Presented to Alberni
Valley Ministries, 24 February 2019 by Captain Michael Ramsay.
Of this passage of scripture Moffet S. Churn writes,
“Commentaries often call it the Sermon on the Plain. You may prefer to think of
it as ‘the sermon I don’t want to preach.’…Jesus tells them plainly, pointedly,
repeatedly, ‘Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.”[1]
I think this passage is as important to our world and our
community today as much as it ever has been in the history of civilization. As
you know I have been blessed to be a police, fire and EMT chaplain in the past
and I am a Royal Canadian Legion chaplain now and, as such, have been honoured
to preach at Remembrance Day and D-Day ceremonies in communities across this
country.[2] I often give prayer-filled, prolonged thought to preparing those
addresses. The Legion is never too far from my thoughts. I try to get down
there for coffee once or twice a week as I am able.
I was born during the Cold War. I grew up in an era where
people were horrified by the crimes even the ‘good guys’ committed in the
Vietnam War. I remember peace marches and my wife remembers friends and
acquaintances who were even afraid of a nuclear holocaust. Remember the
Doomsday Clock?
I always went to Remembrance Day ceremonies growing up
well aware of my relatives who served in the armed forces, some of whom fought
overseas. I remember hearing how our soldiers fought for peace. I remember the
tone of the Remembrance Day ceremonies past, as well; it was always one of
thankful remembrance for our soldiers who lived and died and I remember very
much the implicit message included therein: if we kill the peace they fought
for by rushing off to war then they will have died in vain.
In my own preparations for addresses to veterans and
those who wish to pay them their much-deserved respect, I have often clung to
the old ideas of remembrance. Many times I have preached the good news from
John 15 - “greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.”
Many times I have preached the miracle of reconciliation that arose from the
Second World War: even though the world was torn apart in death and
destruction, at the end of the day old foes became friends and close allies:
Germany, France, and England all united in Europe. Canada and the United States
– the only foreign power to ever invade us – are now each other’s closest
trading partners. So many times I have preached on the glorious opportunities for
reconciliation after these conflicts. Our service men and women lived, died and
served for us. They sacrificed much for peace. I have a question though, in
light of our text, how have we repaid them for that peace? Have we now
sacrificed that peace that they sacrificed their life for?
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall the tide of military
aggression has flown freely over the earth with nothing to impede its wave of
innocent and other blood. Today we have many enemies in our world: Terrorists,
extremists, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, Iraq, Lybia, Egypt, Syria,
Palestine, Hamas, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Korea, Russia, China and others have
all rightfully or wrongfully been villainized and listed as our enemies in
recent years. Jesus tells us to love our enemies.
When Jesus told us to love our enemies it was the first
century CE. His country was an occupied territory. Many from his adoptive
father’s or his legal grandfather’s generation had fought and died for
political independence from one foreign occupation and now many people in his
generation are dreaming and fighting and dying for political independence from
another foreign occupation. Rome conquered Judea shortly before Jesus was born
and many people were looking for ways to free themselves, their countrymen,
their families from all the horrors of military occupation.[3]
We remember the Zealots, the Sicarii, the fourth
philosophy[4]. This was a Judean terrorist movement that would use
assassination, murder, and terror as a means to extricate their country from
the grasp of their enemy. One of Jesus’ twelve closest disciples was identified
as a zealot. Many of the common people wanted to rise up against their enemy
and fight for the liberation of their homeland. Many of them were about to die
doing just that (in 70 CE) and to these people who were longing for a violent
fight for freedom from their enemies, Jesus says, Verse 27-31:
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who
mistreat you. If someone [hits you in the face] slaps you on one cheek, turn to
them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt
from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to
you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
This is how Jesus says we should treat our enemies and he
says even more, Verses 37-38: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not
condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you.”
This is hard teaching. Imagine telling this to an occupied
and oppressed people today. As we said off the top, “commentaries often call it
the Sermon on the Plain. You may prefer to think of it as ‘the sermon I don’t
want to preach.’…Jesus tells them plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, ‘Love your
enemies and do good to those who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven.
Give, as you wish it to be given to you."
The longer I live, the more I realize that this is true.
I spent a few years as a civilian contractor at CFB Esquimalt, working at
Defence Research. I was there when Canada invaded Yugoslavia. I listened to
service people who were being sent overseas. When they joined the forces, they
did so as peacemakers and peacekeepers whose job was to protect civilians. Now
they were being asked to do something different. This was very difficult for
more than one of them.
I remember 9/11. This also was before I was an Officer. I
was a businessman. I was at my Victoria office fuming because my marketing
director was late. I hate it when my employees are late. I answer the phone. It
is Glenn. He tells me to turn on the TV. I do and we watch the infamous events
unfold before our eyes. I will never forget that moment. Glenn was an ex-pat
American. He was in shock. We were all in shock.
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you;” “commentaries often call it the Sermon on the
Plain. You may prefer to think of it as ‘the sermon I don’t want to
preach.’…Jesus tells them plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, ‘Love your enemies
and do good to those who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven. Give,
as you wish it to be given to you.
