Let's Be Enemies Epiphany 7 Yr A

From the Book: Let’s Be Enemies (by Janice May Udry with illustrations by Maurice Sendak, Harper and Row NY, NY, 1961)

James used to be my friend. But today he is my enemy. James always wants to be the boss. James carries the flag. James takes all the crayons. He grabs the best digging spoon. And he throws sand. So now James is my enemy. Now he hasn’t got me for a friend. When James was my friend I invited him to my birthday party. I always shared my pretzels and my umbrella with him. I showed him where the horny toad lived. We were such good friends we had the chicken pox together. But I wouldn’t have the chicken pox with James now. He is my enemy. James always wants to be the boss. I’m going over to poke James. I think I’ll put his crayons in the soup. I’m going to tell them not to let James go to school. Because he always wants to be the boss. James will think he’s the boss of the whole school. I’m going right over to James’ house and tell him. I’m going to tell him that from now on he is my enemy and he’ll have no one to play with. “Hullo James.”

Hullo. John.”

“I came to tell you that I’m not your friend anymore.”

“Well then, I’m not your friend either.”

We’re enemies.”

“All right.”

“GOOD-BYE!”

“GOOD-BYE!”

“Hey James?”

What?”

“Let’s roller skate.”

“OK. Have a pretzel, John.”

“Thank you, James.”

You can’t be enemies without having been friends.

Oh I know we use the term enemy to refer to more removed general things---terrorists are our enemies, the Taliban.

Back during the Cold War, the Russians, the communists.

Earlier during WW2 it was the Nazi’s, before that the Kaiser and his policies, before that the English and their tax.

Even earlier, during the time of Christ, the Jews had a lot of enemies: the Romans, the Greeks…..Besides a few iconic evil people—Hitler, Osama Bin Laden---

we use the term enemy to describe whole peoples, whole nations, whole movements.

But the enemy Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel is much more personal. The enemy in today’s Gospel is more in line with the actual meaning of the word. Enemy is derived from the Latin inimicus, which can be loosely translated as “In, meaning Not” and “amicus” meaning friend. An enemy is someone who is, decidedly NOT A FRIEND.

In the story I just read, Let’s Be Enemies, John, the narrator, is really ticked off at his former friend and current “notafriend,” his enemy, James.

He spends most of the story talking about what he isn’t going to let James do (retaliation)-and what he, John is going to do to James (revenge).

James engages in what Jesus is telling us to avoid---James is engaging in the old Levitic Law of the Hebrew Scripture which invites retaliation and revenge as an appropriate response to being betrayed, violated, cheated or in some way disgraced.

In the days of Jesus, this code of conduct as outlined in the Book of Leviticus and interpreted by the Temple authorities, was the law of the land.

In The Message translation of today’s Gospel, the last verse, “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” is translated to read: "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."

James is, appropriately, acting like a child. Jesus, in today’s Gospel is telling us, “stop acting like children, grow up, move through the old ways and into a new way. The old way of revenge and retaliation is no longer needed, for we’ve been given, as members of God’s kingdom, an abundance of extravagant, unending, never ceasing, always available and never disappointing LOVE. The Love of God. That love and peace which surpasses all understanding but is given to us, without question, without reserve, by God, through Christ.

Today’s Gospel isn’t telling us that we should be some type of doormat for abusive behavior. Nor is our Gospel telling us that we must passively accept the misfortunes of life. Today’s Gospel is telling us that when we are treated badly, when our feelings are hurt, when our trust is broken and when our faith in another is betrayed, we needn’t “beat them at their own game” or give them a taste of their own medicine.” For such behavior is the behavior of the playground, of children, of immaturity. The behavior of the grown up, the behavior of one mature in the faith of God through Christ, is to infuse the experience of betrayal, of lies, of hurt feelings, with Love. To realize that the one who is behaving badly is the one who is hurting, the one who is lost, the one who is stuck on the playground of retaliation and revenge, on the playground of temper tantruming children needs the understanding of an understanding parent. We are to treat them, like God treats us, with love and patience, in generosity and graciousness. [Now hear me loud and clear, I am not saying that we are to stay in dangerous situations. People in situations of physical, sexual, economic or emotional abuse need to first treat themselves with love, and get into a safe place surrounded by safe people. God does not want us to be martyrs, God wants us safe, and once safe we can begin to work on understanding that the abuser hates him or herself and is taking this hatred out on others.]

