FORGIVNESS SUNDAY - Homily

I dag inleds fastan. Nedan finns Söndagens predikan som jag höll tidigare idag i HOLY COVENANT CHURCH, Saskatoon, Canada. Budskapet idagens Heliga Evangelium är synnerligen utmanande, men inte desto mindre viktigt att våga närma sig.
Må Herren vara med oss alla!!


Love your enemy
(Luke 6:27-38, 1 Cor 15:45-49 1 Sam 26:2, 6-16, 21-25)

Introduction:

A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to no one,
a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.Luther

Is the Christian faith characterized by short-running or long term- thinking? Let us have that question in mind as we face this homily.

The Christian psychologist Larry Crabb speaks about the following scenario in one of his books:

One man began the therapy sessions with a desperate desire:
- I want to feel better quickly!
I waited a moment before I answered:
- Then I suggest you buy a couple of boxes good wine, provides you with some light-footed beauties and travel to Bahamas for a month. This time it was his turn to catch his breath. Slightly surprised, he looked at me and asked: - Are you a Christian?
- Why? Your advice does not seem very biblical.
- Well it's the only advice I can give you for your wishes. If you want to feel good immediately and get rid of all your unpleasant feelings it is difficult to recommend you to follow Christ. Short-term things as alcohol, immoral acts and holidays is better. It gives you a fast and pleasant experience. But the joy will not last long.

Context:
There are at least one similarity between Jesus' teaching in Luke 6 and my sermon today. Both are given on a plain area. Jesus' teaching on the same theme in Matthew was carried out on the mountain – (that is, Sermon on the Mount,) but here he is at a flat field. Even if it’s not mention whatever you there could see your dog runaway for six days…

To understand the greatness of Jesus' teaching here it is fundamental not only note what He says, but how He says it.

Jesus teaches not only about the law. He showing its true meaning. Jesus' characteristic formulation Ἀλλὰ ὑμῖν λέγω + “But I say to you..” is showing His authority. If a prophet would declare the Lord's will he would say “thus says the Lord,” and then bring forth a message. Jesus not only speaks on God's behalf (as we said a couple of weeks ago that a prophet does) He speaks as God Himself.

Text:

> Forgive - reject revenge
My first point today is called Forgive - reject revenge..

The woe-cries which is previous to today´s text was directed to the rich and self-righteous. But in our text Jesus is turning to his followers again. To those who suffer and are meek for the Lord's sake.


The message that follows is one of the most radical ever has been proclaimed. Believe me. The Theologians have reflected on the message a lot and especially the words about to love your enemies. How should that be applied?

Some scholars claims that those words does not apply in this world but in the heavenly, because they are impossible to live up to. But that creates problems if reading the entire text, since it deals with God's judgment on how people have treated their fellow human beings in this life. Others suggested that this radical imitation of Christ only was to those who were called to perfection - that is, those who lived a monastic life. But isn’t the heart of the monastic life – discipleship - for all Christians?

St. Augustin said that Jesus' teaching here was for all Christians, but only on a personal level. When threats and persecution was directed against me as a person I shall turn the other cheek and pray for my enemy, but when the violence hit a third innocent part, we can use violence if necessary. From that grew the doctrine of just war. I realize that many Christians have often been faced with difficult choices. But I'm still not sure whether war can ever be right. This is not least because of how the early Church interpreted those words.

During its first 300 years the church was strictly pacifistic. One of the earliest Christian writings outside the NT – the First letter of Clemens (about 96) contains prayers for the political forces - although they at that time were direct enemies of the Church and executed Christians because of their faith.

Luther spoke about this message as impossible to live up to. But he meant that our inability to be perfect before God forces us to Christ. We are sinners who by grace, can participate in His righteousness. I think that aspect of the text is an important starting point. As long it´s not used as an excuse to not do good works.

Jesus' words should, in short, be applied literally, but without losing the underlying sentence. To love your enemies and turn the other cheek tells us that we are called to live with a forgiving attitude, but not only against those who ask for forgiveness, but also against those who have not yet done so.

