Love in the Face of Power.

This week we extend our scripture reading from Luke 6 taking in verses 27-38.  In chapter 6 we believers are reminded that our faith is an act of resistance. In a time wrought with indifference and when we are divided across numerous social constructs of inhumane historical precedent, practicing unconditional respect and uplift of others is challenging. Verse 27 of Jesus’s words transitions from the assurance of blessings to responsibility, to siding with the poor, to the divine imperative of loving enemies. This instructional discourse grounds the Christian ethos. In this text, Jesus is detailing the ways in which God’s priorities, which are antithetical to the ways of the world, should shape our actions.

The purpose of Jesus’s directions for relinquishing material goods or to practice civil disobedience is to challenge systems, that is to say, Empire. The world’s systems, laws, and processes are inherently inhumane and absent of love. We lock people up away from society on Islands and deny them treatment for political ends. We walk past those in need of the basics of life with no comment or no attempt to right the inequalities that put them there. Yet our God asks that we challenge the power that gives rise to these situations.

Those called of Christ are required to embody and exercise love upon all creation. The narrative notes that love is shown in sacrifice of our stuff and ourselves. This text provides us with a new way of being in relationship with one another. Jesus calls us to respond to others according to God’s love. This means that we must abandon our urge to “get even” in order to respond in a way that shares God’s love and protects our humanity.

When Jesus suggests turning the other cheek after being slapped previously, he is not simply challenging antiquity’s “shaming” culture, but encouraging an early exhibition of civil disobedience in the face of dehumanisation. These actions are representations and expressions of truth in the face of power. Jesus’s teachings, like all kingdom pathos, are antithetical to the world’s assumptions and norms. Democratic, legislative, and social ideals grant allowance for equal or greater response to hurt, harm, or danger if upon an individual or that which they control.

When someone mistreats another, it is neither unusual nor unacceptable, across cultures and spaces, to reciprocate such mistreatment. Rather, Christians are called to work in the example of our ultimate ethical witness—Jesus Christ—showing compassion as did the progenitor.

You know the Wesley’s who are credited with founding the Methodist denomination had some very profound things to say about the way we Christians are called to live by our God. A hallmark of Wesleyan practice is adherence to doing no harm, doing good, and loving God faithfully. The word puzzle like the poetry of Psalm 37 gives credence to such basic instruction. The psalmist reminds believers not to get upset over the wrong in the world. We live in a world that is defined by competition. We are constantly compared to others, and often we internalise this behaviour and begin to measure ourselves in relation to others.

We ask why bad people receive good things while we continue to struggle. At times, it is easy to look at others and become angry. Harbouring anger and rage serves to be unhealthy; those in relationship with God release themselves and others of such. They are admonished to do so knowing that the wrong, evil, and ungodly will not last always. Even in our struggle, God shows Godself to be present, powerful, and purposeful. The help of the Lord can come in many ways and forms.

In the verses 39 and 40 of our Psalm for this week we are reminded that God is our refuge in the face of uncertainty and evil. We are called to reside in God’s love, allowing it to transform us even in our moments of anger and resentment. While we may never understand why bad things happen to good people, or why it sometimes seems like the evil are rewarded, God’s love and presence in our life endures. We Christians are comforted knowing that God is always with us, even when we are lost in struggle and confusion.