You see when we feel hurt, when we feel betrayed, when we feel lied to, and when we feel lousy we want to, just like a child, lash out.

And that’s ok, it’s ok to have temper tantrums, to have melt downs…..as long as no one gets hurt, as long as we have these melt downs, these temper tantrums, in the arms of our eternal parent. Because, and here’s the truth, we are children—children of God. And, as children of God. as grown up mature children of God, —we have a responsibility, a responsibility to rise above pettiness, to rise above reacting out of anger, to rise above retaliation. We are Children of a God who will give us all the love we need, who will soothe our wounds with a love which is beyond all understanding. And, just like the child who finds solace being wrapped in the arms of a loving trusted parental figure, we too find solace in the loving arms of our God, who will—who does-- make everything better. So better that, once the sting of our anger , our hurt and our betrayal is washed away by that Love, we can, like John, turn to the James’ in our life and say, “want to go roller skating, want a pretzel” Because through the grace of our loving God, I am able to forgive you, to forgive me and to move on.

So Let’s be Enemies, Let’s Be Friends, remembering that we are the children of a God who gives us the grace to turn the other cheek, to love the unlovable and to leave the playground of revenge and retaliation behind.

Dotting the i's and crossing the t's of freedom. Epiphany 6

Back home in Chicago, when I worked in community mental health, I’d, fairly regularly, get subpoenaed to testify in cases of child neglect and abuse. The routine went as follows: I’d be served and immediately take the subpoena to the DA’s office, who’d then direct me as to the next steps. But, regardless of how routine, I’d be nervous, wondering if my documentation was up to snuff. Fearful that a case would get thrown out because I failed to adhere to the letter of the law. The DA assured me, each and every time, that it was my job to show that I’d always acted in my best professional judgment and that, as long as I could show an adherence to best practice, that even if I hadn’t followed the letter of the law, I had followed the spirit of the law and I would be ok. According the DA this was a valid defense. It must have been, because even though I am sure there were times I hadn’t followed the letter of the law, none of my cases were dismissed because of my mistake. Now, I wasn’t out to break the law, but in all the chaos of working with drug addicted families, sometimes i’s didn’t get dotted and t’s didn’t get crossed. But, and here is where the spirit of the law comes into play, I was using my best judgment to treat these families with the respect my professional standards and the law, demanded.

Laws are good things. Laws help us harmoniously co-exist.

But blind adherence to the letter of the law, failing to consider the spirit around the law, often leads to problems. This is why the wording of laws, and the actions of our judges, who interpret them, are so vitally important.

The Ten Commandments are a set of laws, guidelines for the Judea-Christian faith traditions. Maybe some of you needed to memorize them as part of Sunday School. I had to memorize them before I was confirmed. Perhaps some of you actively use them as a guideline for behavior to this day; still others of you may only know them as part of the iconic Cecil B. deMille, Charlton Heston movie of 1956.

Regardless, when we read them this morning, I bet it was the first time, in a long time, many of you had read them aloud.

These Commandments are directives, laws, designed to give the recently freed Israelites a foundation from which their national life would be based. The ten commandments provided them with a template for a free and civilized society--how to live together without letting the lesser part of their human nature take over. To this day, what we consider acceptable human behavior is outlined in the Ten Commandments. We’re quick to point out when others have violated some of the more famous of the ten using their violation as a litmus test for acceptable conduct---murder? Unacceptable. Stealing? Wrong. Adultery? Shame on you….

