Sunday, February 24, 2019

Using the Golden Ruler


Scripture Luke 6:27-38   CEB  


27 “But I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. 28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. 30 Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. 31 Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.
32 “If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. 34 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. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. 36 Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
37 “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38  Give, and it will be given to you. A good portion—packed down, firmly shaken, and overflowing—will fall into your lap. The portion you give will determine the portion you receive in return.”
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It can be dangerous to read what’s written in the Gospels and bring it forward into our world without first considering that it might have meant something a bit different when Jesus said it.   So first let’s look at the context, the history and culture surrounding this oh so familiar passage.    

By the time of Jesus’ ministry the people of Judah and Galilee had been under Roman rule for nearly 100 years.  Romans called the area Palestine and treated its inhabitants like servants.  If soldiers walking along the road saw a man walking ahead of them, they could and would force him to drop what he was doing and carry their burdens, like a human pack mule.  If they liked his coat or anything else he owned, they could take it.  If he talked back to them, or even if he didn’t, they could strike him.  Jesus didn’t have to spell any of this out.  Everyone knew it entirely too well.  When he mentioned these things they were well aware that he was talking about things Romans did every day.  He was saying, in essence, we are a subject nation, an oppressed people, and we are treated badly.  But God would not have you rebel or seek revenge.  Rather, if a soldier strikes your face, turn your face so he might strike the other side.  If he confiscates your coat, offer  him your shirt.  If he curses you, don’t say what is in your mind but instead offer him a blessing.  Treat everyone in the way you want them to act toward you, even especially those who mistreat you, your enemies, your oppressors.   After all, even sinners return good for good, but you are God’s children, and you need to be better than that.  You must act “the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people.”   

For us this passage doesn’t have quite the immediacy it held for the people listening to Jesus that day, because it’s not a lived experience most of us can relate to.   Nonetheless, it is a meaningful and necessary teaching in today’s world as well.   If you only treat those well who treat you well, what ’s so great about that, Jesus asks.  Even sinners do that.  The hard part, and what we are called to do, is to be good even to those who treat us badly, to love even our enemies, to be compassionate to all people, even as God is compassionate to all.   

And, just in case any of you have been listening to Prosperity Gospel preachers, “Give, and it will be given to you.  . . The portion you give will determine the portion you receive in return.” really has nothing to do with receiving monetary blessings if you give generously to the church.   It has everything to do with the blessings you receive from doing good - not repayment for doing good, but the blessings you receive when you have given of yourself with no expectation of reward.  When Janice takes a van full of dogs to new forever homes . . . When Karleen picks up food to distribute to people who would not have enough to eat otherwise  . . . when you are in a hurry but choose to hold a door for some really slow old guy with a walker . . . those blessings, those feelings you get from being of help to someone,  although not quanitifiable, are far superior to any other sort of repayment.   Anyone who has ever been on a mission trip -  to build a house or dig a well or clean up after a natural disaster, for example - will tell you that they received far more in the way of blessings from their experience than did the people they went to help.  

At the very end of his ministry Jesus told his disciples to love one another.  But throughout his ministry he taught them how to do that.  This passage gives some very specific examples and instructions.  “love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. . .  “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”   And clearest of all the instructions, the Golden Rule. “Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you. 

We’ve heard this our entire lives.  We’ve seen it on wall hangings and book marks and bracelets and screen savers and as a meme on Facebook.  We’ve heard it so much that some even question whether it’s really in the Bible, or whether it’s one of those sayings that people think should be from the Bible.  Well, the good news in this case is yes, it is actually Biblical.  Jesus did say this.  And we are pretty good at forgetting it, maybe because we do see and hear it so often.  Maybe we just need to hear it in different ways.

I saw this on Facebook the other day:
Hurt People hurt people.  That’s how pain patterns get passed on, generation after generation.  Break the chain today.
Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion, cruelty with kindness
Greet grimaces with smiles.
Forgive - and forget about finding fault.
Love is the weapon of the future.
In other words, treat others as you would be treated.  If something goes wrong, don’t look for someone or something to blame.  Blaming others just creates tension and resentment.  Regroup and go forward, or in football terms “Drop back 10 yards and punt.”  And have you ever noticed that when you smile at someone, they usually smile back?  They may think you’re a bit crazy, but they usually smile back.  If you want to be smiled at, smile first.  Even if you don’t feel like it.  Love one another. 

“Love is the weapon of the future”  I love the idea of weaponizing love, although I think it’s been tried.  In my mind’s eye, I can see the image of a young woman with flowers in her hair putting a flower into the barrel of a soldier’s weapon during an anti-war demonstration back in the day.   Still, if at first you don’t succeed - Christians have been living with the Love Commandment for nearly 2,000 years.  Surely, eventually, we will get it right, right?    Although, according to Brennan Manning, author of The Ragamuffin Gospel,  The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”    

I am afraid he is right in this.  Even believers are put off of Church when they see vicious infighting over who is acceptable and unacceptable to hold membership, or to be married, or to be in a leadership position.   Right this minute, today, the United Methodist Church General Conference is meeting in St. Louis  to consider possible plans for dealing with the church’s current policy stating that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”  There are several possibilities being considered, but there is talk of a split, no matter what decision is made.  People look at things like that, and at nationally known preachers speaking out against a whole raft of groups and issues, and wonder where’s the love these Christians are supposed to have?   People see us ignoring the Golden Rule, which is pretty much “how to love one another” in a nutshell, and decide that what we have, they do not want.   The early church grew because the members went out and loved others - all others - rejecting none, because that’s what Jesus did, and that’s what Jesus said we are supposed to do.    

It’s not easy. Most of what Jesus taught is not easy.   Most of what Jesus taught is pretty much the exact opposite of what the world teaches us.  The world says, “Do unto others before they do it to you. If you are hit, hit them back harder.  If you are mistreated, get revenge.  If they are different, reject them.”  But Jesus says, love one another, as I love you.   Accept each other, the way I accept you, the way God accepts you.  Love your enemy.  Do good, expecting no reward.  Do not judge.  Be kind to wicked and ungrateful people.  Be compassionate.  Forgive.  Treat everyone the same way that  you want to be treated.  In every situation, in every decision you make, use the Golden Ruler.  Act as children of the Most High.  The portion you give will determine the portion you receive in return.

My brothers and sisters, please stand and sing with me, asking God to “Help Us Accept Each Other”

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