Nov 19 2019 Commemoration of Elizabeth of Hungary Luke 6:35-38

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.
Elizabeth of Hungary was born daughter of a King, in Hungary in 1207. She showed great concern for the poor. During a famine and when her husband was out of town, she sold her jewels, and established a hospital where she cared for the sick. She let the sick and hungry eat from the ‘royal granaries’. After her husband died when she was 20, the court opposed her ‘extravagances’, and she and her children left impoverished. She spent the following 4 years poor, but serving the poor herself. She died from exhaustion at the age of 24, and is now considered a patron of the Third Order of St. Francis, a religious community that lives in the world, and follows St. Francis.

I’m always struck by people of faith, who seem to live to care for God’s children, who put their needs behind the needs of others. I strive to be that person, and I admire Elizabeth, for her short and directed life.

And there’s something about the appointed reading, and my experience that catches my breath. I remember probably 20 years ago, seeking a job the director of a restaurant that fed the hungry and unhoused. They used the hungry and unhoused as trainees as cooks and servers. And for a little bit of volunteering in return, guests could eat for free. They sat in booths, and were served, choosing lunch off a menu, more like a restaurant, than a homeless lunch. At the time, I was working in city management, and the lure of serving those in need, or at least greater need, was great. I was tired of entitled, unappreciative folk, presuming my duty was to address their concerns about barking dogs, and how long garbage cans were left on the curb.

My wise husband reminded me that just because the clients at the café were homeless, they could just as easily be entitled unappreciative folk, making lots of presumptions about my duties. If I was going to take this job for less than half of the pay, I’d need to do it for its inherent value, not because of any externally received accolades from those I served.

We’ve all heard Jesus’ statement to ‘love your enemies’. But the end of this sentence is what strikes me this morning. ‘he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked’. It’s one thing to love my enemies. It’s another for Jesus to be kind to wicked. It’s easier to imagine being kind to the downtrodden and poor. But for us to read that Jesus is kind to the wicked and ungrateful illustrates just how radical that statement ‘love your enemies’ is. 

This morning, I’m thinking about how we are called to love and serve everyone – the good and kind, the wealthy and entitled, the poor and grateful, the criminal and wicked. We do it not because of any sense of value we receive, not because of some perceived cosmic scorecard, and not because of their deservedness. We do it because Jesus loves us, not because of the value God receives, not because of some cosmic scorecard, and certainly not because of our deservedness. God loves us because.. God loves us. We are called to love everyone in return – friend and enemy alike.