It can be easy to follow most of the commandments. After all, how many of us have even come close to murdering someone?

But, in today’s Gospel, Jesus interprets the commandments, expanding them, making them more universal; and by doing this he toughens them. He moves beyond the letter and into the spirit of the laws. We may not have murdered, we may not have stolen we may not have overtly dishonored another. But how many of us have wished ill toward someone? How many of us, when difficulties beset our neighbor, thank God it is them and not us? Or how many of us have looked upon the good fortune of another and thought, why them and not me?

Amy Oden, a Lutheran theologian and professor states: “It’s one thing to behave rightly. It’s another thing entirely for one’s heart to be oriented toward love. Just as it’s easier to make a sacrifice at the temple than it is to do justice (Micah 6) so it is easier to keep the commandment against murder than it is to avoid anger in one’s heart.”

We may not have overtly dishonored our parents, but how do we treat the elderly in this country? Do we check in on that older frail couple down the street? We haven’t robbed banks, but what role did we play in the financial crisis?Are we montioring the bail outs? Are we holding those who did the bailing and those who got bailed out accountable? We don’t murder people, but what about all the killing done in our name---both through overt and covert government sanctioned operations?

We could go around, patting ourselves on the back for following the letter of the law brought down from Sinai, but if we only do that then we’re missing the spirit of the law, the spirit of faith, the spirit of community. The letter of civil law keeps us from anarchy, but the spirit of civil law will leads us toward democracy. Following only the letter of our faith law puts us in danger of reducing the work of God to a ritual formula, a rote memorization of statutes and directives, where we live in accordance with a law without ever giving our hearts and lives over to God and to the welfare of our neighbor . That’s a life of crossed t’s dotted i’s full of doing the right things not because we know that doing right is good, but because doing right is commanded. This creates a passionless life, a life of order growing out of fear, instead of a life of compassion growing out of love. This isn’t the life Jesus wants us to live, nor is it the life God created us for and longs for us to live---a life of joy and happiness where we love our neighbor and in turn, our neighbor does the same for us.

Much like the ten commandments gave the Israelites guidance for living in their newly formed, free society, Jesus’ expansion of the ten commandments teaches us to internalize the law, adhering not only to its letter, but to its spirit. When we do this, we’re living a life which, not only obeys laws, but takes the welfare and concerns of others close to our hearts, not because we’ve been told we must, but because we’ve learned we want to.

The people of Egypt today are no different than the Israelites. They , like Moses’ people, have been freed from the tyranny of a pharaoh, they, like the Israelites, are scared, and may, like the Israelites, have times when they question whether freedom is an improvement. Our commandments, our faith, our spirit of love as learned through Jesus Christ teaches us that living together in a community where the welfare of our neighbor is our concern, commands us, implores us, that we hold the people of Egypt in our hearts as we learn from their bravery and perseverance and support them in their transition into the ways of freedom and peace.

May God bless them, guide them and keep them free. +

Salting God's Soup: Epiphany 5 Yr A

+Thursday afternoon my niece, a senior in college, texted me to ask, “Is God perfect?” Apparently they’d been discussing this in class that day and she was still struggling with the question. I quickly responded that the notion of perfection was a human construct and that I don’t think we can apply such a value judgment to our Creator, because what God is, ultimately, is all that is Good in the world. God is Good. Good cannot be without God. God is Good and Good is God.

I think she was satisfied with that answer. I answered quickly because lately I’ve been thinking a lot about God. Actually I’ve spent a lot of time defending God. God’s motives, God’s character.

You see, when something the world considers bad happens to you, people are quick to bring God’s character, God’s motives, into play.

Cancer, the disease, is a bad thing. The killings in Tucson, the destruction of hurricanes, and the horror of oppression are all bad things. But bad things are not God. The world is not perfect. God created the world, but God doesn’t rule the world. That’s our job. And we aren’t perfect. But we all can be good. Because we are all creatures of God and God made us out of goodness.

