“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Really? We have to love those that we fear? Those who are different from us? The ones who are strangers? In the past few weeks there has been much written about the plight of the refugees. Politics aside, as Christians, we are called to live the Gospel…which is much harder than reading or preaching about it. So what does Jesus say in the Beatitudes? And how can Pope Francis, Brian McLaren and Leonardo DaVinci add some light on this hotly debated subject? Check it out…

1. 19 February 2017 7th
Sunday in Ordinary Time Princeton, NJ
Beginning three weeks ago the Sunday gospels have had us listening to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
As he gathers his newly chosen disciples, Jesus teaches them, beginning with the beatitudes, what
discipleship means. So it is no accident that all this takes places right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry
for he is laying down for his disciples – and for us - the tone and direction and the foundation of what it
means to be a follower of Christ. Remember his early disciples are Jewish and up to this time their faith
and focus lies in the observance of the laws found in the Torah, as interpreted by the Rabbis.
So Jesus begins by stating that he has not come to abolish the law – but to fulfill the law. In essence
what he is saying is, ‘Listen… what I am about to tell you may be a bit unsettling as it will require you to
think much differently. But to be clear, I am not doing away with the law that you follow, for the law is
important…instead I am going to show you what it means to live the law, to fulfill what is being dictated by
the law.’ And so beginning with last week’s gospel and concluding today, we hear Christ give a total of
seven examples of what it means to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world...seven invitations to
all of us to be in right relationship with God and with each other.
And perhaps the most central of all seven is the last one where Christ tells us: “The law says to love your
neighbor and hate your enemy – But I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so
that you may be children of your heavenly Father”, …or in other words – so that you and I may be one
with God.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you?! Really? Enemies? Jesus do you mean those
that hate us? Those who attack us? Those that are different from us? Those we deem to be inferior to us?
Those that we are afraid of? We need to love them? Why?
And Christ answers that exact question when he tells his disciples, ‘because our God makes the sun rise
on the good and the bad…and causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. He is saying that God
loves unconditionally…God loves all that God has made and will make and it is not our place to use laws
to feed our egos to impose our sense of justice and judgement on others.
But – why?
Listen again to what we heard in the second reading in Paul’s letter to his community in Corinth: “Do you
not know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells within you? If anyone destroys God’s
temple, God will destroy that person, for the temple of God – which you are – is holy. We belong to each
other and we to Christ and Christ to God.”
Every human being is a temple of God – there are no exceptions. Therefore how we treat each other is
not a matter of red versus blue; Republican versus Democrat; Christian versus Muslin – rather it is all
about how well we actively live out the Gospel.
Listen to what Pope Francis had to say last week as he preached on the Beatitudes: “The sickness or,
you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy, which is precisely what is happening when
someone claims to be a Christian but does not live according to the teaching of Christ. You cannot be a
Christian without living like a Christian.
You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes and doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew
25.” (to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and to welcome the Stranger). It’s hypocrisy to call
1 Deacon Jim Knipper

2. yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help.” But it is so easy for us to use
broad paint strokes to label and cast out those different from us, those who we dislike.
The story is told that Leonardo Da Vinci ran into a similar challenge when painting The Last Supper. After
having a bitter argument with a fellow painter, Da Vinci began to think of a way to get back at this guy. He
came up with a devious plan and decided to paint the face of his enemy as the face of Judas Iscariot so it
would be captured for all time. When people came to look at his work, while it was still in progress, they
immediately knew who "Judas" was. Da Vinci got great joy out of portraying this man as Judas Iscariot.
But as he continued his work he finally came to the face he had saved for the very end - the face of
Jesus. But he drew a mental blank. He could not paint a thing. Finally, God opened his eyes and showed
him the trouble was he had painted the face of his enemy as the face of Judas Iscariot. He realized that
his hatred and bitterness was keeping him from being able to face - the face of Christ. So he went back to
the image of Judas and painted some nebulous face and asking forgiveness, reconciled with his painter
enemy. Then he went back and could clearly paint the face of Christ and finish one of the world's greatest
murals.”
These past few weeks I have spent my prayer time examining what kind of paint strokes have I been
using on those who are different in my life. And while I preach the Gospel every month, how well do I live
it, especially as it pertains to the strangers in my life? Keep in mind that how you treat anyone is how you
treat everyone. But, oh – it is so easy to fall back on the laws – no different that the disciples did, allowing
our egos to overrule our faith. But with the Beatitudes, Christ gives us a way to live the laws. He reminds
us of the need to get our heads out of the sense of membership and what is owed to me if I follow the
laws – and to get into discipleship. For the only way we can transform our lives is through loving
relationships with others.
Christian author, Brian McLaren recently wrote, “Jesus doesn’t dominate the other, avoid the other,
colonize the other, intimidate the other, demonize the other, or marginalize the other. He incarnates into
the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other and even
lays down his life for the other.
It would seem that the events of these past few weeks have given cause to remind us that we are a
pilgrim people who have a choice on which road to take. We can feed our ego and focus our lives on
judging who is in and who is out, who is doing it right and who is doing it wrong. Or we can go forth and
answer the call to live the Gospel by actually welcoming the stranger and serving those living in the
margins with mercy, forgiveness, and inclusion, and thus bonding our soul to the faith which we profess
each week.
Two diverse paths.
Two different journeys.
Which one will you choose?
2 Deacon Jim Knipper