Colour Supplement

Articles by Christians around the world

Sunday 1 June 2008

 

Love your enemy

by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

 

 

A sermon preached on the 1st Sunday after Trinity

Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18:

 

"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord. "

 

Wow! What a shock I had when I first discovered this verse. Most of us, if not all, know it well from the NT - Matthew and Mark each attribute the words to Jesus. Luke gives them to a young lawyer as an introduction to the parable of the good Samaritan. But until I was in my fifties, probably, I had no idea that Jesus (or the young lawyer) was quoting Hebrew scripture.

 

Then, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes it further. He tells us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. It's as if he's asking us "What more are you doing?"

 

There are times when feelings of vengeance well up within us. It could be when we listen to the news, or read in the newspapers, that a father has imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and incestuously abused her, or maybe it's a mother who has starved a young child to death, or the 2 young men, still teenagers, who have recently been stabbed to death in the street for no apparent reason.. There will be times when we're numb with shock about things like this, and other times when we think an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth isn't enough, when it's not enough to lock them up and throw away the key. We want that person to suffer, to really suffer, and to realise the enormity of their crime.

 

Then there's the question of turning the other cheek, giving someone your coat when they sue you for your shirt, or going the extra mile. How do we cope with these?

 

If your teenage daughter/grandaughter is mugged and has her I-pod stolen, should she offer the muggers her mobile phone, as well, rather than make an attempt to defend herself? It's difficult, isn't it? Trying to make sense of the Sermon on the Mount raises real problems.

 

I read in this week's 'Church Times' that Charlie Andrews, who died in April 1940, saw the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus' pattern for "the good life". The suggestions Jesus made are not unrealistic and impracticable. He gave us the law of love for us to live. And today's Collect asks God to "help us keep your law of love". So how can we live this life?

 

If we try to live by the law of love, we may hear Jesus asking "What more are you doing?" I think this is his challenge to us when he says 'Do not resist those who wrong you'? "What more are you doing?"

 

We need to love our neighbour as ourselves - to do our best to help others live as comfortably as we do. We may not be able to go and dig wells in villages in Africa, but we can make more efficient use of water in this country - turn off taps, stay in the shower for 2 minutes less, or only half fill the bath. And when we have a turnout, we can recycle unwanted furniture, curtains and cushions and other unwanted items to a charity shop or directly to one of the organisations that help furnish a house when a homeless person or family is re-housed.

 

It might not seem much, but if everybody in the country did it, it would make a difference.

 

We also need to love our 'enemies', who may be no more than people we find difficult, and to pray for anyone who persecutes us - neighbours from hell, maybe? Like peace on earth, all this has to start at home and in the way we live our lives.

 

So let's carry with us, this week, Jesus' law of love. Love our neighbour as ourselves, love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

 

And let's open our ears to hear his challenge: "What more are you doing?"

Tricia

BACK TO HOME PAGE