God's Political Party

Luke 6: 27-38

Epiphany 7

2-20-22

Rev. June Wilkins

 

So my friend who is a pastor somewhere else completely

told me that at the beginning Advent, which is

when we all started to read the Gospel of Luke together,

that he told his congregation:

“if you don’t like your worship services to have some

political commentary in them, then I’m sorry to tell you,

you’re going to hate this entire year.”

 

I guess I wish I had started the year saying that,

but I guess I’ll say it now.

All the gospels and the whole bible itself

is political, it’s not partisan, but it is political.

Politics is about power and how we use it.

All the scriptures speak about the communal care for

the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed

and in every era that has become a political issue.

 

And Luke is the most out there with his concepts.

From Mary’s promise that God will turn the world

upside down, through Jesus brazen talking to all kinds of

women, through his constant raising up of all sorts

of marginalized people through the book of Acts.

 

And in the Sermon on the Plain last week,

Luke told us that the poor were blessed,

not the watered down, poor in spirit, but actually the poor.

And woe to the rich.

This is a political statement.

 

And, of course. Luke wouldn’t miss out this week

with telling us about the rest of the sermon Jesus told

that crowd in front of him.

 

Love your enemies.

Imagine hearing that for the first time.

Pray for those who do you wrong.

Don’t try to outsmart them or get the best of them.

Don’t hurt them. Love them.

It’s a political tactic that hasn’t been tried too often.

 

We like to think that there’s only two ways to respond

to evil or violence or wrong-doing  --

Retaliate or ignore it.

But Jesus outlines a third: Resisting without violence.

 

Jesus says,

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other one also.

And if someone takes your coat, then give them your shirt too.

These are not actions of passiveness,

These are acts of defiance.

 

Turning the other cheek is not an act of weakness.

It’s an act of defiance.

Jesus didn’t say cower until they hit you again.

Jesus said turn the other cheek, offer it to them.

It is showing the other person that you

have not been reduced by their actions.

And if they wanted to humiliate you by taking your coat

then you show them that the

coat didn’t matter and give the shirt too.

Let them see you walking around in your underwear.

 

Jesus advocates standing up and showing

the enemy their wrongdoing by offering more.

Jesus advocates not reacting in fear,

but acting with the confidence and power of God.

Jesus advocates not getting caught up in this endless

cycle of escalating violence,

but exposing it for the activity that it is.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. took the power of this action

seriously, it was the guiding principle of the civil

rights movement he led, he did it himself, he lived it, and it worked.

When people saw protestors on TV getting hit with

the spray of hoses and attacked by police dogs,

and not retaliating, it didn’t show the

weakness of the protestors, it showed the

weakness of their enemies. It was powerful.

More powerful than seeing a another fight.

It showed that loving our enemies

is more powerful than hating them.

 

When Martin Luther King preached

on this part of Jesus sermon at his church,

and talked about the power of loving our enemies,

He told this story about Abraham Lincoln.

 

When Lincoln was running for president,

there was a man named Edwin Stanton, who ran all around

the country campaigning against Lincoln.

He said a lot of bad things about Lincoln,

He was an abolitionist and he thought Lincoln was too weak.

He said a lot of unkind things.

Sometimes he would even talk about Lincoln’s looks

saying, "You don’t want a tall, lanky,

ignorant man like this as the president of the United States."

He wrote and spoke and went on and on about Lincoln.

 

Edwin Stanton & Abraham Lincoln

Finally, Lincoln was elected,
and when he had to choose

his cabinet, he needed to
choose a Secretary of War,

A very trusted position
that he would have to work very

closely with considering
the impending Civil War.

Lincoln looked all over and he finally chose Stanton.

 

And when Lincoln told his advisors,

they said to him: "Mr. Lincoln, are you a fool?

Do you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you?

Do you know what he has done and tried to do to you?

Do you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand?

Did you read all of those derogatory

statements that he made about you?"

Abraham Lincoln said:

"Oh yes, I know about it; I read about it; I’ve heard him myself.

But after looking over the country,

I find that he is the best man for the job."

 

Mr. Stanton became Secretary of War,

Now I’m sure their relationship wasn’t instantly smooth and easy.

But Stanton accepted the position.

And a few years later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

And Stanton was called to his death bed and as he died,

Stanton said the famous words:

 "Now he belongs to the ages." And he also said:

"There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen.”

 

Martin Luther King said in his sermon:

If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton,

if Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said,

Abraham Lincoln would have not

transformed and redeemed Stanton.

Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln,

and Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton.

But through the power of love,

Abraham Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton.

And Lincoln was also redeemed

by his own choice to love instead of hate.

 

Remember, Martin Luther King Jr.  was

preaching to a group of people who had

every reason to hate the people of their country.

They had every reason to strike out and react with

violence, they had every reason to be consumed

by bitterness and hate.

But he chose to preach love.

 

Our enemies are redeemed only by love.

We are redeemed only by our love.

The world will be redeemed only by God's love.

 

How can we make those decisions to love instead of hate?

To pray for those who do us wrong?

In the grocery store, or while we’re driving?

Can we pray for politicians we don’t agree with?

Can we pray for those who have treated us badly?

Those who have betrayed us?

Those who when we think of them and what they did

it makes our blood boil.

Can we pray for those people?

Can we pray even for people who resort to violence?

Murderers? Terrorists?

Who makes you the maddest? Pray for them now.

Not that they change, but that they would find peace

and joy and that no harm would come to them…

 

Love has an awesome power.

It is the politics of God working in our world.

And Jesus has given it to us to use.

We are the blessed people,

we are God’s political party

we are the light of the world.

and God means to use us to

redeem the world.