Do unto others as you would have God do unto you.

Fr. Tim Nunez

About two minutes after the Super Bowl was over last Sunday I got a message notification on my phone. It was alerting me to what they called “Way too early odds on Super Bowl LVII (57).” So I’ll ask you, who is going to win the Super Bowl next year? What will the weather be like in November? Where will the stock market close in six months? Interest rates? Inflation? How much hinges on what Russia does or doesn’t do in the next week?

Would you like a sure bet?

Here’s a proposition. If anyone commits to doing exactly what Jesus says in this passage two things will happen: 1. Your reward will be great and 2. You will be children of the Most High. That’s no bet. That is a guarantee.

First he directs his teaching to “you that listen.” That’s an important caveat. My hearing is actually pretty good, just from the standpoint of yes, my ears still work, if I’m paying attention. (If I’m reading I cannot hear.)  But, as Meg will affirm, I can be very hard of listening. My reflex is to construct my responses while the other person talking. So the first lesson this morning is to listen to Jesus. Listen. Take to heart what he tells us.

Some of these look pretty manageable on the surface. Jesus is being very declarative, citing extremes, but we know that he means each statement to apply from the mildest to the most severe versions of each. Maybe some or all of these apply in some sense to what you are enduring right now. I suspect some or all may apply to what you have endured in the past. If there are lingering wounds or scars you have not yet been able to forgive, those old hurts are very much alive and present.

It could be actual enemies at the moment or in the past, or people who are or were active working against you in some way.  Jesus says to love them. To the extent people actually hate you, even if it’s just an apparent dislike, Jesus says do good to them. He says to bless those who curse you. We all run into rudeness, short tempers and so on. Everyone who deals with the public gets a heavy dose of it. This was way before driving, but those still count.

If you do, on any of those or really anything like them, then Jesus’ commands are abundantly clear. They come as hammer blows on a spike of grace that he means to drive straight into our chests and into our hearts so that our hearts are broken from the selfishness, pettiness and vindictiveness that we are so wired to form. He means them to break up the scar tissue so that we can have supple, flexible hearts that demonstrate his love day in and day out. They get summed up in that Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

I remember a friend’s parents invited me out to a very nice, 5-star restaurant, white tablecloths, more silverware and plates and glasses than I knew how to use properly. I mean, my mother taught me table manners but I’d forgotten a lot since we didn’t go to that sort of place while I was growing up. So I was watching what everyone else did.

Well, something went wrong. Something wasn’t right with my friend’s mother’s food – and his father just berated the waitress for it. His mother started begging him to stop, which he eventually did but not because she asked. The poor young woman shuffled off in tears and he turned back to our table with an air of real satisfaction.

I never saw him act that way before or since. I’ve certainly lost my temper many times. I’m not judging him. But I was shocked by that moment. How much better would it have been for everyone involved to have treated the situation with grace, with patience, and a loving heart. The waitress and the staff would have apologized profusely.

Often, following these commands from Jesus bear good results when we apply them.  Most often, we can radically improve a situation by meeting anger and hostility with love, grace, patience and understanding, by listening carefully and responding with a generous spirit. (Please note this doesn’t work if exercised as a form of manipulation. People are usually pretty sensitive to a lack of sincerity and true love is not manipulative.)

But certainly that is not always the case. Sometimes we get caught up in intractable situations and our best efforts are not received as we might hope. Jesus doesn’t give us an out or a pass if the other person or people are difficult.

These seemingly impossible commands from Jesus are exactly what we understand God promises and delivers to us. Think of all the ways we act as enemies of God, actively working against his will or perhaps worse ignoring it and ignoring him altogether in the sins we commit as well as our sins of omission. Maybe that’s not fair to lay on you right now, maybe you’re sincerely doing the best you can in your current circumstances. But have you had a season like that? Do you see the sin and evil afoot in this world yet have hope for people?

Does God bless people who curse him? Does the rain fall on the just and the unjust? Does God give to everyone who begs from him? We could work down that entire list.

And, more to the point we know that Jesus did. There were all sorts of people to opposed him, real enemies, and he loved them. He was good to those who hated him, he blessed those who cursed him and prayed for those who abused him. He turned the other cheek again and again, and he gave of himself again and again. He gave blessings to everyone who begged from him and let them take everything from him until he hung naked and beaten on the cross.

And then what did he say? “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” As it turned out, Jesus was in the midst of doing all these things and the return on his investment is beyond measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.

Apply you heart and your head to loving others as God loves you. If it’s hard to look at your current circumstances and see God’s love clearly, look at Jesus. Look at the ways Jesus loves people in scripture and study what he did for you on the cross.

The Corinthians asked Paul, “How are the dead raised?” By love! Apply yourself to loving others as Jesus loves you and watch what he does in and through you.

Be children of God as much and as well as you can, and you will find that is precisely what you are, a sure bet.

AMEN