Spinach

February 24, 2019

Luke 6:27-38

From delivering a sermon while sitting in a stranger’s boat, to recruiting his disciples and imparting upon them the people who will receive blessings and the people who will receive woes, we move into the continuation of the message given now to the masses who had gathered to hear the mysterious man from Nazareth speak.

So let’s see what he has to say….

Luke 6:27-38
"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

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.

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

Do to others as you would have them do to 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 hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

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.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

"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. 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."

We see here that he has indeed transitioned from speaking on the plain to his disciples, and is now speaking on the plain to whoever will listen, listen being the key word.  Listening is the ability to pay attention to sounds and understand them, while hearing is simply the activity of sound falling upon ears.  We hear noise but we listen to music.  So we see that Jesus is talking to those who are engaged and open to the message, the words, he is bringing.  I really keyed into this because I wonder how much of what we “hear” we actually listen to...how much of what I hear do I listen to?

And for some strange reason (and I learned long ago to stop trying to figure out the ramblings of my mind), this message reminded me of a meal…that we eat.  In particular, it reminded me of one Saturday evening that my grandmother made dinner, and invited me to come eat.  Grandma had gotten into new recipes on Facebook and Instagram.  And there’s nothing wrong with that…I do the same.  So Grandma served up this new meatloaf recipe…and it was fantastic!  And she paired it with mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, rolls, and something new…something she “read” was good for you.  It was canned spinach.  Now I’m not knocking spinach (although I was expecting cabbage, but that’s a different story for a different time).  I love spinach.  There’s a restaurant in Tullahoma that makes the best spinach rolls…and I can’t get enough of them!  The difference being fresh spinach, vs what’s in the great value can on the shelf at Walmart.  Have you ever eaten canned spinach?  Well, this “credible source” on social media said you cook the nutrients out by getting it hot, so it’s best to simply serve it straight out of the can.  It was cold, and wet, and slimy, and stringy, and just about every nasty gross adjective you could possibly come up with.  I put one bite in my mouth, gagged, and continued to spread it around my plate in an effort to make it appear essentially gone.  It hung in your throat and crept down your food pipe at glacial speed.  I’m underselling this…I promise. 

So what does that have to do with this morning’s message from Jesus?  I’ve always felt that this sermon was the canned spinach on my plate.  It’s there alright…staring back at me, challenging me, defying my wants, and no matter what I try, it just won’t go away.  You’ve got no choice but to digest it. 

So as bad as it might taste, let’s chew this one bite by bite.

Jesus tells those who are listening to him that they are to LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, DO GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATE YOU, BLESS THOSE WHO CURSE YOU, and PRAY FOR THOSE WHO ABUSE YOU.

Do what?  Is he serious? 

Love the people you can’t stand.  Your enemies.  The people who probably hate you.  People who despise you and likely wish you harm or death.  People who harbor ill will toward you, for whatever (probably petty) reason.  Love them.  Love them?  Not just love them…do good for them, bless them, and pray for them.  I’m supposed to pray for those who wish bad things on me?  That’s not all.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek.  If someone steals from you, turn around and give them more than they stole.  Do to others as you would have them do unto you.

Ah; the golden rule.  We’ve heard it in one form or another our entire lives.  Treat others the way you want them to treat you.  And Jesus continues his sermon following this theme of the golden rule, saying that even sinners love those who love them…but those listening were called to more and more was expected of those who called themselves followers of Christ. 

We’re doing that, right? 

All of these things Jesus listed, they’re all verbs.  They imply movement, action, follow through.  These are things that can be measured, they’re impactful.  But in this reciprocal dog-eat-dog culture, I think the golden rule has somehow changed; instead of treating others the way we would like to be treated, we start treating others the way they treat us first.  If they’re ugly, we’re uglier.  If they curse us, we curse back harder.  In our driving, in the way we treat each other in the grocery store, at work, in everything...and after a while, this “do unto others as they do unto you” turns into “do unto others before they do unto you”, and it’s we who are delivering the first, preemptive blow.  And you and I here in this building this morning are accomplices to this. 

It makes us feel good.  It preserves our pride and inflates our ego.  “I have to watch out for me because no one’s going to watch out for me except me” we convince ourselves.  And in that same tone we recount the times we were good to people who either were presently being good to us, or had in the past been good to us.  Someone who had essentially earned our goodness through our judgement of righteousness.  And Jesus addresses this too:  that’s great…even the wicked in the world are able to do this, and do this very thing, but if that makes you feel better, then good for you.  But as we said earlier, we are called to better.  We are called to higher.  We are called to the hardest thing there is to do…we are called to set ourselves, our wants, our needs, our ego, our pride, our hatred, our spite aside…to let go of it for the sake of the Kingdom and the sake of our very souls.  We are told to love those that are the hardest to love, to wish good fortune on those we hate, and help those who would rather steal from us.

And I’m sure the rebuttals flew like crazy…to this very day when the death penalty is brought up, it’s amazing how many people will run to LEVITICUS 24 as ruling law (an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth; however you injure your neighbor so shall is be done to you).  I have news for you; if you’re living your life by Leviticus, stop. 

Think that’s heresy…to warn you and counsel you and guide you away from the Old Texts as a way of living?  Not at all.  In our crusade to justify the seemingly natural tendency to be judge, jury and executioner, and our glee in manipulating Bible verses to empower this journey, have we overlooked who exactly Jesus is?  We proclaim him as the Word made Flesh…until this word goes contrary to our wants and our desires.

This is seemingly the crux of the Good News:  love.  Not just love, but love in action, difficult love, impossible love.  And we have plenty of reasons not to love…good reasons in our minds:  Biblical reasons.   And you’re wrong.  Very wrong.  And it needs to stop today.

