St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
February 20, 2022
Year C: The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
Genesis 45:3-11, 15
Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50
Luke 6:27-38
A Radically Different Way
For about as long as I can remember, I have been a careful follower of the news.
When I was a little kid, every weeknight my family and I watched the local news and then Walter Cronkite, who, at the end of each broadcast, told us, “And that’s the way it is.”
We always had our local newspaper delivered, and later I began to read other papers and newsmagazines, eager to learn as much as I could about what was happening in the world.
For a while I watched cable news but eventually decided that might not be such a good thing.
Like a lot of us, today I look at news websites and I get alerts on my phone, though, honestly, a lot of those don’t seem to merit the interruption.
And, I still subscribe to a couple of physical newspapers. Each morning I make my way down our driveway to pick up the little bag of papers that I read as I drink coffee and eat breakfast.
But, I confess that in recent years, I’ve been spending less time with the news sections of the paper. I mostly just skim those pages and move on to the crossword.
I guess that’s partly that’s because much of the newspaper is already stale – reporting news that I’ve already heard about online.
But, mostly I just quickly scan those pages because so much of the news from our own neck of the woods, and from across our country, and from around the world – so much of the news is grim and depressing. Reading about what’s going on just leaves me feeling mostly angry, frustrated, and sad.
For example, there is the crisis in Ukraine.
It’s such a familiar and discouraging story, isn’t it?
We live in a world with real problems and challenges that are too numerous to count: a virus still killing many thousands of people every day, people uprooted from their homelands desperately looking for safety and a new life, melting ice and thawing permafrost, an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.
I could go on.
And yet, some would choose war. In a world with so many real problems and challenges, some would choose to send servicemen and servicewomen and innocent civilians to injury and deaths.
And for what?
Oh, the usual: power, prestige, and a false sense of security.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I despair.
Are we stuck?
Is this how it will always be?
There has to be a different way, right?
In last Sunday’s lesson from the Gospel of Luke, we heard the beginning of what’s called the Sermon on the Plain.
Jesus comes down the mountain with the apostles, and he is surrounded by lots of people – the disciples and people eager for healing and hungry for good news – people who had come to Jesus from all over the place.
And Jesus begins by unveiling his vision of the Kingdom of God – it’s a downside-up kingdom where it’s the poor and the hungry who are blessed – a downside-up kingdom where the rich and the full and the laughing – well, they’ve already received their reward.
Now, before we continue with the story, let’s remember what life was like for those people gathered around Jesus on the plain.
Without the technology and medicine that we usually take for granted, and without the freedoms that we still enjoy, life in the first century was unimaginably hard. And, the Romans and their local puppet leaders made life even harder, draining the people’s wealth and always quick to brutally defend their power and prestige.
So, Luke doesn’t tell us, but I’m guessing that at first Jesus’ downside-up vision must have sounded pretty good to a crowd filled with poor, hungry, and sorrowful people.
I imagine some of them nodding their approval and some calling out, “That’s right, Jesus, you tell ‘em.”
And now today we pick up right where we left off last week.
Jesus goes on to describe how we are to behave in this downside-up Kingdom of God.
We are to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who abuse us.
If anyone strikes us, we are to turn the other cheek.
If someone takes our coat, we are to give our shirt.
We are to give to everyone who begs of us.
We are not to judge and condemn, but forgive.
We are to do to others as we would have them do to us.
At this point, I imagine the crowd that had first been so excited about Jesus’ vision now begins to have serious doubts. I imagine confused looks and angry whispers.
“Wait a second, we’re supposed to love the Romans and their cronies?”
“You want us to just let them take advantage of us?”
“And then you want us to forgive them?”
And, I imagine that at least some people began to drift away, began to turn away from Jesus, shocked, disappointed, discouraged by the radically different – even, let’s admit it, extreme – way of Jesus.
You can see why at the start the Jesus Movement was pretty small – and you can see why over the centuries the Church has tended to water down much of this very challenging message.
So what about us?
Well, before I get into the heart of what I want to say, I want to mention that Jesus’ call to turn the other cheek does not mean that people who are being abused should just keep taking it. The gospel is a message of love and there is nothing loving about abuse or enduring abuse.
That came up during our Wednesday Bible Study and since there is an epidemic of abuse in our country, I want to be clear about that.
So what about this radical way of Jesus?
Well, not to repeat myself, but first of all, none of what Jesus requires of us is remotely possible without God’s help.
So that’s where we begin.
And second, Jesus does indeed present us with a radical way – it’s a radical way of extreme love, extreme forgiveness, and extreme generosity.
But, stop and think about it: is the way of Jesus any more radical than the way of the world?
Is Jesus’ way of extreme love any more radical than the way of the world – the way of fearing or even hating people because of how they look or where they come from – the way of sacrificing men and women in uniform and innocent civilians, all so leaders can boost their power and prestige and false sense of security?
Is Jesus’ way of extreme forgiveness any more radical than the way of the world – the way of judging people based solely on the worst thing that they’ve ever done, the way of carrying grievances for years or even generations, the way of settling scores with gunfire, leaving bloodstained streets in places like Baltimore?
Is Jesus’ way of extreme generosity any more radical than the way of the world – the way of piling up wealth and possessions, more than could ever be needed or used or maybe even enjoyed in a lifetime, while so many others go without – and, in the process, destroying our fragile planet?
We are so used reading about it in newspapers and seeing it on the news that maybe we don’t see just how radical the way of the world really is.
Echoing Cronkite, we think, “That’s the way it is.”
But that’s not the way it has to be.
In the downside-up kingdom of God, Jesus offers us a radically different, and infinitely more life-giving, way.
Now, let’s face it - we’re not going to get to perfect love, forgiveness, and generosity – not in this life, anyway.
No, as someone said in our Bible Study, the way of Jesus is a journey – a journey we take together.
So, with God’s help, let’s continue journeying on the radical way of Jesus, together.
Amen.
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