Stretched Out of Shape by Love

 

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’⁴⁴ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your God in heaven, for God makes sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ Be whole, therefore, as your God is whole.  Matthew 5:43-48

 

Let’s start with a note on the last verse, 48, is usually translated, “Be perfect, therefore, as your God is perfect.”  But that translation has never sat well in my soul, because I don’t believe the point of God’s love is for us to have a shiny halo and badges on our heavenly sash.  I do believe, wholeness or integrity (which is to say alignment of our head, heart, soul, body, and actions) is the invitation.  I deeply believe I cannot achieve or accomplish wholeness alone.  I can begin with openness.  I can let Jesus’ words and wisdom turn over the tables of my well-established life.  I can let Jesus call into question with love my desire to be liked.  I can let the Sermon on the Mount gospel my story in ways that others will snicker and sneer at, because who actually lives the way we have been talking about?? 

 

Second note, this is the point in the sermon when I think the disciples got up and left.  How do you love a Roman soldier who sneers at you, threatens you, can hurt/harm/kill you with no reason?  How do you love Herod who taxed you until you barely have enough to feed your family?  How do you love a religious person who keeps on making you feel guilty for breathing/living/existing, but tells you to put a few more coins in the plate to appease an angry God?  How do you love a neighbor who steals from you or is always working the obligation of hospitality asking you for more flour or food ~ when you don’t have enough?  How do you love a family member who has wandered away (I am looking at you, prodigal son)?  How do you love a family member who is always telling you that you are wrong (I am looking at you older prodigal son)?  How do you love yourself when there is a committee of self-criticism clamoring in your head and your therapist is saying she should charge you for group therapy?  How do you love a world that is spinning out of control ~ both internally (in your soul) and externally?

 

I wish Jesus had given us more here.  Good Lord…precious Lord…take my hand, lead me on and help me stand!  I don’t know how to love fully and unconditionally, because we don’t love ourselves fully and unconditionally.  Further, now that it is after Valentine’s Day, let’s confess our definitions of love are too sugary sweet to give us more than tooth decay ~ but soul decay.  Love is too squish in our Hollywood, romance novel saturated, Hallmark card world.  Love can be fierce amid fragility.  Love needs to be expansive and evolving.  How I love my wife is not the same as how I love people at church and is not the same as how I will prayerfully seek to love leaders (most of whom I will never, ever meet).  In Jesus’ day there were four words for love:

1.     Eros, which is the romantic word for love.  (Not the word Jesus uses here, so you’re off the hook.  No romantically-loving your enemies… whew!)

2.     Phileo, which refers to human love, the kind of love you would have for your closest family members & friends, and the kind of love that compels us to show compassion to those in need

3.     Storge, being the natural, affectionate love that humanity has for one another, most commonly seen in the unforced love that a parent has for a child, but also the kind of love we might have for our pets, our co-workers, our community…  (Once again, not the word Jesus uses here…)

4.     Agape, which is classified as the highest form of love.  It is this word for “love” that Jesus uses here, and it is also this word for “love” that scripture uses to describe the kind of love the Lord God has for the humanity God created.  

Jesus is calling for an ethic of love that we embody and endlessly explore because every body we encounter is formed and fashioned in the image of God.  To be sure, sometimes God’s image in the person in front of us has been so marred by dis-ease and hatred that we scarcely can perceive God in that person.  Or as Paul says in his epic poem on love (1 Corinthians 13), we see in a mirror dimly ~ not just ourselves but God and others. To love doesn’t look the same, sound the same, feel the same in all situations.  I believe you can “agape” someone and put distance between you.  How will you express love to another today?  Pro tip here: don’t start with the person who most annoys you.  Start with people it is easiest to love, because even our family and friends who we have the deepest affection and appreciation for push our buttons.  How might you love your spouse, your friends?  Start there today.  And not just in intention but lived actions and words and presence toward those you encounter as you move about the world prayerfully seeking to live this wisdom of Christ today.