The hardest part here is the “heart part”.  We all have the ability to put on the show…to convince others how “holy” we are.  We make sure and put on social media our Bible verses, we take pictures of the good deeds we are doing, and we let everyone know the good we do.  Today, we need to look inward instead of outward.  We don’t like being open and vunerable…but that’s exactly what we are to God.  We can hide NOTHING from God, for God knows all, sees all, even into our very hearts.  God knows your feelings, God knows when your love isn’t actual, genuine, and divine. 

And we end today with the revelation that it’s not only us who are required to live by this golden rule, but we will be judged against the same measurement by God; those who showed mercy will be shown mercy, those who showed kindness will be shown kindness.

As we come to a close today, I don’t think it’s too hard to see how easy it was for Christ’s own people to want him condemned to death.  If Christ were alive today preaching this message of love, I’m not sure how long he would last now.  I can’t help but think of those who took the hard position of love in the public eye, knowing it not might but would probably cost them everything:  President Lincoln, Rev. MLK Jr, and Robert Kennedy.  People who, like Christ, were a threat to the self-serving culture of reciprocity. 

Details in a topsy turvy world

When I first started back to school after being out for 20 years, it was like entering a new world.  One where there was seemingly one cardinal rule:  DON’T PLAGERIZE.  I had to sign one blanket form for the school’s ethics department that explained what plagiarism was, and a promise that I wouldn’t do it.  Then, with every professor, in every class, they have their specific cover sheets they want stapled to the assignments, with again, my signature attesting to my knowledge of plagiarism and my attestation that this work is indeed my original work.  And it terrifies me.  The first few papers I wrote contained references to nearly every sentence I wrote.  At one point I was even afraid I was plagiarizing myself. 

With the authors of our four gospels, I’m pretty sure John got the importance of plagiarism…but I don’t think his peers – Matthew, Mark and Luke – took it as serious.  Their gospels are very, very close in content, but just enough different at the same time….

This is one of those times that the difference is just enough.  This is Luke’s version of what you and I refer to as the “Sermon on the Mount”.  But, throw out the familiarity of that story…or you’ll be tempted to get caught up in the comparison between the two stories, and miss the point Luke is trying to make with his recollection.

From last week’s Gospel to this week’s, Jesus has selected and recruited his Apostles (his disciples), performed some miracles, healed some people, and made some religious leaders angry.  We find him today on flat ground, with the disciples and a crowd of people who have gathered to be healed from sickness or rid of unclean spirits.  The crowd were all grasping to touch Christ, because they knew the power that could heal them emanated from him, being God in the flesh.

Then he began to speak:  Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God; blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled; blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh”.  Quite an upside-down picture from what we would expect.  For the most part, our society equates success, and riches, and things with being blessed; why do I think that?  Go to your favorite social media site and look up the hashtag “blessed”, and let me know what you find.  Pictures of expensive cars and large houses and things and status symbols.  No one posts pictures of their bank accounts with a balance of $3.82 with #blessed.  No one posts pictures of their bowl of cabbage soup with #blessed.  No one takes pictures of their worn out shoes with #blessed.  No one says you’re blessed when you’re in mourning from loss, or disappointment.  No one posts their past due light bill and is thankful, grateful, and blessed because of it.  Because, to us, blessings are good fortune, given to those who must have done something to gain great favor with God, which means when we see people driving expensive cars and living in big houses and wearing the best clothes, or eating out all the time, or fortunate in health, they must be really good Christians because look how blessed they are!  No one leaps for joy because they’re alone and feel rejected.

Luke then gives us a list of “woes”.  Woe to you who are rich because you’ve received your consolation, woe to you who are full now because you will be hungry, woe to you who are laughing now because you will mourn and weep”.  Wow.  I don’t like any of these. 

I’m not rich.  I’m a humble servant; that being said, I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food in my cupboard, and I’m in a pretty good mood.  While most of these things are subjective, I gotta say…these woes scare me because I could fit in them!  I don’t think it’s fair that because I’m not homeless and starving and sad that I’ve gotten my share now and will suffer later for it! 

But, if we look close, we see that Jesus nowhere tells us to denounce our things, our food, or our happiness; we aren’t told here to sell all we own and give the money to those less fortunate than us (we see it other places, but not here).  We aren’t told to give a portion of our food to those who have none here.  We aren’t told that this is required for us (and notice that Luke’s entire discourse here is written in the second person) to attain the kingdom of God. 

There is no mention of reward, or punishment here.  We are just presented with a reversal, a mirror-image, that is simply a fact of life.  So why would Jesus bless the poor and pronounce woes on the rich?  We can really only offer tentative answers.

Perhaps it’s because the rich are tempted to trust in their wealth and the poor are more likely to trust in God; perhaps the rich use (as we so often see it) less than ethical means to attain their wealth.  Maybe they’re inclined to take advantage of more vulnerable people.  But I’d be remiss to say that we all know well-to-do people who live lives of honesty and generosity, and less-well-to-do people who don’t. 

So how did the crowd respond to this topsy-turvy mix-up of what we know?  That’s perhaps the biggest mix-up of all.  We are told plainly in the beginning of this lesson that Jesus looked up at his disciples and said the blessings and woes.  This wasn’t his sermon to the masses.  This wasn’t a call to justice.  This wasn’t framework for divine living.  This was a call to discipleship.  This was for his close followers, the chosen ones who worked closely with Christ.  And this had to be comforting, because these are people who did leave everything to follow Jesus.  They lived on the road, depending on the kindness and generosity of strangers for their next meal, for a pillow upon which to lay their head.  They followed a homeless itinerant preacher, and they sacrificed everything to do so. 

This was, as we see, a call to true discipleship, and not an attempt to summarize Christian theology in its entirety.  A detail perhaps overlooked.