MCC Podcasts
Love - Loving Your Enemies
This love series is great. We've talked about I mean the topics that are in it are really helpful Most people are thrilled to hear them lots of help with the marriages and relationships and generally The topic of love today is where it gets a little bit crazy Today is in are you kidding me Jesus day? Because today's the day we talk about his challenge his call to something that takes great maturity and deep spirituality His challenge to love our enemies. I've entitled this message washing the feet that kick you Pardon me. I'm sorry And that's really what this is You know in this discussion, we're going to see that the beauty of importance the beauty and importance of the idea of the opposite is not Lost on our culture. We we're sort of drawn to opposites and that's not lost on our culture even some cultural icons In our time have recognized that I'm a fan of Mark Chagall. The artist Mark Chagall. I love Chagall's works Chagall said all colors are the friends of their neighbors, but the lovers of their opposites He understood that in terms of art and the beauty and the the balance and the importance of the opposite a professor of sociology a Catholic theologian at University of Arizona Andrew Greeley actually went so far as to say and he said he had this is always been right at the center of Catholic Thought he said God is the combination of opposites. He was speaking in the context of male and female He created them. There's these there are these opposites and that God is somehow the combination of the opposites the beauty and importance of the idea of the opposite is not lost on our culture is it Neither was the importance of the opposite lost on Jesus Jesus challenges us in effect to do the opposite of what seems to come naturally to us For instance when he says I want you to wash one another's feet That's can you raise your hand if that's the opposite of what comes naturally to you? Washing dirty feet as Jesus instructed me to do is the last thing I'm naturally inclined to do listen even when they're my own dirty feet I'm not naturally inclined Jesus comes and says do the opposite Christ's whole concept of repentance is about turning around and Do in the opposite or turning around and going in the opposite direction The beauty of the opposite is not lost on us neither is it lost on Jesus he says in order to find your life. You must what? Do the opposite? Take the counterintuitive move and lose your life Willfully and willingly lose your life. It's just the opposite of what you would expect but the ultimate The most absurd opposite to what Jesus calls us Is one that replicates his entire reason for coming to earth in the first place It's the opposite. He calls loving your enemies. Let me think about this if everything we do is a theological statement, and I believe it is Every act of life is a theological statement It's a statement of what we believe about God who the nature of God if everything we do is a theological statement Then the way we respond to our enemies is a statement of belief what the way God responds to his enemies and When Jesus tells us love your enemies He tells us to do exactly what he did in leaving that throne and coming to earth, right? We were once enemies of God, but while we were yet sinners Christ died for us And there's something about that kind of love experience the opposite of what you realized You deserve that twists you and changes you and torques your heart and makes you say wow What was that about? Would you stand with me for the reading of the word of God in this morning? I'm going to read this palm Sunday I'm going to read from Luke chapter 6 Where Jesus on Palm Sunday as pastor Jeff read earlier Experience people as both friend and enemy within the same week But experience no difference in the way he loved them And that's not a surprise because listen to what he says In Luke chapter 6 20 through 38 speaking to the multitudes and then he turns to his disciples and gives a message inside the message and Turning his gates toward his disciples who began to say Blessed are you who were poor? For yours is the kingdom of God blessed are you who hunger now? For you shall be satisfied here all the opposites Blessed are you who weep now you shall laugh Blessed are you when men and women hate you and ostracize you and insult you and Scorn your name is evil for the sake the son of men be glad in that day Leap for joy do the opposite of what comes natural for behold your reward is great in heaven For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets But woe to you who are rich for you are receiving your comfort in full Woe to you who are well fed now for you shall be hungry Woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep Woe to you when all men speak well of you where their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way But I say to you who hear Love your enemies opposite Do good to those who hate you another way of saying the same thing opposite Bless those who curse you another way of saying the same thing, but an opposite Pray for those who mistreat you whoever hits you on the cheek Offer that person the other also and whoever takes away your coat do not withhold your shirt from that person either Give to everyone who asks of you whoever takes away. What is yours? Do not demand it back treat others the same way You want them to treat you if you love those who love you what credit is that to you for even sinners love those who? Love them if you do good to those who do good to you what credit is that to you for even sinners do the same if you Lend to those from whom you expect to receive back what credit is that to you even sinners led to sinners in order to receive back The same amount But love your enemies Do good lend expecting nothing in return and Your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high For he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil people Be merciful just as your father is merciful Do not judge and you will not be judged you not condemned you will not be condemned pardon And you will be pardoned give and it will be given to you They will pour into your lap a good measure press down shaken together running over For by your standard of measure It will