These past few weeks, we’ve been reading from Luke’s gospel, hearing Jesus give his followers some not-so-easy instructions.
A few weeks ago, we heard Jesus say some things that so upset the people of his hometown, that they dragged him out to the edge of town and tried to throw him off a cliff!
Then we heard Jesus call Peter to leave everything and follow him… an invitation that was terrifying to Peter, because it was huge, and Peter wasn’t sure he was up to it, that he was worthy enough to accept the invitation; yet he knew he could not turn it down.
Then last week, we heard Jesus speak some blessings and woes, but the blessings and woes didn’t go the way we would expect. The blessings went to those who were poor, hungry, and hated; while the woes went to those who were rich, well-fed, and well-liked.
And that’s another difficult teaching.
Things don’t get any easier today. Today’s scripture comes right after the blessings and woes we heard last week; it’s part of the same set of teachings. It’s all part of the Sermon on the Plain. We pick up right where we left off last week, and right away, we encounter perhaps the hardest, most difficult teaching of all…Listen...
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
“If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.
“Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
⬛ What Jesus is asking for here seems impossible. Who can do all that? Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Pray for those who abuse you.
Now, let’s be careful: if you are being abused, you have the right to safety. You have the right to find healing. And you have the right to get out of whatever situation you’re in, if it’s a situation where abuse is taking place.
No one deserves to be abused.
But still: Jesus is calling on us to pray for our abusers.
And I don’t think the type of prayer he’s calling us to is prayer that asks God to drop a piano on their head, or something like that.
Pray for them? Pray for their healing, their well-being?
And love them? Love our enemies?
Think about that. Love.
Maybe not eros love, or philia love. Which means you don’t have to like them. But you do have to love them. Genuinely and sincerely.
Think of someone who is easy to love. A friend. A family member. A spouse or partner. A child. A dog.
Take a moment and just be aware of your love for them.
Probably there is a lot of gratitude in that love, and a fair amount of joy… And maybe a little bit of worry, because you really want what’s best for them. Health. Happiness.
Jesus wants us to feel that kind of love for our enemies, for the people we hate. Is that even possible?
There is another occasion where Jesus’ disciples are astounded by one of his teachings; another time when they didn’t see how it was possible for anyone to actually follow what Jesus was saying.
Jesus replied: “It may be impossible for humans, but nothing is impossible with God.”
In the context of today’s scripture, and all the other difficult teachings of Jesus, I’m not even sure what that means. It may be impossible for humans, but nothing is impossible with God.
But one thing that catches my attention in all this is that, before Jesus gave all these instructions and difficult teachings; and before he read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue and preached on it; and before he pronounced all those woes and blessings we heard last week, what did Jesus do?
What did he do before any of it?
⬛He prayed.
And not just a short little, one sentence prayer: “God help me,” or something like that.
Not that there’s anything wrong with short prayers…
But no. Jesus prayed. For forty days. He fasted, and he prayed, and he faced his temptations.
Temptations that included using his power to coerce people into following and worshiping him…
There would be no misuse of power. There would be no coercing. Jesus would have to do things the right way. The hard way.
And to prepare himself, he spent time in prayer.
See: even Jesus struggled with all this. It was all hard for him as well. He wrestled with temptations, and he prayed for strength.
And he did this repeatedly.
After he began his ministry of healing and teaching, he prayed. In Luke chapter 5, when “word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.”
And in chapter six: “He went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.” (Have you ever spent the night in prayer? What does that even look like?)
And in chapter 9, after he fed the 5,000, he prayed… And then, a few verses after that, he goes up a mountain to pray to God, and is transfigured, which is what we’ll hear about next week.
So here’s what I’ve come to realize:
Yes, Jesus calls us to do a lot of difficult things. Things that are really hard. Like, show love to our enemies.
The teachings of Jesus are a very real challenge to us. And if we are really trying to follow his teachings, we’re going to struggle with them.
Anyone who doesn’t struggle with these things, I think, isn’t taking Jesus seriously.
Now I know, there are some people who think Jesus is just there to justify their own way of living, to justify their own selfish decisions. There are people who use Jesus to help them gain popularity. Or votes. People for whom Jesus is nothing more than a mascot.
