Last week we began looking at Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain as recorded in the gospel according to Luke. You may recall that in the sermon on the plain Jesus is laying out for his disciples foundational practices for living as members of the kingdom of God. These practices set us apart as distinctive from the world.

            We looked at how the foundations of the kingdom of God are a reversal of the foundations of the kingdoms of this world. We saw how the markers of success in life as part of the kingdom of God are not money and security and happiness and reputation. Instead, the markers of success are a willingness to be radically trusting in the God who loves us and created us and sent his son to die on a cross so that we might be reconciled to him.

            One way of looking at what Jesus is doing in this Sermon is that Jesus is exposing our idols. If we are to belong to the kingdom of God then our loyalty needs to be towards Jesus. We need to be able to say “Jesus is Lord” and mean it, and that means exposing and getting rid of everything else that lays a claim to be lord in our lives.

The things we looked at last week are those foundational practices in the kingdom that have to do with our internal selves. We looked at how money, security, happiness and fame can all be idols that get in the way of our relationship with Christ. But now Jesus turns to how we deal with other, and what he has to say about how we deal with others is as radical and topsy-turvy as what he has to say about how we deal with our internal world.

            “Love your enemies,” Jesus says, “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” We’ve heard it. It maybe isn’t the most well known verse in the bible, but it certainly isn’t the least. The problem is, we’ve heard it so much that we don’t really hear it anymore.

            It’s almost as though Jesus knew this would be the case. Did you notice how he introduces this saying? “I say to you that listen.” Are you listening? Did you really hear what Jesus just said? “Love your enemies.”

            How do we respond to something so outlandish? Well, first of all, it’s important to note what Jesus is not saying. When Jesus is saying that we need to love our enemies, he is not saying that we need to feel warm and fuzzy about people who hate us, curse us, and abuse us.

About a month ago we looked at the love passage, 1 Corinthians 13, and we talked about the different words there are in Greek for different kinds of love. The word Jesus uses here is agape. It’s the kind of love that is an act of the will. It’s the decision to put another’s welfare before your own wants and needs. That’s the kind of love that Jesus says we need to have for our enemies.

Jesus isn’t saying that we need to feel kindly towards our enemies; he’s saying we need to act kindly: do good to them, bless them, and pray for them. Jesus says that if someone hits you, don’t hit back. Instead, turn the other cheek. If someone takes your stuff, don’t try to get it back from them, but give them more. If someone asks for something, give it to them. Not because they are your friend or because they deserve it, but because you follow Jesus.

Jesus isn’t speaking metaphorically here. He isn’t speaking in abstract terms. He isn’t exaggerating. He means it. Jesus really expects us to do as he says - to love our enemies, and that sound nuts. But remember what it is that Jesus is calling us to. We are being called to live as members of the Kingdom of God. We are being called to live lives that are distinctive; that don’t look like the lives of those who do not know the love and forgiveness found in the cross of Jesus Christ. We are to let our light so shine before others that people will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven, even if it means loving that hateful person who brings you to tears every time you interact with them!

Loving your enemies is a distinctly Christian thing to do. If we were to take Jesus at his word here and all of us were to love our enemies, what do you think would happen? Can you imagine how our community would be different? Our work places? Our world? How many of those enemies would be stunned to be treated with love and compassion in the face of their own hatefulness? How many of them might even ask you why you behave in such an odd way and thus have a chance to hear about the love and grace that you yourself have found in Jesus Christ?

If it sounds impossible, start small. Start with the last thing that Jesus says to do in loving our enemies. Pray. Pray for that person who makes your blood boil, who is mean and inconsiderate and just plain hateful. Pray for them and ask God to bless them and ask God to help you to love them. I think you’ll find that it’s really hard to harbor ill will towards someone that you’re praying for.

But as challenging as it might be to have to love our enemies, that isn’t enough. Jesus is really addressing two things here. Yes, he’s telling us how we must interact with those who oppose us, that is, with our enemies, but in doing so, he’s also telling us something about how to deal with our friends. In order to get a sense of what Jesus is saying here it helps to have an idea of how things worked in the ancient world.

By and large, in our society we pick our friends based on common interests, compatible personalities, and, usually, being in the same socioeconomic group. But in the ancient world, friends were chosen on the basis of patronage. In the patronage system those who had wealth and power provided support for those who had less wealth and power in the expectation of receiving support or a favor later on.

In some ways, it’s similar to the way in which we might patronize a given store. If we buy goods at a given store, even if their competitor’s price might be less, we do so based on the expectation that we will be treated well. For example, if we frequent a given grocery store even though the store across town might often have lower prices, we might expect the manager to stock the brands that we prefer or to work hard to find that specialty item that we might need.

Friendships were not based so much on how much you liked one another as they were based upon mutual obligation. Those with more power and influence were patrons of those with less, and those with less power and influence provided a support base for their patrons as well as boosting their patron’s esteem. You picked your friends based on how much you could help one another to get along in the world. Friendship was based on mutual benefit.

Jesus turns the whole patronage system on its head as well. He says not to choose our friends based on what you can get in return. Instead we are to look for how we can be merciful just as our Father in heaven is merciful.

So often we think that we should only help those who deserve it. We might lend a hand to those who are down on their luck, but we hesitate to help those who are lazy or shiftless or who we think might be abusing the system. But Jesus reminds us that our God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. So if we are to live as members of his kingdom, who know that all we have is an underserved gift from him, then we need to give to the undeserving as well.

Love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. That is foundational to a kingdom life. That is foundational to being salt and light in the world.

This morning we are commissioning the men and women who are going to Mt. T.O.P. this year. They are going to Tennessee to do just what Jesus talks about doing here. They are going to build porches, fix roofs, clear brush, and paint fences for people who probably don’t deserve it. They are going to lend a hand to those in need as a way of sharing the love of Jesus Christ.

In commissioning them this morning, we are asking God’s blessing upon their work and we are reminding them, and ourselves, that they do not go alone. Those who are going to Mt. T.O.P. are going because of the love and support of this congregation. You have helped, and, I am sure, will continue to help raise funds so that this ministry can continue. You have helped to instill the faith in these people so that they want to reach out to those in need, and I hope that you will be praying for them during this week.

Our mission trip is an important expression of our living kingdom lives together as a congregation, but it is only one part. Each of us is called on to share the love of Christ every day, in what we say and what we do. It can be tiring work. It can feel like unrewarding work, especially when people repay the love we show with indifference, ingratitude, or even downright hostility, but it is the good work that God has given us to do, that he has prepared for us and prepared us for.

In the power of the Holy Spirit we can live the life he calls us to. So 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.

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