Love is Not Fair / Based on Luke 6:27-38 / Not delivered because of a blizzard

Love is Not Fair / Based on Luke 6:27-38 / Not delivered because of a blizzard

Hymns: His Eye Is on the Sparrow, I Then Shall See, We Are Called

Luke 6:27-38

6:27 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

6:28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

6:29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.

6:30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.

6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

6:32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

6:33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

6:34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

6:35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

6:37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;

6:38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

Good morning and Happy Sunday to you.  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston.  I am one of the Lay Servants of the United Methodist Church up on the hill from here.  It is my joy to be with you here today.

The scripture for today is a continuation of Jesus message which is sometimes called the Beatitudes and sometimes called his message on the plain.  The first section told us all how blessed we were if we were poor, hungry, weeping, hated, and insulted. 

Now in the section for today we are told we need to love our enemies.  Not easy scripture to deal with, but the passage from 1 Corinthians today was on explaining the details of resurrection so I leaned toward Luke.

The three ideas I want to pull out from this passage are:

Love isn’t fair

Love doesn’t worry about equality

We don’t want love to be fair

Love isn’t fair

What ever happened to “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”?  Instead Jesus said we’re supposed to return mistreatment with love.

6:27 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

6:28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

6:29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.

6:30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.

This is a hard scripture to me.  It feels unfair.  I like to think that karma is real and if someone makes me feel bad they will get pain in their life as payback.  That isn’t how God treats us and that isn’t how God wants us to treat his children, whether they be friend or foe.

Instead this is describing how a child of God should act.  It is defining what God wants our relationships to look like.

6:35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Our relationship with our fellow humans should mirror God’s relationship with us.  God doesn’t treat us as we deserve.  He doesn’t write us off as we make mistakes.  He patently instructs us in ways that are better and brings us to him to continue to correct our errors.

Love doesn’t worry about equality

We feel good about ourselves when we do good to others.  We expect to be treated nicely and then we’ll be nice back.  Jesus says there’s nothing special about that.

6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

6:32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

6:33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

6:34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

So much of our interaction is with people who will honor the saying “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”  Sometimes it is simple things.  We send out a birthday card and expect one on our birthday.  Sometimes it’s picking up the tab when we eat out knowing the friend will pick up the next time.  Over time if the friend doesn’t reciprocate our willingness to put ourselves out there for them decreases.  To be fair the scales need to stay even.  Jesus says – then don’t feel like you should be honored for that behavior.  Keeping things even is not giving.

We don’t want love to be fair

6:37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;

6:38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

This part of the passage makes it a little more equal but still quite hard to do.  It’s hard to remember that we are not so great ourselves.  The saying “people living in glass houses should not throw stones” was used a lot when I was young.  It was a reminder that my behavior needs forgiveness because it at times is condemnable. 

As I read and studied the lesson today one preacher reminded his listeners that there is a big difference between justice and judging someone.  God is very pro justice.  We are called to come to the aide of those that are being mistreated. 

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Judging is holding a negative opinion of someone for who they are or what they do.  Maybe they are making different mistakes that we think are worse than the mistakes that we are making.  This sort of judging is more like prejudice.  We feel the person is unworthy because of who they are.

It isn’t in our lesson for today but Luke goes on with these two verses.

6:39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?

6:40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

6:41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

6:42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

We are reminded that we all have much to learn before we can love the way God loves, which is our calling.  We are all students here.  We are all struggling to reach the level of love Jesus demonstrated.  We all fail in different ways.  Comparing how well we’re doing between each other is like the old joke asking what’s the difference between murder and stealing in hell?  The answer is 60 degrees.  It is dark humor but a reminder that without God’s mercy and compassion we are all in trouble.  It doesn’t matter how little or much we fail.  We fail.  We depend on God’s grace.  Our brother and our enemy depend on God’s grace along side of us.

Love is unfairly given to us.  We get much more than we deserve.  Jesus asks us to not expect equality as we give it away.  Love extravagantly without thought of return from the individual you share it with.  The relationship between you and your brother isn’t the measure.  It is really the relationship between you and God that is shown in what you give away.  Can we trust God will keep us safe or do we think we need to take care of ourselves?

Matthew reminds us:

10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.

10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

10:31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Yes we can trust God.  We can learn to love unfairly in response to that trust.  We love because He first loved us.  Remember this lesson as we go into lent next month.  Love isn’t fair.  Let go of the tit for tat and work to love like God.  Just maybe the lesson here has less to do with our enemy getting away with bad behavior, and more about us being taught how to love.

Amen

  

Song – Love Like the One You Serve

By Darci Strutt 2019
https://soundcloud.com/darci-strutt/love-like-the-one-you-serve

Dear Lord did you see

Just how poor he’s treated me
You want me to love
I just want to push and shove

Pre-chorus
My child you’re looking the wrong way
When you focus on your enemy
The relationship to care about
Is the one between you and me

Chorus
Give without thought of receiving
Love though that’s not what they deserve
Remember how I first loved you
And love like the one you serve

Dear Lord did you see

All the things he stole from me
You want me to ignore
And when he asks to give him more

Pre-chorus
Chorus

It’s not easy to love

Like my Father from above
But because he first loved me
A loving child I’ll try to be

Chorus