They don’t let Jesus challenge them. They don’t let Jesus lead them to repentance. They just want Jesus to put a stamp of approval on their own selfish agenda.
But the Jesus found in the Bible is constantly challenging us to do hard things. To become better than we are now. To show love in ways that don’t even seem possible to us.
And if we were to rely only on our own strength, our own ability, we would not succeed. Even Jesus would not have succeeded if he hadn’t had access to the power of God.
The task is hard, and we have to tap into God’s strength and power.
⬛ Jesus had access to that power, and so do we.
Isaiah 40: “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary… he gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless… Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Or, as Paul wrote to the Philippians: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
The power of God is there to help us do all the hard things.
And the way to tap into that power is through prayer.
Prayer is the exercise that helps us grow stronger spiritual muscles.
Physical exercise helps us grow physical muscles, but spiritual exercise, like prayer, helps us grow spiritual muscles.
And we’re going to need to have strong spiritual muscles, to face the future, and deal with all that is coming our way… to be the church our community needs… to be the church WE need… and to do it all with hearts full of love.
To do all that, we need to pray. We need to grow strong spiritual muscles.
Now, I need to confess something to you. A little secret:
Pastors sometimes find it hard to pray.
We pastors know how to write prayers for worship. And we can quickly and easily offer a blessing for a meal, or a prayer to start or end a committee meeting.
But spending time alone with God, with intention, on our own… for some pastors, that’s a challenge.
⬛ Notice I said praying with intention. It does happen, for me at least, that often, I do enter a state of prayer without realizing it. Working on a sermon, reading a book, going for a walk… during such times, my mind is often drawn closer to the Spirit, and I realize after the fact that I’ve been in a state of prayer, a state of spiritual communion with God. And I am thankful when that happens.
Maybe that happens to you, too.
But what about more intentional times of prayer?
Well, there are many ways to pray. Some like to sing their prayers; many of the hymns we sing are, in fact, prayers, and if you focus on the words you’re singing, you’re praying. Some even say that the one who sings, prays twice.
Then there is contemplative prayer, which I find helpful. The Center for Action and Contemplation, led by Richard Rohr, has some great resources to help with this. On their YouTube channel, they have a two-minute meditation for grounding that I want to share with you.
It begins with some deep breaths, accompanied by the sound of a bell. Breathing calms us down, makes us aware, and brings us into the present. Contemplative Christians, Buddhists, and practitioners of other religions have all found it helpful to focus on one’s breath in prayer. So…if you’re willing…
I invite you to sit comfortably, with both feet on the floor… close your eyes if you like…and take a deep breath, slowly in… then slowly let it out…
[bell]
Then another breath, in… then out…
Keep breathing, and say to yourself:
My. deepest. me. is. love.
My. deepest. me. is. whole.
My deepest me is limitless
My deepest me is infinite
My deepest me is compassion
My deepest me is sacred
My deepest me is mystery
My deepest me is forgiveness
My deepest me is beauty
My deepest me is God
My deepest me has knowledge to give
I open my heart and listen
[bell]
In this prayer, I find myself letting go and opening myself up to God… and drawing closer to God’s Spirit… drawing closer to the strength I need.
⬛ There are many other types of prayer. We might explore some more of them in the coming weeks, and through the season of Lent. I might share some in the weekly emails or on our social media pages. If there is a prayer practice that you find helpful, I invite you to let me know about it.
Different types of prayer work for people with different spiritual personalities. Introverts pray differently than extroverts. Thinkers pray differently than feelers.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul talks about how we each have different gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit. Different ways of praying work for different people, and different ways of praying work at different times.
Please don’t think your times of prayer need to sound like the long, wordy prayers you hear in worship. Personal times of prayer are not the same as community prayer that is part of the liturgy.
But I do invite you to enter into a time of intentional prayer. Make it a daily part of your life, if it isn’t already. Explore new ways of praying, to see which prayer practices help you draw closer to God, and closer to the strength you need to do all that God is calling you to do.
[CAC meditation on YouTube: A 2-Minute Meditation for Grounding ]
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