The text of the OT today illustrates this in a clear manner. The background is the huge rivalry that King Saul felt against David. The people loved David, they said: Saul has struck a thousand, David struck ten thousand. Due to this David had to flee for his life away from Saul into the wilderness. Then we heard how David by the Lord's miracle could come close to Saul, but that he refrained from carrying out revenge. And this leads Saul to repent and bless David.

That is a fundamental essence of Jesus' message in today's Holy Gospel - to practice undeserved forgiveness and leave the vengeance to God.

DENY yourself - become yourself
This brings us into the next paragraph. Deny yourself - become yourself. Jakob's definition of Jesus' message of the Beatitudes last week was: Deny yourself for the benefits of others. I think this captures something very central in today's text. To pray for ones enemies, turning the other cheek, and to give of what you own is to is to deny yourself, but not as a purpose of its own but as an act of love for other people.

There are three different words in the Greek for love: φιλεω, εροσω andαγαπαω When Jesus speaks of loving our enemies in our text it is interestingto note that the strong and self denial word for love - αγαπαω is used. αγαπαω is a denial of the self and the own benefits - it is a love that springs from God's source.

Jesus wants to challenge our attitude of giving and caring for other people.
This is why Jesus often rejected the Pharisees. Not because they kept the law. The problem is the attitude to the observance of the law. For the Pharisees this had been as a checklist, rather than a sacrificial act of love. That could be even directly harmful.

Let me illustrate: If you're driving a car on the highway and are about to change lane the traffic law tells you to blink before you turn over. Let's say you do, but crash with the car to the left of you because you didn’t pay attention to it. How would it be if you told the police afterwards: I did nothing wrong, I blinked just as you should. Then of course you missed the meaning of the law - to protect yourself and your fellow road-users.

So what then was the real intention of the law according to the Lord:

Jesus answer that Himself saying: It is to love God and your neighbor as yourself ... ... ...

Putting others before yourself is to deny yourself, or rather, to deny your selfishness. We are not created for selfishness. We are created for relationship and the sharing of Gods love - as an image of the Trinitarian love; an eternal and sacrificial outgiving communion between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we – become our true self, if we deny ourselves for the benefits of others.

The Lord's commands - the morals of Heart
My third point today acts as a lens in which we should read the others.

I think that its overall is a very common misunderstanding when it comes to the discussion to be a Christian and do good deeds ... How often have we not heard people saying that Christianity is just about rules. And maybe we are thinking primarily on Jesus' command here as something we should keep so that we will be saved? Such a negative "I shall or must -effect" can be turned into a positive "I want to effect." Why?

Because Jesus not only proclaimed the kingdom of God. He came with the kingdom of God. Through baptism and faith we enter into the kingdom of God. If you hold on to that approach things becomes very different. The radical ethics of Jesus is then not a negative inconvenient preparation for what is to come, but rather a joyful participation in what already is…

Lent is now upon us and we can ask ourselves, why do we fast, anyway? Is it not just another legalistic commandment? Do we do this to become holy before God or because God has made us holy through Christ? That’s a huge difference! Some theologians have distinguished morality and good deeds from grace, that’s not my point. But I am convinced that we need to start with the grace. Participation in the kingdom of God, in communion with the Holy Trinity brings forth a morality that springs from our hearts. We love because He first loved us ....

Lent is a tremendous contrast to the very core of the western mindset. Postmodernism focus on the individual's best here and now. Everything we do must be wonderfully satisfying, entertaining and fun. In Lent take a step back, relinquish our right to have everything that we can get right now. That’s not anything we do to earn God’s grace, but as an ascetic responds in thankfulness to God.

Challenge:
To sum up I would like to offer us three major challenges from these three points for Lent:

1. Step into mantle of reconciliation. Surrender to God and ask Him to forgive those who have hurt you. Leave your “right” for vengeance, your “right” for possesses and your “right” to judge to the God who himself left all His glory, was condemned, punished, and even killed for the life of the world.

2. Love other people with an outgiving love that does not expect to be rewarded. Renounce your selfishness by giving of yourself to your neighbour.

3. Do not forget that all Christian acts stems from what is already been done for us. We do not make good because we have to, but because God has turned our heart and will.

So let us all with God's help, support each other in a special way during lent. Let us look beyond the short-running and have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ….

To the greater glory of God ...

+ In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.