7th Sunday after Epiphany, 2/23/2025

Texts: Luke 6:27-38, Genesis 45:3-11,15

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The readings the past few Sundays have been leading us through the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and we have heard Him proclaim this revolutionary reality that is the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom, Jesus has said, is good news to the poor, it will set the captives free, the hungry will be fed, those who weep will laugh, the sick will be healed, the oppressed of the world are called blessed, while those who oppress them are sent away empty with a warning of judgement. The Kingdom of God is the fulfillment of a long awaited dream, and with Jesus’ proclamation, it has begun to materialize in the midst of God’s people. Now in today’s readings, we heard how that Kingdom will build itself up. How we get to the Kingdom is just as important as the destination itself. Those who follow Jesus on the way are called to a particular life-style that includes as an essential ingredient two things: love and mercy. And of course, a love and mercy not born from any self-interest, not for the performance of any ideology. We are to love and be merciful because God, to whom the Kingdom belongs, is loving and merciful. We are to imitate God, in the same measure that He has acted with us. And this changes the whole flavor of love and mercy, for it is enriched with the original source of these two virtues. We all know fresh food from its source is better than any other. Similarly, we are plucking the fruit of love and mercy right from the source, and our identity starts to take root in it.

Now, what kind of love is Christian love? According to Jesus, the love that identifies the Kingdom is one that breaks the barriers between enemies and friends. It is a love that actively seeks to repair and restore what has become broken, it sees in the enemy another human being created by God, that God seeks to restore to wholeness just as we are restored. It recognizes that love is universal, but God’s love goes the extra mile. It is not content with loving just those that love you or benefit you, but it seeks a generous love that even heaps it on the undeserving, a love that sees beyond sin and offense, and poured out richly upon others. It esteems love so highly, as such a generative influence, that it will give beyond the world’s limits, because it believes that such a love can change an enemy’s heart. This type of love is very difficult. Just think about it. Imagine an enemy in your life. Picture them. And then hear the words of Jesus: love them. I for one, in my frail humanity, would rather read a psalm of vengeance to my enemies, but Jesus is shaping my mind in the way of His Kingdom, to transform my anger into upbuilding love. I’m reminded by a saying of Professor Cornel West: “ I was a gangster before I met Jesus and now I am a redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.” The usual hatred of enemies will not solve the problems, only a love that is bold enough to break and create something new. In a way, that is why I appreciate Jesus’ use of the word enemy here. Because in life we all have people we dislike and rather not be around, people who have ill-intent or people that are harmful, that have earned such a title. Jesus does not deny us such a feeling. We have enemies, people who are in opposition to our life. But so daring is God’s love, that it

wants us to revolutionize our world view to see an alternative reality, where in fact, an enemy can be loved, that perhaps a change of heart towards God’s desire of justice and mercy might happen, that such a person we had discounted, they might venture forth and join a common table with us. That the usual calculus of human conflict has inevitably wrought much misery and no matter the historical circumstance, we always arrive at the same old conflict. Beloved, this is hard work, impossible without God’s grace that restored us when we were lost in our own sin. Christian love takes a gamble that good can still sprout in hard hearts, just like we were sprung out from our own hard heartedness. And thus we engage in this work because Jesus has revealed to us that this is how God is like, One who stakes everything on His Love.

Yet, in our following a God that is Loving and Merciful, and thus orienting our lives accordingly, it is not an escape from the human truth of real conflict. There is a reason why someone might be considered an “enemy” in the first place. There are histories and offenses whose ramifications are not a mere bump on the road towards unity. They are persisting realities that actively affect human lives. That is why to truly love and be merciful, we must also tell the truth of sin, the reality that we have fallen short of living in God’s way. Without recognizing the harm done, we do not build towards Love and Mercy, because for these two to be possible there must be a recognition which allows the relationship to reconcile and build up according to the Kingdom. Like in the Joseph story from Genesis, reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers does not happen without any reparation, struggle, or truth-telling. Joseph

was very explicit about the harm done to him: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt”. Joseph reminds them of what they did to him. Reconciliation cannot happen, that embrace of tears among brothers cannot happen, without the truth of the situation being present. And it is only then that when reconciliation does come, when grace abounds, they can affirm: up until this moment God has taken us, look at where were at, and look at us now; God truly works out good from bad situations. In the words of the martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero: “A civilization of love that did not demand justice of people would not be a true civilization: it would not delineate genuine human relations. It is a caricature of love to try to cover over with alms what is lacking in justice, to patch over with an appearance of benevolence when social justice is missing. True love begins by demanding what is just in the relations of those who love.”

That is why Christians can love their enemies, and pray for those that persecute them, not because we ignore the offense, but rather because we believe God can make a way out of no way, that somehow God will make an alternative of peace that can rise over the horizon and build something new out of the remains of conflict. And that takes a lot of God given grace, beloved. It takes courage and humility and faith to bring about a community where the swords are sheathed and life is lived fraternally. To be in Jesus’ wavelength, we try to act in such a way that allows the alternative reality of the Kingdom to take place, instead of the usual destructive conclusions of human conflict.

This love ethic will always be inconvenient to the powers that be, and it will always be a surprising gift that the church is called to practice in its common life alongside the communities we serve. The powers that be want us to parcel and divide our love, but Jesus asks that our love be total, that it breaks all categories, that it shines on all for who knows where God might change somebody’s life. Considering the times we are living in, nothing more important could be said, that God calls us to change the present animus towards truthful love rather than hatred, to love generously rather than sparingly, because that is how God is. Again, in the words of Óscar Romero: “Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world. Let us not tire of preaching love. Though we see that waves of violence succeed in drowning the fire of Christian love, love must win out; it is the only thing that can.” Amen and Amen. Let us pray: