group of folks went out to dinner, they would stack their cell phones in the middle of the table when they sat down.  If at any time, a person reached for their phone between when they sat down and when the bill arrived, that individual became responsible for picking up the tab. 

It’s so bad that Kay Jewelers is running a Valentine’s day commercial in which a couple is having coffee and the girlfriend is so distracted by her cell phone that the boyfriend needs to text her to get her attention so that he may present her with a gift. 

As much as technology helps us communicate with those who are far away, it is getting in the way of how we communicate with the people in whose physical presence we are. 

And I wonder how much technology is getting in the way of our ability to see Jesus at work out in the world. 

Today is the feast of the presentation of our Lord.  It is also known as the Feast of the purification of the blessed Virgin.  It is the 40^th day after Christmas, and in a kind of uplifting but not really kind of way given the weather this winter, marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. 

Per the laws of Moses, on the 40^th day after the birth of a son, the mother of the child is purified from the uncleanliness brought on by childbirth. This is the first time that she is allowed in the temple after giving birth.  It is around this time when the parents bring the male child to the temple to be presented before God and, if the child is the first born son, sacrifices are to be made as the child is sanctified before God.  And this is why Mary and Joseph have brought the infant Jesus to the temple that day, to make good on their obligation as people of Israel. 

The presentation of children in the temple was, in essence, a ritual similar to modern day Christian baptism…A ritual in which the parents of a child recognize that their child is no longer just theirs, but also Gods.  Some parents, just as Samuel’s mother Hannah from the Old Testament, saw this ritual as so important that they literally gave their firstborn back to God so that the child could serve God in the temple.  Mary and Joseph did not make this choice, though they were aware that their child was set apart as one who would serve God, and man, in a unique way.

It is at the presentation of our Lord that we witness the first time that, without the prompting of angels or some other supernatural occurrence, Jesus is recognized and praised as the Messiah.

In the temple were two elders, Simeon and Anna.  Simeon was a devout and righteous man who was waiting for the coming of the Messiah, and Anna was an 84 year old prophet who had resided in the temple since her husband died when she was around the age of 20.  And upon viewing a 40 day old, 8-10 lbs infant in the arms of his mother, both Simeon and Anna had no other response than to praise God for the blessing of seeing, and holding, the long-awaited Messiah.

Didn’t need an announcement from angels…their eyes were open and focused upon God’s promises.

Praise God for the redemption of Israel AND for the gentiles

Saw because they believed…were paying attention, didn’t let distraction get in the way

What do we see in a loaf of bread and a cup of wine, in a bowl of water, in a book

            In a world full of distractions, they’re just a loaf of bread, a cup of wine, a bowl of water and a book.  But in these everyday items, God appears to us…being revealed in scripture, a taste of bread and wine, a splash of water…and proclaims salvation to us.

But it’s not just for us, not just for the church, but for the whole world.  So we have to go tell about it. 

            We have an amazing new kitchen, built with care and hard work, but instead of letting ourselves get distracted by the desire to keep it clean, how can we get it dirty doing God’s work for the world? 

When we look at the budget for 2014 at the annual meeting, we have the option of looking only at numbers…or of looking at the opportunities to get the message of the Gospel out to the people of Dundee.

We have seen the salvation of our lord, we have heard of it in scripture, we have felt it in baptism, we have tasted it in bread and wine.  And, when our eyes are truly open to seeing the work of God in the midst of ordinary, everyday things, the joy fills us with such excitement that we can’t help but go and tell.

May our focus be turned from the distractions of the world and our eyes opened to the work of God in the ordinary, that our voices might raise up a chorus of praise to the one who loves us, created us, claimed us, and who wants to bring salvation to the whole world.