be measured to you in return to The opposite may God at his blessing to his holy word his fully inspired message to us Amen Be seated, please Here I go with a blow in my nose guide I For I will one day figure out what it is in this room I'm allergic to and you say you've been saying that for eight years get it figured out And Jesus knew when he talked about loving your enemies blessing those who curse you praying for those who are trying to subvert you He knew of what he spoke Because he did right into town a celebrity And have his week end quite differently than it had begun the same crowd that cheered him as he came into town on a cult Well, only days later jeer him as he was written out in a burial cloth He arrived on Palm Sunday a hero left good Friday a goat yet. He never ever quit loving If Palm Sunday is anything at all it's a picture of a man who loved his enemies Even when they appeared to have been acting as though they were his friends He did the opposite. So the question comes to us today Great challenge not so easily done How do we love our enemies? How do we do the opposite? What comes naturally to us? How do we do that? And I just want to offer in these few minutes that we have left to us here some insights that Scripture gives us not into the rightness our wrongness of loving our enemies Most of us know that that's what God challenges us to do most of us know that that's what we receive from God It's just that we find it so difficult to do it. It's not natural at all. Is it to love our enemies? But here's some help I find some help First of all, how do we love our enemies? First answer is know your enemies Know who really is an enemy you got to know them before you can love them. We've asked the question who is my neighbor in Scripture and then the challenge is okay, then go and love your neighbor. Well, who is my neighbor? In fact that was asked for us in Scripture. What about the question? Who is my enemy? Have you ever asked that question? Have you ever pondered it? Who is my enemy? Exactly. Who is it in my life that Jesus is asking me to love in his name? What does an enemy at least what does my enemy look like anyway? Here are just some thoughts on that. Some of us feel like our enemies are our competitors So to some of us the competition is the opposition my competitor, that's my enemy or Some of us would say my enemy is simply people someone who sees things differently than me So my neighbor who is aligned with a different political party than me is my enemy because their platform is against everything I stand for or An enemy might just be someone that we've decided is our enemy We don't know why we've just decided that we don't like them and they're against us and there are enemy in high school There was a fellow named Mike Toomey Now I didn't like Mike Toomey so at every Chance every chance I got I was on Mike Toomey's case. I pushed Mike Toomey I talked bad about Mike Toomey. I protected myself against Mike Toomey I tried to be funnier than Mike Toomey in the classroom and you know what I was thinking about this week thinking about this That's weak that this week. I have absolutely no idea why I saw Mike Toomey as my enemy He never did anything to me stole anything from me said anything really bad about me unless I initiated it first Sometimes we have enemies and when we ask ourselves, why is that person my enemy? We can't answer the question Maybe they rubbed us wrong one day or we're insecure and threatened by them, but they get listed on our page of enemies Even if it's just our competition or somebody who sees something differently than us or somebody that we've labeled an enemy for No reason no measurable reason the fact doesn't change that Jesus says whether it makes sense to you that they're an enemy or not Love them But Jesus spoke his words love your enemies remember in the context of Roman occupation There was Roman occupation around him and at least at the some of the leadership levels Jewish opposition to him So he's not just asking us here to love the nuisance enemy He's asking us to love the nuisance enemy, but that's not that's not where it stops He asked us to go beyond people who are a nuisance to us He's challenging us to love the profound enemy the measurable enemy the potentially harmful enemy He's asking us to love because that's what people would have heard right when Jesus says love your enemy What do you think their minds went through right away the enemy that was in? Uniform all around them the occupation and when he turned to the disciples as he did here and says love your enemy They would have thought Romans and some of the Jews that are fixing to kill Jesus That are against everything we stand for who feel like a real threat to us These are people who seem to live in order to bring you down Their objective their objective in life is to trip you up and cause you harm So it's the nuisance enemy, but it's also the profound enemy get a know who your enemy is If you're ever going to know who it is Jesus is asking you to love Folks who always seem to be pushing against you people People who oppose you in order to harm you to undermine your progress in life and even to undermine your mission in life These are the enemies Jesus asks us to love and we cannot love them if we don't know them Know who they are before we can love our enemies We've got to know those enemies They are everyone from the people who rubbed me the wrong way to the intentional underminers of my life's mission and I look at the Mike Tumi's and The Saddam Hussein's and everything in between Can I can I just pray for? Evil to come upon at least one of them and Jesus reminds me Everything you do my son is Representation of my character my nature if you're my follower if you're my body So the answer is not if you want to follow me Do for others what I've done for you love Your enemy know who they are and then love them That's crazy That's just not American. That's that's that's the opposite of what I naturally do Now there's a second point I want to add here, so know your enemies know who they are who they aren't second point Once you identify your enemies confound to them Give them the opposite of what they deserve When they're bracing themselves for the punch Let them