February 23, 2025 Sermon - Guest Minister Rev. Drakar Druella
Guest Minister: Rev. Drakar Druella
Sermon title: “The Circle of Love”
Scripture: Luke 6:27-38
Luke 6:27-38
Love for Enemies
27"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do 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. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34If 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. 35But 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. 36Be 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; 38give, 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."
Before I even get started, I think it’s important to take a look at the gospel of Luke and understand Luke’s motivation behind what he shared about Jesus. Luke tells the same basic story as the other Gospels: Jesus appears, ministers in Galilee, and moves to Judea and Jerusalem where hostility leads to his suffering, death, and resurrection. Nothing new here, right? Yet, Luke’s account and narrative on Jesus are different from the other Gospels’ focus upon him. The first unique thing that Luke addresses about Jesus was his advent amongst the Jews who observe ancestral traditions, highlighting the continuity of Jesus’ story with that of Israel and presenting it as the fulfillment of his people’s hopes. That’s the first significant thing emphasized in Luke’s writings about Jesus.
The second thing that makes Luke’s writings stand out about Jesus is how he underscores God’s compassion through Jesus as he reached out to the marginalized members of society. Women, the less-than-pious, tax collectors, the poor, the sick, the oppressed, and even prominent pharisees interacted with Jesus. As Luke summarized in Acts, “Jesus of Nazareth… went about doing good… for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38) It seems that God’s conveyed compassion through Jesus was important to Luke and something he wanted people to learn about and for good reason.
In the ancient world, many groups believed that the community was to imitate its leader. In verse 36, when Jesus says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” this principle is being drawn upon. The implicit understanding is that the community is to be merciful as God is merciful. As followers of Jesus, this is what we are called to do with him as our leader. To us today, this has become more of a common-sense understanding that most of us know is an integral part of being a good Christian. Now, how well I am able to follow this basic tenet on a daily basis is another thing and could be a whole ‘nother sermon! But for now, we all understand that as followers of Jesus it is important to extend mercy to others.
Contrary to today, during the time in which Jesus walked the earth and Luke wrote about him, which was the Hellenistic period, this concept was not commonly understood. In fact, it was a bit radical and contrary to popular belief around how the justice system dealt with criminals and those who broke the law. During this time, reciprocal justice was the rule that was followed in society. It was “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This is known as “compensation retribution,” the understanding that pay back for wrongdoing was in an equal amount or degree to the injury or offense that was dealt. This was considered “judicial justice,” not revenge, and was a well-known principle from Mosaic Law.
Along with this particular judicial perspective came the widely accepted idea that a person behaved generously towards another person in the expectation that in the future, the generosity would be returned. Relationships, in large, were viewed as reciprocal during this time. Given that, it’s easier to understand why what Jesus said in Luke 6:32-34 was so significant: 32“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.” After all, reciprocal relationships were common for everybody, regardless of their spiritual development and standing. Jesus noted that such relationships are so much a part of life that even sinners love, do good to, and lend to their friends. If, as Jesus’ followers, we relate to others based upon nothing more than reciprocity, then we’re simply reinforcing the qualities of life in the old age.
What Jesus was trying to demonstrate to others was mercy and the true meaning of it. He was showing his followers through teaching and example how mercy is releasing people and circumstances from recrimination they may deserve and that mercy is one of God’s primary qualities. The understanding of mercy was also demonstrated in Exodus 34:6-7 when God spoke to Moses: “6And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” It was important for people to learn if they were to follow Jesus, they were to extend compassion to others and allow God to deal with punishment or justice. It was not their job to be ruler and judge. It was God’s. And yet this timeless understanding is still difficult to embody today for many of us.
For instance, how many times do you find yourself internally judging yourself or others, as though you were the judge and ruler-at-large? I ask this from a humble place because I definitely do it. I was walking in downtown Claremont one day to get in a little relaxation, when somebody bumped into me walking by. My first reaction was to furrow my brown and think, “Well, how rude. And they didn’t even say, “Excuse me!”” Oh, the nerve. And there I stood with my “Mr. Manners Rule Book” in hand with my pencil poised and ready to place a red check mark next to the name of the person who just bumped into me. Oh, what a crime! I mean, we can all laugh about it, because we all do it on some level from time to time. We may no longer have the same judicial system as in Jesus’ time, but in our personal lives, we each carry the capacity within to play judge when we feel as though we have been wronged in different situations. And what about that person who bumped me? Perhaps he was distracted because he was worried about his wife who was in the hospital, and he, too, was taking a small break. I mean, we never know what a person’s story is.