This is tough teaching and believe me, I don’t think that
Jesus in this text in disrespecting soldiers or service people in any regard.
Like we said already, one of his closest disciples was a zealot and some of his
earliest converts were members of the enemy, the occupying Roman forces. We know
that a peaceful response solves problems a lot quicker and easier with less
bloodshed and more success. Martin Luther King’s peaceful methods accomplished
what Abraham Lincoln’s wars never could. Mandela’s forgiveness of De Klerk’s
government ended Apartheid in a way that spared South Africa the horrors of
civil war and unrest that their neighbours experienced during decolonization.
Gandhi’s non-violent solution to occupation, based on the Christian writings of
Leo Tolstoy, laid the framework for the world’s largest parliamentary democracy
and unified a people who could have easily been torn apart forever. Where we
extend peace, we receive peace. Do unto others and they will do unto you.
Condemn and you will be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. As you
give so it will be given unto you. We know that violence begets violence and
peace begets peace. Jesus himself could have stood up to his attackers when
they came for his arrest. However, his last recorded miracle before being led
to the cross was quite different: it was to tell Peter to put away his sword as
Jesus healed his attacker’s severed ear.[5]
We remember five years ago the shooting on Parliament
Hill in Ottawa, The men involved in neutralizing the attacker were Constable
Curtis Barrett and Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers. Curtis Barrett is still
suffering the serious effects of PTSD years afterwards and at the time Kevin
Vickers said about the shooting of the gunman, “All I could think of was his
mother.”
Even though we know all this to be true, it is hard
teaching. “Commentaries often call [this passage] the Sermon on the Plain. You
may prefer to think of it as ‘the sermon I don’t want to preach.’…Jesus tells
them plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, ‘Love your enemies and do good to those
who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven. Give, as you want it to be
given to you.
Now here is the part that makes this even more difficult.
It is one thing for presidents and prime ministers to forgive each other and
decide not to bomb one another’s country 'back into the stone age' as one former
US president famously put it. It is a
lot more difficult for you and I to forgive each other. But the truth is that
that is a big part of what this pericope is speaking about.
You know what your sister did to you? You know what your
father said to you? You know all of the problems with your ex or your kids? You
remember your grade 5 teacher? You know how badly that person treated you at
the office the other day? You remember that person who did that thing to you 25
years ago? Fifty years ago? Last month? Just the other day? You know that
person who did that really horrible thing to you? N.T Wright writes, “Think of
the best thing you can do for the worst person and then go ahead and do it.”[6]
Jesus tells us plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, lovingly, ‘love your enemies and
do good to those who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven. Give, as
you want it to be given to you.
One more thing about forgiveness and this is important.
When you refuse to forgive someone the only one you really hurt is yourself. A
lack of forgiveness is not an act of aggression it is an act of
self-condemnation. If I don’t forgive you for treating me the way you did, I
become upset. I suffer the psychosomatic pains. The person I don’t forgive may
never even know about my unforgiveness but I do; they may just wonder why I am
acting so strange. I am the one who suffers. Unforgiveness is a self-inflicted
wound.
Now I know that this is hard teaching and the scriptures
say that many people left Jesus from some of his more difficult teachings but
the truth is like with South Africa and India, so with each of us. As we
forgive those who have harmed us, God will forgive us. As we forgive those who
have harmed us and God forgives us, we will forgive ourselves. As we forgive,
we will be liberated. There is no greater freedom than the freedom to love and
the freedom to forgive and no one can take that from us.
And so with that in mind if there are any of us here
today who are seeking forgiveness for an act or a thought against their brother
or sister, someone else, themselves or even our Lord. If there is anyone here
who has been suffering the pains of unforgiveness toward a friend, a neighbour,
a relative, the Lord, or an enemy, there is another way. It is difficult and it
is easy all at the same time, for as we cast all of our hurts and all of our
burdens on Jesus, he will take them and he will heal us. As we forgive, we will
be forgiven. So today I invite us all to love our enemies, to be forgiven and
to forgive. Let us pray.
---
[1] Moffet S. Chum, “Between Text and Sermon: Luke
6:27-36,” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68, no. 4 (2014):
428.
[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, 2 Kings 23:29-30: Lest We Forget.
Presented on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #56 to the Swift
Current Community Remembrance Day Ceremonies, November 11, 2014.
[3] Cf. Leon Morris, Luke in Tyndale New Testament
Commentary, ed. Leon Morris (Leicester, UK: IVP, 1999), 142 for a good
discussion on this.
[4] Captain Michael Ramsay, Luke 2:21-39: Harold, Harold
and Jesus. Presented to Swift Current Corps on October 26, 2014 and December
27, 2009 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-line:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/10/luke-221-39-harold-harold-and-jesus.html
[5] Cf. Moffet S. Chum, “Between Text and Sermon: Luke
6:27-36,” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68, no. 4 (2014):
428.
[6] N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville, Kentucky,
USA: WJK, 2004), 73.
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