Love Them Anyway
February 23rd, 2025 “Love Them Anyway” Rev. Heather Jepsen
Sermon Series: Living Love
Luke 6:27-38 with Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40
My friends, this Sunday is the final Sunday in our sermon series on Living Love. We have talked about how love never ends and our struggle to move from contempt to compassion. We have talked about love’s calling in our lives and our willingness to say, “here I am, send me”. And last Sunday we talked about being rooted in love and how our thought patterns affect our actions. Today we take the hardest step of all, loving our enemies.
We will start with the Psalm today. The Psalmist encourages us to have courage and endurance as we watch the wicked prosper. We know how hard it can be to see the bad guy get away with every last injustice that they pursue, but we are told to let God judge. The promise is that the days of the wicked will pass, they will fade like the grass. Be patient, trust in God, and do not fret over the ways of the wicked.
I love the language of not fretting. Like we talked about last week, we make patterns in our minds and hearts. If we make a pattern of worry, anger, and unease we will be more likely to return to that pattern every time we hear more bad news. Be still, wait for God, refrain from anger and contempt. Salvation is coming, the Lord will help the righteous, we just need to be patient.
Easier said than done right?!? How do we keep our emotional response to injustice from tearing us up inside? How can we refrain from contempt? How can we prevent anger from building up in our hearts and minds? This is good news, sure, but the tension between God’s promises and the reality of life today is almost more than we can bear. What is mine to do? Love the wicked anyway.
That’s where Jesus leads us in our reading from Luke. It’s Luke’s version of the sermon on the mount and Jesus is telling us that we need to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. Again, we are told not to judge, but instead to go through the world with forgiveness and generosity.
This stuff is so very hard. We know that these texts are written for Christians living in a hostile world. But the response of the Christian to this hostility can’t be more hostility and violence, it needs to be a spirit of generosity and kindness. We need to actively work to break the cycle of lying, violence, and retribution in the world. Again, compassion over contempt. What is mine to do? Love them anyway. But how?
I’m going to turn again to our Buddhist friend Pema Chodron. I am reading two books by her right now so there is a strong possibility she will have a voice in a Lenten sermon series coming up. In the meantime, let’s see what she has to say about this loving your enemies stuff.
In her book “Welcoming the Unwelcome” Pema writes:
“Polarization is at its most problematic when we dehumanize people – when we forget that the people we judge, criticize, and disagree with are actually as fully human as we are. . . There is a practice I like called, “Just like me.” You go to a public place and sit there and look around. Traffic jams are very good for this. You zero in on one person and say to yourself things such as “Just like me, this person doesn’t want to feel uncomfortable. Just like me, this person loses it sometimes. Just like me, this person doesn’t want to be disliked. Just like me, this person wants to have friends and intimacy.”
“If we view others from the standpoint of “Just like me,” we have a strong basis to connect with them, even in situations where it seems most natural and reasonable to polarize. Even when extreme religious groups behead people or a racist gunman murders people praying in church, there is room to feel our connection with the perpetrators rather than dehumanize them.”
Friends, we have come full circle to our first sermon of the month. People who disagree with us do so because of the place they are in their life’s journey. And just like us, they long for peace, safety, and love. Even when we might perceive them as enemies, is it possible for us to have compassion and love them anyway?
This doesn’t mean that we don’t stand up for justice. If we see racism in our world, we need to call it out. If we see corruption we need to take a stand. If we see idol worship, we need to name it for what it is. Jesus too, did all these things. But he did them without anger or hatred in his heart. If we can break the cycle of violence in which we live, a violence of word and thought not just physical violence, then we can reap the love that Jesus talks about. “A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.” Love will overflow if we can learn to love our enemies.
Again, we hear from Pema:
“Working with polarization and dehumanization won’t put an immediate end to the ignorance, violence, and hatred that plague this world. But every time we catch ourselves polarizing with our thoughts, words, or actions, and every time we do something to close that gap, we’re injecting a little loving kindness into our usual patterns. We’re deepening our appreciation for our interconnectedness with all others. We’re empowering healing, rather than standing in its way. And because of this interconnectedness, when we change our own patterns, we help change the patterns of our culture as a whole. The results won’t be immediately apparent. You probably won’t notice any big changes in just a week or even a year. But please don’t give up too easily and think, “This loving kindness doesn’t work for me. I’m going to look for something where the results are more immediate and tangible.” Believe me when I say your patience will pay off. If you commit to overcoming polarization in your own mind, it’s a life changer, and it will help the world as well.”
And so my friends we come to the end of this sermon series. What is mine to do? It is mine to live a life of love. I can be rooted in my faith and draw strength from God’s love. I can answer God’s call to do hard things in hard seasons. And I can work on my own heart, turning contempt into compassion by recognizing that everyone is “just like me.”
The world is a very challenging place right now. But if we all do our best to live love every day, we can change the world for the better. Let us go out into the world and love them anyway. Amen.
