I'm filing away another sermon. I once heard someone describing preaching with the image of "giving birth on Sunday and finding out you are pregnant on Monday." I found that to be true this week. The birthing of this weeks message was not easy and the prospect of doing it all again daunting.
Jesus teaching on loving your enemies found in Matthew 5:43-48 deepens His call to His followers to radical love. Jesus tells us the kind of love which will show the world that we are His disciples. It's love that is shown equally to both neighbours and enemies. It is love that doesn't just love those who like us , but also to those who persecute us, disagree with us and annoy us.
I remembering reading a book called "Who Moved My Church?". An easy lttle book patterned after the business classic "Who Moved My Cheese?" In one section of the book there is a group of Christians whose rallying cry is "Jesus hates you and so do I". I have to admit when I first read that phrase it shocked me and made me feel very uncomfortable. But I have begun to think about it and I have realized by our behaviour the non-churched world believes this mantra to be true. This is the message the world is hearing from us. And this is exactly what Jesus is teaching against.
Jesus told the people that they should love their enemies, which they interpreted to be: Love your friends. Hate those who you deem to be your enemy. God's command to love had been interpreted as a liscense to hate. We have to be careful not to but into the same thing. I have heard many well-intentioned Christians condemning those foreign people who have wrecked our Christian way of life in Canada. Telling them to go home. God forgive us! The mission field came to our door and instead of showing love - we told them to go home.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. He is kind of vague on what loving your enemies looks like besides the direct command to pray. I think he did those on purpose so that we have to be creative, so we can't just check it off the list.
Here is some ideas I had:
1. Blessing and encouraging people with our mouths.
2. Doing good to them.
3. Actively seeking to build relationships with them.
What about you? What creative ways can we love our enemies?
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1 comment:
Loving your enemies is such a foundational Christian concept and so difficult on an individual level. But what about on a corporate level. What does it mean for the broader church to love our enemies (and do they actually experience that love)? What does it mean as a country to love our enemies?
Oh yeah... this is tough stuff. So tough that some might even find the questions offensive.
Peace.
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