1 John 3:16 – The way we came to know love was that [Christ] laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
Jesus tells us that it is easy to love the ones we love; it is difficult to love those who do us harm. This is one of his most fundamental – and most difficult – lessons for us.
God says: Believe me when I say that I understand that you do not want to love your enemies; yet this is the fruit I ask you to bear, the harvest I ask you to reap. When the grain of wheat breaks open to plant something new, it plants my love within a hardened heart. You become frustrated with the world and yet all of your struggling changes very little. Plant the seeds I have given you to sow – use the gifts I have given you. And do not worry about the weeds that grow up with the wheat. My workers will tend to them in good time. Do not worry about how much rain must fall and where you will find the harvesters. I am with you always, offering you my love . . . laying down my life for you.
Let us take up the gifts we have been given to share. Let us use God’s gifts lovingly. And let us offer ourselves as broken grains of wheat in the Spirit. Let us offer ourselves up to rise again in newness bearing fruit for the master harvester. In this way we come to know Christ’s love.
Gustave Dore: Jesus Preaching the Sermon on the Mount
In today’s Noontimewe listen to Jesus as he gives us a homily and we watch as Jesus puts himself at great risk by speaking to and about the power structure that governs his society. Much like Moses, Jesus descends from the summit to gather his leadership; Jesus draws together his apostles and disciples. Moses leads the former slaves to a promise; Jesus aligns himself with the disadvantaged, and speaks aloud the message of hope and rescue that he brings from God. And it is this way that he forms his kingdom from the rejected and deprived.
The keystone of Jesus’ sermon is in the difficult teaching which many of his followers cannot accept: that he requires us to change our behavior. Rather than launch weapons and force at our enemies, rather than gather up allies to join us in the shunning or destruction of one who crosses us in any way; we are called by Jesus to love our enemies into goodness. In this sermon Jesus expands upon the Law as presented to and then by Moses. Whereas the Old Law focuses on the rules of the Sinai covenant that unite the Hebrew people to hold them together, apart from the world, the New Law asks that we now focus on building our capacity to tolerate, accept and even advocate for the destitute . . . and those who harm us. We are asked to see that these are the people who make up this new kingdom . . . these wounded and ousted people are our neighbors . . . these people are us.
God does not return like behavior, curse for curse, blow for blow. He does not walk away when frustrated. He does not turn away in disgust. He does not curse us in anger. He does not plot in hiding. Rather, in spite of the fact that we reject him in that we refuse to love our enemies, he loves us all the same. He waits infinitely and patiently for us to return to him.
Jesus knows how difficult all of this is for us; yet he lays down before us the thorniest challenge we will ever meet. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
And so we that God show us mercy . . . and that God show us how to act in mercy ourselves.
Lord, grant us mercy. Mercy in the face of ugliness. Mercy against cruelty. Mercy before deception. Mercy rather than retribution. Mercy after all. Mercy before for all. Mercy for all. Mercy in all. Mercy in Christ’s name. Amen.
Ruins at Shiraz: a city in ancient PersiaUpheaval in the Middle East seems to be a human curse. It is a land over which many civilizations – both ancient and modern – have fought, and continue to fight. Today’s Noontimereading is as brutal as any modern headline. Intrigue, slaughter, deception, parlay, betrayal, treaty, treason, murder, truce, assault, skirmish, daring, withdrawal, indignation, victory, defeat, and death – we find all of these in today’s story. We find persuasion but we do not find peace. We see wrangling but we do not see union. We read about standoffs and stand-downs but we do not find true coming together. In this ancient story we might change a few details and find ourselves reading a press release from our favored news source about the conflagration that is the Middle East.
Old tribal fears and alliances govern the lives of those we read about today. Compromise is often seen as a weakness. Honesty is employed only by the foolish. Integrity is not valued. And love of enemy is regarded as idiotic. We also find these clannish tendencies in our own culture despite the fact that we may define ourselves as a mosaic or melting pot or amalgam of ethnicity and customs. Even in our own modern political arena we have the smoking infernos that resemble the fire towers of ancient Persia that we read about here. We will want to study this story in the hope that when we recognize it as our own . . . we will know to turn back to the God who calls us forward together . . . rather than follow the little gods who doom us to our own fiery tower and smoldering pit of ash.
Ahura MazdaCommentary tells us that the tower we see in verse 5 resembles those erected to Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord, who “was the supreme deity of Persian mythology. The Zoroastrians identified him with purifying fire and tended fires on towers as part of their worship”. (“Myth Encyclopedia”) And this leads us to our examination of conscience today as we continue our Lenten journey. What fiery towers to self do we erect? Into what smoldering ash pits do we lead ourselves and others? How do we react to tribalism and the worship of false deities? Do we hate or love our enemies? Do we prefer the fire of self destruction to the salvific love of Christ? Do we seek comfort in our hope to avoid suffering rather than willingly follow the living God whose only focus is our salvation?Today’s narrative is so violent that we might pass it off as an episode in ancient history that deserves only a moment of our time. We might also see it as sectarian violence that takes place only in far off places on the other side of the ocean. We might fool ourselves into thinking that there is nothing here for us to learn. And in this thinking we evade God’s word to us today for when we look closely we can find ourselves. As we enter into interactions with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and strangers we see all the characters of our intimate and public lives: the invader versus the defender, charioteers who ride swiftly through our days swinging swords and mahouts who seat unmoving elephants in our path, foot soldiers who obey and distant leaders who reign over the lowly, Jews and Gentiles, pagans and believers, rebels and loyalists. We brush against these people each day as we move from sun up to sun down, and through it all we have only one question to ask ourselves.Do we throw ourselves from the fiery tower we have built to the gods that have become so important to us that we foolishly take part in daily scenarios that we read about today . . . or do we love our enemies despite the ash pits they build . . . do we ask for peace through our own actions and not just our words . . . and do we love the Living God who saves us more than the tumult of war?
1 John 3:16 – The way we came to know love was that [Christ] laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 
The Noontimes 