be shocked by the fact that they received a kiss or a handshake Confound your enemies with love I have a little sign in my office that says The best way to change the world is to change a place that changes places And I was thinking about that this morning when I was in there looking at that sign And I thought yeah, and the best way to change a place that changes places is to love the heck out of it Love it like crazy Love it way beyond expectations Confound your enemy give them the opposite of what they deserve That was the practice of Jesus remember at the end of this Palm Sunday week. You know what happened? We're gonna celebrate it on Friday night He's take he's arrested he's peaceful, but he's arrested He's brutalized and he's killed and hung on a cross now. Thank God. He ends up being resurrected from the dead We'll celebrate that next Sunday And from the cross What did Jesus say when he looked out at the people that he chose to come and help? That he did nothing but love The people who had brutalized him. Do you remember his words? If they were my words, they would have said okay God unleash hell on this crowd Hey Jesus if you're the Messiah save yourself You saved others save yourself. He was hearing that kind of stuff. They were trash-talking Jesus while he was on the cross I'd have said I'll I'll show you some saving myself stand back brother About the lightest place up even the old hymns says he could have called 10,000 angels You didn't that hym doesn't mean he could have called him for a nice little tea party but Jesus instead Practices once again the opposite and he says father Forgive them They don't know what they're doing Have mercy upon them Once we know who that enemy is that God asks us to love The next thing we do is we confound them by giving them the opposite of what they're expecting the opposite of what They deserve and look at how that does confound people even at the cross In Luke 23 Look at the the way that that plays with their head Two men both criminals were also let out with Jesus to be executed when they came to the place called the skull They crucified him there along with the criminals one on his right the other on his left and Jesus said Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing and They divided up his clothes by casting lots The people stood watching the rulers even sneered at him They said he saved others let him save himself if he's God's Messiah the chosen one and that wasn't a statement of faith and hope That was said with cynicism And the soldiers also came up and mocked him and they offered him wine vinegar and said if you are the king of the Jews save Yourself and then they had a good laugh at Christ expense There was a written notice above him which read this is the king of the Jews Not so much a proclamation of nobility, but one of mocking One of the criminals who hung their hurled insults at him hey aren't you the Messiah Save yourself and us But the other criminal we buked him and said don't you fear God? He said since you were under the same sentence We are punished justly. We're getting just exactly what we deserve, but this man Has done nothing this man is getting what the opposite of what he deserves And I'm arguing and he was offering the opposite of what those who gave him the opposite deserved Then he said Jesus Remember me when you come into your kingdom And he obviously was not mocking because Jesus looked over at him and said and it probably wasn't real easy for Jesus to say anything by then I'll tell you the truth bro Today not just one day you'll be with me in paradise He's even showing mercy there and all that pain Was about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon So coming back to my point mocking mocking mocking mocking brutality everywhere blood dripping all over the place It's about noon darkness comes over the whole land until three in the afternoon For the sun stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn into in some other location in the temple Jesus called out with a loud voice father Into my into your hands. I commit my spirit and when he had said this he breathed his last So he had said father forgive them for they know not what they do. I suspect that was heard You've got people crying people laughing people jeering you get people casting lots for this valuable Clothing that Jesus had you've got the conversation the juxtaposition of the conversation between the two thieves one on the left one on the right One mocking one receiving mercy from Jesus. He's offering mercy to the crowd asking God to show mercy to the crowd Offering mercy to a criminal who deserved death while he was on a cross. He did not deserve and Then listen to what it says in verse 47 because when you show love to enemies give them the opposite of what they deserve They are confounded by it The said period seeing and hearing what it happened And we have no reason to believe this centurion was not among those mocking and gambling and He praised God and said surely This was a righteous man When all the people who had gathered to witness this site saw what took place They beat their breasts and went away But all those who knew him including the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance Watching these things, but I want to focus on that one centurion What he heard what he saw What was going on in his heart like who is this guy? Surely by now He'll start cursing Israel Who is this guy what what he's really really hurting and we all know that when you're hurting the worst part of you comes out Right, it's right at the right at the skin. I mean, it's just ready to come on surely now Finally he'll show that he's a little bit normal and This centurion sees nothing but forgiveness love mercy and grace leaking out of Jesus and He has a turn He's confounded and he says I think I had it wrong This guy is innocent Surely he is the son of God What do we do after we recognize our enemies we confound our enemies with love? An enemy that offers hatred and receives nothing in return, but love Will experience very often a holy confusion that is life-altering now It doesn't happen in one occurrence. It doesn't happen overnight But we're to confound our enemies with love the personal consequences of choosing to