Presented to 614 Warehouse, 05 February 2017 by Captain Michael Ramsay
Matthew 5:43-48: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your
neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He
causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own
people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
I saw this quote on Facebook: “I went by
the house I grew up in the other day. I asked if I could come in and look
around. They said ‘no’ and slammed the door in my face… My parents can be so
rude.”
Sarah-Grace then shared this quote with me from
Lemony Snicket: “Anyone who thinks the pen is mightier than the sword has not
been stabbed with both.”[1]
When I was reading a bedtime story to
Heather the other night she asked, "Daddy... Donald Duck, is that Disney
or the president?" I thought that was a good question. It is nice that my
6 year old is politically aware enough to comment on international politics.
Our Scripture today says, ‘Love your
enemies’. This has been an interesting week. There are some interesting people
doing some interesting things in the United States. There is Paul Ryan, whose
name you may or may not know: he is one of the most powerful politicians in the
United States since the recent general election. He is a libertarian Republican
and his political philosophy is seemingly not far from Ayn Rand’s ‘rational
selfishness’, as it is called, and social Darwinism. There is also Steve Bannon,
whose name you equally may or may not know: he is on their National Security
Council. And then, of course, there is US President Donald Trump (not to be
confused with Donald Duck) who with the support and/or prompting of these
people and others –he couldn’t do anything on his own; he is after all a
political neophyte – he has brought some interesting legislation into play in
the United States this week.
Love your enemies. This past week the American
government has banned more than 280 million people from entering the United
States. They have barred people from 7 predominantly Islamic countries from
coming to the US for help.
Love your enemies. This banning, according
to some, is not entirely distinct from legislation that was drafted during the
previous administration; even if that argument is not strictly accurate,
banning historically has been practiced by both Democrats and Republicans. The
US government earlier banned Iraqi children in their time of need. The practice has bi-partisan support. This
means that Americans from both of their ruling parties have supported bans on millions
of people - some of whom have gone through some of the most horrific things you
can ever imagine. They have been barred from looking to the United States for
refuge.
Love your enemies. Donald Trump has ordered
the beginning of his wall this week; apparently his recent political opponent,
the experienced, educated, and equally elite Hillary Clinton while officially
opposing a ‘wall’ herself had proposed instead the building of a ‘fence’ to
keep others out.
Love your enemies. The US is still
torturing illegally detained people as they have been for most of this century
and before; and did you know that the recent President assassinated even more people
by drone attacks than the President before him?
Love your enemies. Did you know that in this
century alone, since 9/11, the US has invaded or otherwise militarily
intervened in about 16 foreign countries, killing thousands upon thousands upon
thousands of men, women, and children? But Jesus says, 'Love your enemies'.
Love your enemies. Closer to home here in Canada: in
Quebec City this week, someone, allegedly Alexandre Bissonnette, did walk into
a mosque and open fire killing six people and injuring many more.
Love your enemies. In our neighbourhood
here there was another fatal shooting this past Monday. An eighteen year-old
boy, Ali –who has spent time here at The Salvation Army on
River Street - was shot in the face and killed in his own home.
Love your enemies. Our world is full of
hate. Love your enemies. Our news: CBC, the Star, the Globe and Mail, CCN, Fox
News is full of hate. Love your enemies. Facebook, Twitter, social media is
full of hate. Love your enemies. Classrooms and coffee shops are full of hate. But
Jesus says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your
enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on
the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If
you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax
collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you
doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as
your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)
Think of all the horrible things that are
being done by all of the horrible mechanisms of culture, society, people in our
world today. Think of ‘free speech’ and all the people who are spewing all the venomous
hatred from behind that veil. Think of all the people who are casting out the
vulnerable and attacking the marginalized in our world today. Think about those
who are right in our midst making life difficult for others. Think about all
the evil being done. Think of the people doing the evil. Think of the people
who hate you and who hate others like you; think of the people who hate this
group or that group and think of the people who hate the marginalized; think of
all those hateful people, the ones you know personally and the ones you don’t –
and love them.[2]
Jesus says, “pray for those who persecute
you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Why should we pray for
those who persecute us? ...So that we indeed may be children of our Father in
heaven. God still loves us when we do jerky things to each other. He doesn’t
give up on us; he’s still our father and as His children, we shouldn’t give up
on one another either. We love each other, as our text here says, so that we
indeed may be children of our Father in heaven.[3]
Love is one of the things that actually defines a Christian.[4]
As the song and the Scripture (John 13:35) says, ‘They will know we are
Christians by our love.’
Those people who are doing those bad
things, Jesus tells us what God thinks of them and how He treats them in
relation to those who do the best of the best to people, “He causes his sun to
rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous” (v.45).[5]
He doesn’t want any of us to perish. He wants all of us to turn from our evil
ways and experience the joy of love instead. For God so loves the whole world
that He sent His only begotten Son (John 3:16) – God doesn’t just love this
part of the world or that part of the world – God sent His only begotten Son to
live and die, raise from the dead, and someday come back again, not just for
some of the world but for the whole world. Jesus loves all the little children
of the world.
