Sep 25 2019 Matthew 5:38-48

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

This is it. This is the foundational shift that Jesus brought to God’s people. This is the basis of all of the rest of the love and grace and service, to which Christians are called. Before we can go out and be grace-filled, and serve, we have love, and we have to love all. If I love my enemy and pray for them, I’m not sure how they even remain enemies. If I can even name my enemies, that’s a great first step. Then pray for them. Then love them.

Not Hallmark, sentimental love, but active, empathetic serving love. Jesus is asking us to empathize and to serve and ultimately to love everyone – even those we’ve deigned to be our enemies. It’s like Abraham Lincoln said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Or in Jesus’ language, don’t I destroy my enemies when I actively, empathetically, serve and love them.

Not only are we called to pray for people we’ve deemed the enemy, we’re to pray for people who are actively persecuting us. This is when things get real. If we really are being persecuted or attacked or maligned, or disrespected – if someone is doing something that is actively against us, we are to pray for them.

There’s a lot of rancor in national politics now. There’s rancor in world politics. There’s rancor in families, communities, faith denominations. It seems to me love, or the opposite of love – disrespect, hate, apathy, whatever it looks like – is like the ripple caused by a stone in the water. The ripples of our actions, either love or the alternate, spread wider and wider. And spread wider if they’re stronger or more frequent.

While I cannot personally love or serve the folks at a national level, I can do two things. First we can love locally. We can love where I am. That will make ripples of love outward, and hopefully connect up with other love-ripples. The other thing we can do, is cease the hate-language, apathy-outlook, and rabble-rousing actions, aimed at the political arena. Those actions and words also make ripples that connect with other ripples. Maybe the national rancor is caused by the individual ripples from we, who think we’re not involved or affected or even not affecting the national arena. We are causing ripples in the world, whether it’s the result of our loving actions or other, less charitable actions and thoughts. 

This morning, I’m thinking about how Jesus’ charge to love my enemies causes me to think about the ripples I’m causing in this world, intentionally or unintentionally. Today, I want to see all of my actions and words like the ripples caused by a rock in the water. I want to intentionally create lots of ripples. The kind Jesus calls me to make.