do that may be great may be costly and significant But that's an example of saying I'm going to trade away Today's very short-term reward remember that from the text we read earlier For tomorrow's long-lasting reward. I'm going to see the redemption of this enemy of mine As more valuable than whatever it is. I will say for myself by not returning love to them Might be costly, but it's worth it now the question comes. How do you do that? How in the world do you recreate your person? To become a person who's naturally inclined to do the opposite. I have some help because I need some help Here some practical advice for becoming the person who's more naturally able to confound his or her enemies First of all pray for heart reconstruction My spiritual director a few months ago challenged me to be more regular and precise in my praying So he would ask me are you praying the prayers? I said no, I don't regularly pray the prayers You know book in my day with with prescribed prayers So we set on my phone a little trumpet sound And that - it's really a noble sounding thing calls me to prayer goes off in the morning goes off at night and The morning my practice is to pray the Lord's prayer and there is if you remember there is a phrase in the Lord's prayer Forgive me my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. It's in the plural bit And I'm most of the mornings challenged with that last stanza And so I introduced that theme and then I am led by the Spirit to go off and prayer along that theme and most of the time My prayer is this You've got to increase my ability to forgive if My experience of forgiveness is tied even though I couldn't explain it till you somehow related to my ability to forgive I'm sunk Jesus offers grace and we can't earn that forgiveness, but there's some connection there and I end up praying Increase my ability to forgive make me a gracious grace giving forgiving person Caused me to have thicker skin war let things roll off my back Let me offer to people what I've received from you and not have my first step to be Payback, but my first step to be that's okay. I understand forgiveness one of the ways we can learn to do that is to pray for heart reconstruction and then if that's Not helping all that much. There are some things we can do in life and I I would argue that we can practice forgiveness in smaller things So when there's a huge sin against us It's tough to forgive that but if we've been practicing forgiveness in smaller things virtually insignificant things You know we sort of ramp up to that the next thing you know that's your That's your practice for instance. Here's something say absolutely nothing and in fact back off the next time somebody cuts you off on one Oh one That's practicing forgiveness in a smaller thing now if you're like me you're saying right now. That is not a smaller thing That is a big thing And then and then when you go past them don't look at them Just stare straight ahead Or Here's one don't correct insignificant details when someone gets them wrong in the telling of a story Small thing, but it's a good rehearsal Just let it go. It's not that big a deal anyway. You learn to show grace. Here's one Kind of hoping my wife hears this tape The next time your husband's in the shower and he decides to take the empty can of shaving cream and throw it across the bathroom Trying to make it into the basket and he makes it But he uses the bathroom wall as a backboard and leaves a dent you don't have to say anything about that Just let that go or or when you're sitting down to dinner And he poor guy goes to put dressing on his salad thinking that there's one of those little squirt holes But there's no squirt all and he picks it up unscrews his talking and goes like this and this dressing goes all over You don't have to say anything about that. Just let it go And you'll learn to be more forgiving, you know, not that those are aimed at anybody in particular Practice forgiveness in the smaller things and then finally this because we're still on that second point confound your enemies Just love how do we become that kind of a person? Here's another help stay in touch with Instances when you were let off the hook Sometimes we can't forgive because we have terrible memories We don't remember that we are people who have been forgiven I was at Safeway a couple weeks ago backing out of a parking spot and I backed right in front of a lady and her children I I was so it bothered me so much that that I had done that she had to stop short and pull her kids back I rolled the window down and I said ma'am. I am so sorry I really didn't see you, but there's no excuse for that. I'm so so sorry And you know what she said to me I expected her to say you know young man, I didn't expect that you know You know sir, you need to be more careful. They're children. This isn't I had a guy coming out me once This is not a race track. It's a parking lot, you know, I expect something like that But instead she said Don't worry about it. There's a blind spot right there. She said this I did the very same thing just yesterday Remember times when you've been let off the hook and when you remember times like yeah That was me two weeks ago or that may be me next week You tend to be able to be more forgiving confound our enemies once we found them confound them Once we've known them confound them with love finally this Have no enemies Choose to have no enemies No your enemies. Okay, that's likely enemy. That's a likely enemy When they're there in your life confound them by giving them the opposite of what they deserve confound them with love But the most mature expression The most mature practice is to choose to have no enemies Ultimately whether your somebody's enemy is up to them But whether somebody is your enemy or not is up to you The fact that somebody may see you as an enemy doesn't necessarily mean you have to see them as one Listen to what Romans 12 says Do not repay anyone evil for evil Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone and then this line if it is possible as far as it depends on you Live at peace with everyone Choose to have no enemies Do not take revenge my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath for it is written It is mine to