Alan Wallace, one of the world’s leading scholars, writers, and teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, captured what I believe to be the essence of what Jesus was demonstrating. He said, “Imagine walking along a sidewalk with your arms full of groceries, and someone roughly bumps into you so that you fall and your groceries are strewn over the ground. As you rise up from the puddle of broken eggs and tomato juice, you are ready to shout out, "You idiot! What's wrong with you? Are you blind?" But just before you can catch your breath to speak, you see that the person who bumped into you actually is blind. He, too, is sprawled in the spilled groceries, and your anger vanishes in an instant, to be replaced by sympathetic concern: "Are you hurt? Can I help you up?" Our situation is like that. When we clearly realize that the source of disharmony and misery in the world is ignorance, we can open the door of wisdom and compassion.”
How we handle these moments is impactful upon others and ourselves. As such, it genuinely matters, because our relationship with Jesus is represented through our relationships with others. Our relationships and how we treat others are an extension of our relationship with God, and our relationship with God is made real through them.
In Luke 6:35, it says, “35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Jesus exhorted the disciples to replace old-age qualities of behavior with those that are characteristic of the heavenly realm. Indeed, in so doing, the disciples imitate God who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. And don’t get me wrong, to be “kind” does not mean to approve of others when they do things that are hurtful or unkind. What it means is to seek the best interest of others, which means caring about others and conveying that through how we treat them. God wants what is best for everybody – no exceptions. Indeed, the word “kind,” chrestos, is related to the word “grace,” charis. This is why it is important to do what I call “making space for grace,” which is another way of showing mercy for others and even ourselves.
In the book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, Rainn Wilson shared a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, “Agape means recognition of the fact that all life is interrelated.” And what is agape? Agape is Christian love, as opposed to affectionate or romantic love. It’s a pure love and connection that Christians experience based solely upon God’s love. To have this kind of connection, however, we need to understand that we are all connected in some way and that we impact one another deeply, whether we are consciously aware of it or not.
John 14:20 says this: “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (NRSV) Jesus understood the depth of our connection and our impact upon one another. His connection to God and others was so profound that he characterized it as being within God, us being within him, and him being within us. Many people refer to this now as “being one with one another” or simply “oneness.” With this understanding is that there is no private good, meaning that when I do good for others, I benefit from it, too; and when others experience good in their lives, it positively impacts me. This is not difficult to comprehend when you consider how much joy you can experience when you help out another person or you’re on the receiving end of somebody else’s kindness. I like to think of this as the circle of life, or even more aptly put, “the circle of love.” Because if you think about it, agape is about extending love to others through acts of kindness and mercy, and when you do this, you experience the positive impact of it, as well. God’s love is most powerfully conveyed through acts of kindness and mercy.
Reflecting upon acts of kindness and mercy, I can still remember the day that I went into that grocery store. I had been driving for a while. It was one of those days in which I simply got into my car and just kept driving east, as I talked to God out loud in my car, something I enjoy doing. Now, I can get away with doing this, without worrying about looking crazy, because people have blue tooth devices in their cars and talk out loud on their phones all of the time! After about 45 minutes of driving along, I realized that I was hungry and hadn’t had any lunch, so I decided to stop at a local grocery store that appeared as I was driving along. I stepped into the store and the smell of Mexican food caught my attention as the sound of Spanish music played over the intercom.
After attempting to get help from some of the employees at the deli and another in the store, it started to become obvious that my presence wasn’t really welcome. I couldn’t speak Spanish and was clearly a “gringo,” and I was being ignored. Resigned to my fate, I finally managed to figure out where to get a tamale on my own and headed toward the line to make my purchase. As I was waiting in line, a Hispanic woman got in line behind me and placed her groceries on the conveyor belt. As I prepared to pay for my groceries, she said, “Please let me get that for you.” I looked at her, and I could see the look in her eyes that said she understood what had happened earlier and that she wanted to let me know that she understood – that I was welcome. I will never forget how much that meant to me. A simple act of kindness that conveyed the powerful message: I see you and you are welcome here. It was an act of compassion and mercy, and it was made with absolutely no fanfare. Just simple kindness.
Clover Beal, a minister at Montview Presbyterian Church said: “There are words of hope and healing that will never be spoken unless you speak them, and there are deeds of compassion and care that will never be done unless you do them.”
We are all here to show one another mercy and kindness, and in so doing, we complete the circle of love that Jesus meant for us all to encompass. So go forth and do what you can in this world, knowing that every act of mercy or kindness you extend to another matters. God bless you all.
Rev. Drak Druella
