For Sunday
Epiphany 7C
Collect
O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
After describing the relational character of blessing and woe, Jesus pushes deeper into the relational character of living with people in the world, encouraging his disciples to do good things in the world regardless of the cultural headwinds. The familiar command to turn the other cheek starts a list of actions that reflect a counter narrative to cultural priorities and the ideological demands of them.
- Jesus commands us to respond to evil, not with evil, but with good. To not respond to conflict with fight/flight/freeze, but without ego. To confront evil without being evil.
- He commands us to love those undeserving of love. To not save love for those who are easy to love, but love even one’s enemies.
- He commands us to ditch our transactional relationships. To not love with the expectation of being loved or in order to receive love.
- He commands us not to judge others or else we shall be judged. To not reject others or minimize their humanity for our command is to love them.
While none of this is particularly shocking to modern Christians who are familiar with these ideas, we no less struggle with them than anyone else. Often it is because we resist understanding them. Jesus begins by suggesting we allow evil to reveal itself, not be mimicking it, but by resisting to be cowed by it. Much like we can’t hate our way to love or war our way to peace, we must stand up to evil with love. It is who we are.