avenge. I will repay says the Lord The fact is the Lord wants to show mercy instead and we've got to be at peace with that On the contrary Tell me if you've heard this before if your enemy is hungry feed him Wait, my enemy's got a sword and he's coming against me and he's starting to lose energy. I'm supposed to give him an energy bar You ready for this crazy answer exactly Hold on a second brother. I don't think you'll be able to swing that sword up my neck with any force You have let's take a break and you can come at me again If your enemy is hungry feed him If he's thirsty give him something to drink in doing this you will confound him you will heat burning coals on his head Do not be overcome by evil tied to the idea of retribution of a reaction But overcome evil with what with good with love Have no enemies and so far as it has anything to do with you have no enemies be at peace the fact that somebody sees you as an Enemy doesn't mean you have to see them as an enemy Secondly Christians remember this Christians only have one enemy And that enemy is the same enemy that's the enemy of God the father of lies the one behind all evil Satan That's our enemy Ephesians 6 reminds us put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil schemes for our Struggle is not against flesh and blood our struggle is not with our neighbor our struggle is not with that person who's in the other Political party our struggle is not with the LGBT community our struggle is not with the school district our struggle is not with the Democrats Are the Republicans or the independence? We have one enemy the rest of the people are our colleagues in the struggle as humans We have one enemy Our struggle is not against flesh and blood But against the evil schemes it says the rulers against the authorities against powers of this dark world And against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly Realms we have plenty of people with whom we disagree profoundly and have aggressive discussion and Folks who are making choices that from our Christian perspective we think are not in their best interest and not consistent with the heart of God I'm not pretending. That's not true. That's not my enemy That's my partner in humanity We have one enemy have no enemies the fact that someone sees you as their enemy doesn't mean you have to see them as you're Them as your enemy, you know what I'm saying and we have one enemy Finally perhaps that's why Jesus seemed to always be trying to shorten his list of enemies and widen his circle of friends You ever notice that about Jesus? So in mark nine Jesus says teacher they say teacher John says to Jesus we've saw someone Casting out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us. It was not one of us But Jesus said stop hindering him For there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name and be able soon afterward to speak evil against me For this famous words of Jesus. He who is not against us is for us You see Jesus trying to narrow and shrink his list of enemies and expand his list of friends Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name Because you're following me truly a city who will not lose his reward Widen the circle of friends have no enemies. There's the ultimate response To the challenge to love your enemies know them confound them Throw away the list of them because we really only have one enemy the rest are our friends My friend John Nodhilfer sends a weekly Little devotional and he told a story this week that I want to read to you Said soon after arriving in Oakland. He was a pastor at our church in Oakland years ago In the mid-70s I was invited to hear the witness of a former Berkeley radical Talk about redundant Berkeley radical He was on the run in Europe after advocating the overthrow of the US government, so he's he's exiled Radical he found himself hitchhiking in Italy when an American businessman catch that Who makes his livelihood because of the American system? Chance upon him and offered him a ride to Rome in his Cadillac On the entire trip he found himself spilling out his venom about everything American including American business When they got to Rome the businessmen helped him unload his belongings put him up in a hotel It was then that he burst out and said what are you doing? Why are you doing all of this? What haunted him from then on was the reply of the businessman the only words of witness he heard from that man whose livelihood he had been condemning during the trip and He said this the businessmen did our Lord taught us to wash each other's feet He put him in on a spiritual journey a spiritual quest which eventually led the radical to be a true radical following Jesus as his leader You know it's easy to love people who are kind to us. It's even easy to love people who are ambivalent toward us not that difficult It's a fairly natural thing to love those who agree with us or who support the same values we support But the love Jesus is talking about It's a love that goes well beyond that The love of Christianity is a love that washes the very feet That kick us The love of Jesus is a love that loves even our most forceful effective and severe enemies. Here's the question with which I want you to leave today Will our church? Navigate the crazy challenging threatening dizzying waters of that kind of love Will you? Love like that You have heard it said Love your neighbors But I say to you Love your enemies You Why need help with that Let's pray God would you bring to mind right now in these last couple of minutes that we have together here many minutes oh no minutes The faces of those That before today we have well even today we consider our enemies They're the ones that threaten us They're the ones that anger us They're the ones that oppose us They stand for everything we stand against And begin your transformation in our hearts So that we see what's really going on when we see their faces we see not them opposing us But we see somebody pushing them The real enemy enticing them Subverting them Redirect Lord That passion with which we stand against those we see as our enemies and aim it at that one enemy instead Give us the capacity to love Even those who will never love us In the name of Christ we pray Amen