EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodical authorized minister. The journey together these past seven years has been an amazing one, full of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Feb. 23, 2025.
This week's gospel text: Luke 6:27-38
Love for Enemies
27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 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. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[a] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Judging Others
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 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.”
The message:
Whoowie … What a list that is in today’s gospel! Am I right, Faith Family? … That Jesus is expectin’ a lot from us!
Love your enemies … do good to those who hate you … bless those who curse you … pray for those who abuse you.
And he goes on …
If someone strikes you, don’t strike back. … Give to anyone who begs from you. … And if someone takes something from you, don’t take it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
That’s a heavy load, isn’t Faith Family?
And I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one in this sanctuary this morning thinking to myself … “Huh, well Jesus, that’s a lot to ask of me … because don’t you know what’s been done to me?”
But Jesus isn’t even done with us yet. … There’s more!
Do not judge and you won’t be judged. … Forgive and you will be forgiven. … Give, and whatever you give, you’ll be given.
Faith Family, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
This is one of those gospel texts that is nearly impossible to preach on … because not a soul sitting here today wants to hear they’re going about this faith thing all wrong. … Not even me.
But the truth is not a one of us measures up to this standard Jesus describes all of the time. … Am I right?
Especially me … and I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to be transparent with you for a minute, and I’m going to share that recently I haven’t felt very much in the mood of loving my enemies, or doing good to those I hate, or even in the mood to offer forgiveness or mercy for that matter … if I’m going to be truly honest with you.
Because I will tell you … that through my Lutheran pastoral lens, it’s very difficult to digest Jesus’ message today on behalf of so many people who are living at our emergency shelter or who are utilizing our food pantry and who are frightened to their core.
Frightened that thanks to rash decisions made in haste that they might not even have the meager roof over their head that our shelter provides, or frightened that the food our pantry distributes will dry up because the federal program that pays for it will be cut or that they may be picked up off the street for their skin color or frightened they may be harmed because of their sexual orientation.
Well, I can’t say it any other way. … Through my pastoral eye … to see the devastation that is being wreaked on our country’s social fabric is nothing less than a poke in God’s eye.
So, yeah, Jesus’ message today is a tough pill for me to swallow. … But here it is.
Jesus still calls on me to love my enemies … do good to those who hate me … bless those who curse me … pray for those who abuse me.
Jesus’ message also is there to exhort me to love the enemies of my vulnerable neighbors … and do good to those who hate my vulnerable neighbors … and bless those who curse my vulnerable neighbors … and pray for those who abuse my vulnerable neighbors.
And that … is admittedly a hard, hard message for me to want to listen to this morning, Faith Family.
I want to be bitter and angry and throw fire balls on behalf of all the folks who Churches United cares for who can’t. … I want to do the same on behalf of the nation’s poor, and people of color and people who identify as LGBTQ or even on behalf of the many women who don’t have a voice.
I want to lash out on their behalf …
… because this pastor is angry that as a country we’re willing to turn a blind eye to the trodding over of people in the interests of power and money.
But … here is Jesus’ message today saying … that’s not the way.
The way is love … and reconciliation … and the one Body of Christ.
A good lesson for me today is that … if we look back at the Genesis reading, we are reminded of the story of Joseph.
This passage by itself really doesn’t do the story justice.
Because if you will remember, Joseph’s brothers did a whole lot of despicable things to him out of their jealousy, but the worst may have been that they eventually sold him into slavery.
Faith Family … His brothers sold him into slavery … because they were so envious of him.
And this particular passage comes at the end of Joseph’s long journey, after over comes so much, and he miraculously ascends to being the righthand man to the Egyptian pharaoh.
And then Joseph comes home to invite his father AND his brothers to come to Egypt to live with him to escape the extreme plague that is affecting their homeland.
Can you imagine that kind of grace, Faith Family? … Can you imagine giving that kind of forgiveness?
Because that is what Jesus is calling us into in today’s gospel message. … The kind of walking in Jesus’ footsteps demonstrated by Joseph.
And I’ll be honest with you Faith Family … many days … I don’t know if I have what it takes to live up to that standard.
I don’t know that I have the kind of grace it takes to forgive someone who’s sold me into slavery … let alone to go back home and bring them to a land where they aren’t going to starve.
I think I might just want to leave them there to starve. Right?
Honestly, I know that Jesus asks more of me as a person than I have to give.
But, you know what, here is Jesus in today’s gospel asking it anyway!
And the truth is that this is one of those biblical passages that your station in life will directly affect your hearing of the text.
If you are comfortable, well off and mostly in control of the influences surrounding your day-to-day living, this passage will likely come off as one of those cutesy maxims that we see painted on wooden home decor we hang on the wall in our entry way. … Right?
“Turn the other cheek!” … “Do unto others.” … or “Love your enemies.”
Cute biblical sayings that make us feel better.
We’ve all seen and heard these admonishments hundreds of times. So much so that they’re white noise to us now.
However, if you are someone who is not comfortable, who is not well off and who has little control of the influences surrounding your day-to-day living … well, I guarantee that this gospel text is far more demanding … far more exacting of you.
If you’ve never thought of this gospel passage through the eyes of someone who doesn’t have anything or who has to have their very identity as a human being justified through legislation controlled by those in power …
… then I suggest you don’t truly know how challenging this gospel passage is.
If you’ve never had to turn the other cheek in a position of defenseless … if you’ve had to forgive your own abuser who is more powerful than you … if you’ve never had to offer mercy to someone who in your eyes doesn’t deserve it … then you probably can’t imagine how difficult it is to struggle with this passage.
If what Jesus is asking of us in today’s message today doesn’t make your insides squirm a whole lot … then I would suggest you’re probably a little too comfortable in your faith.
Because it is exactly gospel texts like this that should make us all perform an exhaustive review of our faith.
There are a lot of gospel passages that I admit as a pastor you can walk out of here on a Sunday with a very banal response to them.
Should they move you? Sure. … But if they don’t, no harm, no foul.
This passage is not one of those gospel texts, Faith Family.
After this Sunday, you should walk out of here thinking one of two things: Jesus’ message was either really easy for me today. … Or Jesus’ message was very difficult for me today.
And Faith Family … If you walk out of here today thinking the first: Jesus’ message today was really easy for me. … Well, either you're a much better practicing Jesus follower than I … or you’re fibbing to yourself.
But, if you’re like me, and you walk out of here today, and think to yourself: My heavens, Jesus’ message today was really difficult for me because it asks me to do really difficult things I don’t want to do and to love people I don’t to love and to forgive transgressions I don’t want to forgive and to let go hurts I don’t want to let go … because Jesus I just want retaliation for all of this stuff!
If that’s the message gnawing in your brain, Family: Then I think you’re on the right track!
Faith Family … a couple of things before we go …
First, this is not a political sermon. Please don’t misunderstand me.
I merely used my example today of my struggling as pastor amid a climate in which I see many people suffering. Amid a climate in a society that’s built to honor greed and power and money, not people.
And so I lifted up this example to show how I myself struggle with Jesus’ message today. I too have to learn to love my enemies, do good to those who hate me, bless those who curse me and pray for those who abuse me. … After all, I am not immune from Jesus’ teachings.
And second, and more importantly, I hope you remember that the Good News is that none of us does this work alone.
Jesus promises to be there each and every step of the way with us, teaching us how to turn the other cheek, teaching us how to forgive, teaching how to show mercy and teaching us how to love. We can’t do it without him.