God didn’t give me cancer, but the good I have found in cancer? That’s all God. All the good things which have happened as a result of this cancer---the world-class treatment I receive at Roswell, the love and support of family and friends, the strength offered through your prayers---all of that is Good. And all of that is God. Each and every person who’s a part of my treatment team, each person who prays for me, serves as an instrument of God’s grace—God’s goodness---in this world. And that goodness, that grace, fills me with an exuberant gratitude.

An exuberance which makes me want to, as God told the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading: Shout out do not hold back! Lift up your voice like trumpet!

Each week when I stand in front of you—I want to shout out, “God is so Good. God is so wonderful, We’re so incredibly blessed.”

But you know what? Such excitement, such exuberance, can get boring after awhile. How many different ways can I say:

“God loves us more than our human brains can comprehend? And in response to this Love we must go out and do as Jesus has commanded us to do—we must go out into the world with that Love—that incredible Goodness which is God---and spread it around!”

Even Good News can lose it’s punch after awhile.

But then I read Eugene Peterson’s modern translation of our Gospel reading for today and in it was a wonderful metaphor for this message. A terrific new way of looking at just how our response to God can help spread the Good News, a new way of describing our role as the instruments of God’s Goodness on this earth.

The opening verse of the Gospel, in the translation we have in front of us this morning, reads: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?” But in Peterson’s translation the same verse reads: “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.” (The Message Matthew 5: 13).

We are to be seasoning---we are to, like a pinch of salt, bring out the fullness of God’s flavor in the world. We are to make God’s Goodness palatable, noticeable, enjoyable—tasty!

Our actions, like the chemical reaction of salt in food, brings out the God flavor of this world.

Have you ever eaten something without enough salt? Take a pot of soup- even though if it’s loaded with vegetables and a rich beef stock, without seasoning, like salt, it will taste really bland. But add some salt and let it simmer awhile longer.

What a difference. The salt really brings out the blend of flavors that had been trapped within each of the ingredients. The salt sets the trapped flavors free.

In today’s Gospel, in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that, as God’s instruments on earth, we are to set the full flavor of God free.

We are here to bring out the God flavor of the world.

The people at Roswell, all the people who are praying for me, helping me along the way, each one of them—of you---is salting God in my life.

Through our good deeds, through our behavior as decent people in the world, we bring the fullness of God out. We shine a light on God’s grace when we do God’s work in the world. By doing good things, we let the world know that God—perfect or not---is always, always good.

That’s the unifying message throughout today’s readings .

God is in, and of, all the good in this world, but the only way people will notice it, the only way people can taste and see that the Lord is, indeed Good, is for us to season the world with that Goodness. To free the flavor of God so that the entire world can be seasoned with the Love of God we all cherish so much.

I think we take salt for granted---when it’s used well, we don’t notice it---but when there’s not enough (or, for that much too much) we notice!

So my challenge for all of us, is to notice the saltiness of others and to be salty ourselves. To take Jesus’ challenge to be --and to notice others—being God’s instruments in the world. Being the Good which is God. Being the salt that lets the full flavor of God out in the world.

Help others, notice when others help…be aware of how a mundane day can suddenly be full of life---can become so full of God’s flavor, through a simple act of kindness, of common human decency. Notice all the little things that we do, or have done to us, or see people do for others which lets them, lets us, lets everyone fully know the love of God, in all it’s robust, intricate and wonderful flavor.

If we want to keep God trapped in the blandness of human language, we can proclaim God as perfect. But if we want to take the challenge Jesus lays out for us [the challenge Eugene Peterson translates for us] then we can free God from the limits of our human constructs by seasoning God’s goodness through our own acts of kindness toward others. For when we do that, we let the full flavor of God’s grace free to season the world. +