loving the Trump

I wonder if we truly realize the radical nature of this particular section of Gospel. We are 'commanded' to love our enemies and pray for those that hate us, and yet we live in a world that preaches and practices the very opposite. And before we get 'holier than the other bloke' then remember that we are called to love that which we cannot understand; that with which we cannot agree and even those we see hurting others by their words and actions. In other words we are called to love that which we see as 'evil', not just misguided.
So, yes, we are called to love 'the Donald'. What does that mean? Well firstly we pray for him. And secondly we do not let hate carry us away in its grip. We do the radical thing and find 'love' for him. The challenge is to balance the prophet in our faith (that which calls for justice for the marginalised and for a better world) with the call to pray for our enemies. We do not live by an 'eye for an eye' but rather use the Divine creative imagination to pray a new way into being. Jesus was talking about breaking the cycle of hatred and he knew (and practiced) that it is not broken by more hate but only by love. My guess is that what Jesus is saying in this gospel is that, if we allow ourselves to be ruled by hate and competition, then we are not living the Divine way ourselves.
This is not an easy thing to do when we are surrounded by anxiety and disillusionment and 'bad' news, but Jesus' guidance here is that we do not change the despot by hate, but only corrupt ourselves. Am i up to it???? I am still working on it i think.
And also, on reflection, perhaps what Jesus gives here is not so much a commandment as a guide to living a rich and blessed life.
Rev Gordon Bannon

no assurance, just a command.

"Jesus is far more realistic than we give him credit. The only certainty in Jesus’ command is that we will have enemies.  There’s no reassurance that our love will transform them, improve our earthly status, or end wars. We are simply told to love and pray for adversaries so that we “…may be children of (our) heavenly Father.”

Even if we interpret the preceding verses (5:38-42) as social historians of the Mediterranean world suggest (i.e. reframing insults and oppression in ways that assert our human dignity), the path of nonresistant love is rarely painless. It is, in point of fact, often lethal. Remember that Jesus is raised in triumph after we tortured and killed him.

But what’s realistic about a command like, “ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect?”  (It’s no wonder many prefer Luke’s rendering (6:36): “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.”)"

http://www.ekklesiaproject.org/blog/2011/02/realist-of-grace/

The mystery of God

"The "real target" of the ancient prohibitions against idolatry was religion itself: "And not just the kind that got people dancing around a golden calf.  It was warning us that no religious system could capture or contain the mystery of God.  Yet in history, that's exactly what many of them would go on to claim.  The Second Commandment was an early warning that the organizations that claimed to speak for God would become God's greatest rivals, the most dangerous idol of them all."

The commandment about idolatry would save us from our besetting sin of presumption: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord." 

...The third commandment about the name of God warns us not only about our casual presumptions. It reminds us of the limits of human language when we speak about the Wholly Other God. CS Lewis captures the practical implications of this in his Footnote to All Prayers.

He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,
And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart
Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art.
Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme
Worshiping with frail images a folk-lore dream,
And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address
The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless
Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert
Our arrows, aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;
And all men are idolaters, crying unheard
To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word.
Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great
Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate."

 http://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/1271-the-most-dangerous-idol-of-them-all

Being generous is the key

In the three readings, Leviticus, Corinthians and Matthew, we are being encouraged to be generous in ways we may not have thought about. We limit the concept of generosity when we think of it only as the physical act of giving. It is also an attitude of mind and spirit; part of a loving nature, such as when we give someone the benefit of the doubt, when we give our time, talents and energy, and when we “fore”-give.

Generosity is an attribute of God and is listed as a fruit of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22]. Paul reminded the folk in Corinth that God’s Spirit lives in us. So we are able to be generous as a result. “For all things are yours…-- all belong to you”     [1 Corinthians 3:21,22] and in the story of the two sons [Luke 15:31] the Father told the older son, “All that I have is yours.” You can’t be given more than that!

The common theme through our readings for today is God’s call for us to be generous in our attitudes. God doesn’t call us to be what God is not. It is not just about being generous with our physical belongings and our wealth. It is about being generous in every aspect of our lives; generosity of spirit, generosity in forgiveness, in giving of our time and skills and of the gifts we have received.

The ways in which we can behave with a generous attitude include treating people with disabilities with respect. It is interesting that three thousand years ago people were being urged not to treat deaf people as though they unintelligent. It is a problem they still have today. Often we are unsympathetic and impatient with people with this disability. It takes a generous attitude to listen patiently and to speak clearly when communicating with them.

A generous spirit allows us to not be judgemental and to forgive more easily. Having worked as a Prison Chaplain, I know that there is not much generosity shown towards criminals. As a society, we judge them harshly and call for longer sentences rather than work to eliminate the circumstances that lead to criminality.

From Matthew, turning the other cheek, giving your cloak as well as your coat, going the extra mile, giving to beggars and lending to borrowers are all generous acts.

When God gave us freewill, God must have known that we would make a mess of things, that we would choose unwisely and selfishly and so God generously planned before to give us the freedom to make new starts. This is ‘fore-give-ness’, the gift enables us to get on with life without the burden of guilt.

Many of our prayers lack an understanding of, or trust in God’s generosity. We may plead over and over for God to give us something when we could have a generous attitude to God and trust that God will not withhold any good thing from us if it is within God’s ability to give it. God constantly shows a generous attitude towards us. Let’s take hold of the promise from Paul [1 Cor.3:21b-23]. “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.” Because of God’s generosity, we have abundantly more than we could ask for or even think of.

As we love because God first loved us, so may we be generous in all aspects of life.

(REv Julianne Parker)