Fidel Castro passed away this year that just
passed: I heard people tell me they hated Castro. I have heard people tell me
they hate the Russian President Vladimir Putin. I have heard some people say
they hate Trudeau – Justin and/or Pierre. I have heard people tell me they hate
Stephen Harper. I have heard people tell me they hate Hillary Clinton and I
hear people tell me day in and day out that they hate Donald Trump. I have
heard people tell me they hate Muslims. I have heard people tell me they hate
Russians, Germans, French, Ukrainians, Arabs, Americans, Albertans,
Newfoundlanders, even Torontonians... There is a song by an Edmonton band, the Arrogant Worms, entitled, ‘Ontario
Sucks’ Its lyrics, in part, are this:
I hate the Skydome and the CN Tower
too
I hate Nathan Phillips Square
The rents too high, the air’s unclean
The beaches are dirty and the people
are mean
And the women are big and the men are
dumb
And the children are loopy 'cause they live
in a slum
The water is polluted and the mayor's a d**k
They dress real bad and they think they're New York
In Toronto ,
Ontario
"You know, actually I think I hate all
of Ontario
"actually, now that I really think
about it,
I think I pretty much hate every gosh darn province
and territory in
our country!
Except Alberta, yeah I love Alberta"
[says the Edmonton based
band]...
And the only really good thing about the province of
'cause Alberta
But Calgary does.
Jesus says, “If you love those who love
you, what reward will you get? …And if you greet only your own people, what are
you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (vv.47-48). They’ll
know we are Christians by our love. Jesus loves all the children of the world.
Now, I want to be clear that I am not
saying that we should not stand up to what is wrong. We need to definitely
stand up to what is wrong. In recent months I have read a lot of Gandhi,
Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr. They all stood up for right over wrong. They
all stood up for the weak and oppressed. They all stood up in the face of
aggression and they all stood up to their oppressors. This is important. We
need to stand up to injustice. We also need, as was acknowledged by each of the
aforementioned; we need to avoid the trap of being tricked into hating our opponents.
I watched Star Wars this weekend with my daughters. There is a pivotal moment in that famous
movie franchise where
Darth Vader is trying to turn Luke from the Light to the Darkness; how does he
try to do this? He tries to do this by making him hate. He tells Luke that only
his hatred can destroy his enemy: this is a lie of Darth Vader and this is also
a lie of our enemy, the Enemy, the devil. In the real world, hate cannot defeat
evil; hate can only become evil. Hate is what turns a good person, bad; it is
love, Jesus’ love, which redeems us.
Martin Luther King Jr – whom Kevin Moore
quoted at a memorial in Regent Park this week - said, “Hatred paralyzes life;
love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens
life; love illuminates it.” “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” “I
have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.”[6]
‘Do you know what the stupidest expression
in the world is?’ - a firefighter once asked me - ‘fight fire with fire;’ ‘you
don’t fight fire with fire; that just causes a bigger fire!’ It is the same
with hate. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. If I get drawn
into hating someone because they hate something else than I have just caused
love to shrink and hate to grow. If on the other hand we love our enemies and
pray for those who persecute us, then we may be called children of our
Father in heaven. If we
love everyone, more than just those who love us, then indeed we may even be perfect as our
heavenly Father is perfect. Therefore let us resolve to love one another and
let us wish each other well - even those who may wish us ill.
Let us pray.
[1] Lemony Snicket, When Did You
See Her Last? (Little, Brown and Company: 2013)
[2] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew
(Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 58: There is
record of the early church doing just this: praying for and loving those who
are presecuting them.
[3] Cf. Daniel Hetherington, SJ, The Gospel of Matthew (Sacra Pagina:
Collegeville: Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2007) 272,89: It is important to
note the the OT never says ‘hate your enemies’; this is probably a condemnation
upon the way people have been living out their lives as ‘children of the
Father,’
[4] D.A. Carson, The Expositor's
Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/II. The
Gospel of the Kingdom (3:1-7:29)/B. First Discourse: The Sermon on the Mount
(5:1-7:29)/3. The kingdom of heaven: its demands in relation to the OT
(5:17-48)/b. Application: the antitheses (5:21-48)/(6) Hatred and love
(5:43-47), Book Version: 4.0.2 : There is no command to hate your enemy;
however, ‘The Qumran covenanters explicitly commanded love for those within the
community ("those whom God has elected") and hatred for the outsider
(cf. 1QS 1:4, 10; 2:4-9; 1QM 4:1-2; 15:6; 1QH 5:4), and they doubtless
represent other groups with similar positions. This love-hate antithesis may be
mitigated by the covenanters' conviction that they alone were the faithful remnant;
at least some of the language anticipates divine eschatological language. But
not all of it can be dismissed so easily (cf. Davies, Setting, pp. 245ff.).’
Cf. Sacra Pagina, 89:
[5] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew
(NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995),198. Loving one’s neighbour shows
that we are oriented towards God.
[6] Martin Luther King Jr, A
Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King,
Jr (Ed. James M. Washington (HaperCollins: New York, NY, 1986) and A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the
Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther
King, Jr.
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