Sermon from the the seventh Sunday after Epiphany – February 23, 2025, at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – Buffalo, NY .
Sermon Video | 8:30am and 10:30am Worship Services
Sermon Text | Luke 6:27-38
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In many ways, people haven’t changed all that much since the time of Jesus. Sure … we have the internet, cell phones, air conditioning, microwave popcorn, and boxed wine … but what I’m calling the “cycle of hurting-each-other” is still in effect. This manifests itself in a variety of ways, but you might recognize it in phrases like these:
- If you take mine … I’ll take yours
- If you insult me … I’ll insult you
- Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth (Matthew 5:38; Leviticus 24:19-2; Exodus 21:23-27)
- I’ll love only those people who love me back
Have you observed this cycle of hurting-each-other?
Let’s step back. Have you ever heard of the Hatfields and McCoys? These are two families living along the border between Kentucky and West Virginia. These two families have had a generations-long feud that has been violent at times. They have been doing the eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth thing for so long that no one really knows why the feud started in the first place. The feud itself – much like conditions in the Middle East – has become so ingrained in their identity … is it even possible for them to stop the feud? Can these families make another choice?
Gandhi is said to have reflected on this propensity toward hurting-each-other by saying: “An eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth makes the whole world blind and toothless.” Do these words from Gandhi offer a glimpse into an alternative way of living and being in community together?
The reading from the book of Genesis shared the story of Joseph and his brothers. You may recall that this is the Joseph whose story was told in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” There was so much animosity between Joseph and his brothers that the brothers developed an elaborate scheme to sell Joseph into slavery and tell their father that he was killed by a wild animal. After many years, a famine drove the brothers to seek food in Egypt … to find that their brother Joseph was now second only to Pharaoh and in charge of the food.
If Joseph had been living out of the cycle of hurting-each-other, he could have easily imprisoned them or rejected them. If he had that approach, Joseph would not have provided his brothers with food when they were starving or moved them and their families to Egypt and provided homes for them. Instead of creating a Hatfield and McCoy-style battle within his own family, Joseph opted for another way. He chose a way that certainly must not have been personally easy for him. He chose a way that prevented his family from becoming enemies. He chose a way of love.
We talk a lot about love in churches. While love is often described as something we feel, more often … love is something that we do (listen to the song “Something That We Do” by Clint Black [Spotify link] or [YouTube]).
In Luke 6, Jesus says: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Do not judge or condemn, but instead forgive and show mercy. These teachings of Jesus continue to this day to be really challenging and can even be considered offensive.
As we engage with the practical implications of each of these teachings, it can leave us really struggling to understand our own relationships and challenges. When it comes to people that we love and people that we like, it’s easy to love and bless and do good and forgive and not judge.. But what about the challenging people in our lives? What about the toxic or abusive people? What about the rude, insensitive jerks that we all encounter?
As I was thinking this through, I noticed two words that are repeated often in this reading … AND YOU. Jesus says, “Do not judge, AND YOU will not be judged; do not condemn, AND YOU will not be condemned. Forgive, AND YOU will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). These two words helped me reflect on my own life and recall the times when I have been the jerk … when I have hurt or offended people. Yet … people have chosen to forgive ME … THEY have chosen the difficult path of love.
Martin Luther King, Jr., in his book Strength to Love, wrote: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
We all have choices about how we respond in those moments where what we really want to do is lash out … when we really want someone to get what we believe in that moment they have coming to them … when we really want to judge them. Yet, today’s lessons invite us to step back for a moment and ask ourselves “Which does our world need more of … judgment or love?”
One important thing I want to clarify is that I am not saying that choosing the path of love means our only option is to remain in toxic or abusive relationships. We definitely should NOT. Choosing love and saying “This has to stop” are not mutually exclusive. A necessary aspect of love is justice. So, where there is toxicity or abuse, there is injustice that is incompatible with the full expression and experience of love.
LOVE does not put us in a position of weakness, but a position of strength.
As you consider the challenging circumstances and relationships in your own life, how might the shift away from the cycle of hurting-each-other toward living out of LOVE not only change the answer, but the WHOLE equation?
In the name of Jesus. Amen!
Epicurious Lutheran 