7th Sunday after the Epiphany Yr A Feb 23 2014

Audio 2.23.2014

Our relationships matter to God. We are reminded again and again as we continue to hear this Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' words are about God's relationship with us and our relationships with others. God delights in you, and loves you unconditionally and desires the best for you always, especially in and through your relationships. This passage from the sermon on the mount continues to be about how we treat each other in relationship. It is an extension of the ten commandants, which is about how God loves us and is in relationship with us, and how we treat each other. It is a deepening of the law, not about the letter of the law. 

So today we hear more, and let's hear it from Eugene Peterson's The Message. “Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously."

Does that sound outrageous or what? Outrageous, irresponsible, foolish even. Surely that is not what we learn and what is valued in the marketplace of our lives. Transactional interactions are what is valued. Transactional interactions define much of how we are with each other in our places of work. Transactional interactions are what is portrayed by the people who populate most of the stories that come across our screens. If you do that for me, I will do this for you, that is the only way to get ahead. What's really hard, is that those kind of interactions are usually sold to us as real relationship. It was no different when Jesus taught on the mountain. That's what this is all about, and Jesus is speaking against the kind of transactional interactions that demand an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. 

But that's not how God is with us. God's love is not transactional. God's love is not a reward for good behavior. God's love is unconditional, undeserved. God's love is amazing and abundant. God's love is transformational, not transactional. God's love is how we love others. And that is how we may even begin to live generously. Not because we have a lot, but because we are loved. Because God's economy is nothing, absolutely nothing like the economy of the marketplace, the economy of this life. God's economy has nothing to do with if/then transactions. God's economy is not about a reward for doing good. You are beloved, you are God's delight. Jesus calls the powers of the day into question by describing an entirely different way to relate to each other, inviting us into relationships governed not by power but by vulnerability grounded in love. Jesus calls us to relationship. In God's kingdom, things are done differently, in God's kingdom, the values of the world are turned upside down, because you are beloved, you are God's delight. Love alone transforms, redeems, and creates new life. As Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

And again from The Message. “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that."

God's love for you makes you lovable. God's love for you is transformational, not transactional. God's love for you makes it possible for you to love yourself and others. And that love spills over and out. God's love is not containable, it is not controllable, it is messy and chaotic. Even when we miss the mark, even when it seems like there is nothing in us that is lovable, even when the pain feels unendurable, even when the brokenness looks like it well never be healed, even when the world looks at us and says go away, hide, we don't want you, God's says, you are my beloved, you are my delight. And in that place of healing, in that place of forgiveness, love is born, love overflows, love wins. And that is the place of perfection. You are not perfect, but you are perfectly loved. In that place, transformation happens. 

In that place, we can begin. In that place, our new life begins. In that place, we can show up with and for God, and pray. Prayer is one response to God's amazing and abundant love. But, contrary to popular belief, in that place prayer is not to change the other. "O lord, please change that nasty person I don't like, please make him nicer, please make her better, please show him that his ways are hurtful." All prayers we have prayed. But, our prayer is not to change our enemy, prayer is not change the ones who are so different than us, prayer is not to change the sinner across the room. 

I think that's why prayer is so hard. Prayer is about changing us. "Lord, help me love, Lord, help me be patient, Lord, help me see you in them, Lord, help them see you in me." Prayer is about showing up with God, and being changed in that time and space. Prayer is about showing up with God and basking in God's love for you, basking in God's love for all of us. Prayer is about showing up with God, and God putting our broken hearts back together. Prayer is about showing up with God and God healing the fragments and fissures of our lives. Prayer is about showing up with God, and being forgiven. Prayer is about showing up with God and learning to listen with ears of compassion and mercy and justice. Prayer is about showing up with God and learning to act with the hands and feet of Jesus. Amen.