St. Luke 6:31-36 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Today’s Gospel lesson begins with “The Golden Rule”: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This rule seems so obvious; why does Christ feel it necessary to even say it? The answer is that, as obvious as the rule may be, we still ignore it. Why is that?
Our instinct, re-enforced by a culture based on transactions and economics, leads us to make our decisions based on cost-benefit calculations. There are some domains, such as investing for retirement or grocery shopping, in which this makes sense. But not when it comes to charity and not when it comes to serving others.
Another very strong instinct leads us to respond to people based on how they treat us. This is especially true when someone has caused us harm. We want to hurt them back.
But this isn’t what God has taught us to do. He demands something much harder, that we be charitable even to our enemies. That we love and serve them, too. Why would he do this? Is it just to teach us patience? Is it just keep us participating in their sin? These are certainly part of the answer, but there is something bigger, and that is what I want to share with you today.
The Cosmic Answer: we are the Body of Christ, healing the world and participating in its salvation.
Reminder about the power God has given us as the stewards of his creation: people respond to us and to our actions.
When we return spite for spite, or even apathy for apathy, not only are we damaging our own hearts, we are spreading disease and darkness. We become part of the problem. People respond to the way we treat them. It is instinctive. If we hate or ignore them, they spread that. Even the people who are not involved in our battle are affected and brought into the fight. But what if we break the cycle? What if we never stop spreading peace, joy, and charity – no matter what the circumstances?
Then the love of Christ is given a beachhead, a place from which his mercy and truth can spread.
Sociologists and political scientists have shown that there are basically two types of societies: those based on mutual trust and charity and those based on mistrust and egoism. Guess which types of society are the healthiest? The most productive? Have the highest level of satisfaction and joy? Which kind do we want to live in? The wonderful thing is that we really can choose. Unfortunately, while it is relatively easy to transform a high-trust society into a broken one, it takes a lot of work to do what we need to do. It is hard to elevate a broken society into a good one. It takes a lot of energy. Perhaps even more than we have to give. But what if we had access to an unlimited supply?
It is hard to learn to love people without counting the costs. It is hard to be charitable to people you don’t like, to work with people who do not care, to serve people who are shallow and mean. But God tells us that we must be charitable even to our enemies. But don’t misunderstand. This is not to be a naïve and superficial charity that would allow others to continually stab us in the back, but the real kind that finds the good in others and does what is required to nurture that good and help it grow.
This sounds impossible. And out in the world it probably is. But God has not set us up for failure. He has established specific places where this crazy thing can actually happen. St. Michael’s is one such place.
The Church is the Arc of our Salvation. Its fullness is found in each parish. Ergo, St. Michael’s is the arc of our salvation. It is a beachhead of the world’s transformation from fallen to perfect; the center of an inkspot from which our counter-insurgency spreads. We become part of this process when we engage in the life of this parish and in the lives of its members and visitors; when we get to know one another; when we learn to love one another despite our shortcomings; and when we serve one another. Not just the people here who are most like us, but even those who aren’t. The parish is uniquely set up to be one of those high-functioning societies based on mutual trust and charity that sociologists and political scientists describe. This is our mission – not just to achieve and maintain this level of perfection among ourselves, but to share it with others.
There are people who come here that will be slow to become part of this transformation, who will automatically bring the ways of the world through our doors into our midst. We may be tempted to fall into worldly patterns of behavior when this happens, to react to their negativity with negativity of our own: but this is a temptation we must continually confess and avoid. The scriptures (Romans) teach us that the strong must bear the infirmities of the weak. Why? Because this is how the world is saved. God, the source of all power and charity, does it for us; through him and in him, we do it for others. And as we do it for them, many will give up their worldly ways and join us in this effort.
This is the plan of salvation; the cosmic answer to all the world’s problems and pain.
