Jesus said, “I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Luke 6:27-38
The working title for this sermon is “Love is Contagious.”
We typically associate the word “contagious” with negative things, mostly diseases—germs or viruses that spread from one person to another by direct or indirect contact. In that context, contagions are unnerving, and, at times, frightening because we can’t see them. Yet they affect us nonetheless, and until we understand how a given germ or virus is spread, we are seemingly helpless to stop it.
But other things are contagious, too. How is it, for example, that seemingly without conversation certain groups of people start looking and dressing the same? I often preside at services for young people, mostly for schools, sometimes in churches. One by one, I see the students—boys and girls—almost all of them with the same hairstyle, or manner of dress.
It’s not that different among adults.
Manners of speech are contagious. We mimic each other without realizing it.
More powerfully, emotions are contagious. Fear, for one: think of how panic can spread in a crowd. Anxiety is contagious, as is bigotry. But so is generosity, kindness, and love.
Love is contagious. It is also an antidote to fear.
Antidote is another word we associate with disease: an antidote cures what ails us. Specifically, it works as a counteragent to a poison or whatever is making us sick. It also describes anything that neutralizes or counterbalances a harmful feeling or circumstance.
One of the astonishing truths about Jesus is that when he walked the earth, he never responded in kind when treated with contempt. He was fully human—he knew anger and from time to time he expressed it, but when he was confronted with contempt or hatred directed at him, he chose love as his response.
And whenever Jesus had the chance, he encouraged his followers to choose love.
We have a powerful example of Jesus’ teaching from the Gospel of Luke this morning. What we heard (and what you have printed in your bulletin) is part of Jesus’ most well-known sermon. In the Gospel of Matthew, it’s known as the Sermon on the Mount. In the Gospel of Luke, it comes to us as the Sermon on the Plain. The fact that these teachings show up in more than one place suggests that this was Jesus’ stump sermon, what he taught wherever he went.
Master teacher that he was, Jesus illustrated his teachings with stories and parables. He didn’t just talk about forgiveness—he told the story of a loving father forgiving his wayward son. He didn’t just talk about generosity—he told the story of a tax collector named Zaccheus who gave away half of his wealth. He didn’t just talk about mercy—he told a story about a person of a despised race who showed mercy to a wounded man left for dead on the roadside.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. best summarized Jesus’ essential teaching when he said:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.1
Inspired by Jesus, I’d like to focus on that moment when any of us decides to be the antidote to hatred or meanspiritedness, or whenever we find ourselves in a situation where there are hard, but necessary issues to talk about and emotions run high. For that’s when we are most likely to say and do things out of anger, hurt, or frustration.
In those moments, we realize that someone needs to absorb whatever emotions are swirling about and help bring the temperature down. Or maybe we realize that forgiveness is what’s needed, and it’s in short supply because everyone involved is so hurt. In that moment we realize that we are the ones to take the first step.
Years ago I watched a movie that changed my life. I’m a bit embarrassed to tell you which film it was, but as I’m among friends, I will. It was The Prince of Tides based on the novel by Pat Conroy. It tells the story of a man dealing with the brutal pain of his childhood, and as an adult, doing all he can to heal his psychologically wounded sister who attempted suicide. He had to uncover a lot of buried history, which almost destroyed him. But it didn’t. He became stronger. There’s a passionate love story in the middle of it all, and as it evolves, you can’t help but wish that the man will leave behind his tortured past and unhappy marriage and stay with his new love. In the end, he returns home, having chosen to absorb the pain he endured at the hands of others, heal from it as best he could, and thus ensure that the cycle of family dysfunction ended with him.
In the movie’s final scene he says, “I returned to my southern home and my southern life and it is the presence of my wife and family that I acknowledge my life and my destiny… In New York, I learned that I needed to love my mother and father in all their flawed, outrageous humanity, and in families there are no crimes beyond forgiveness. But it is the mystery of love that sustains me now.”2
There are no crimes in families beyond forgiveness. I needed to hear that when I was in my early thirties. But in order to be one who forgives, or who can receive anger and contempt without giving it back, we need to heal and grow large enough inside to hold the pain and neutralize it, to hold the trauma it caused but no longer be defined or consumed by it.
That’s a process that takes time and inner work and the healing power of God. When we take it, we can be the ones that in a volatile situation can choose love as our response, choose forgiveness, choose to absorb pain so that others don’t have to carry the burden of it. When we do that, our actions—large or small—have the power to alter the trajectory of a family, a community, even a country. It can feel like the hardest thing being asked of us. Maybe it is. But for those of us who look to Jesus as our Savior and our guide in life, that’s what he did, does for us, still. By his grace, we can, in small ways, do the same.
Choosing to love is not a sign of weakness. It requires great strength.
Such love is contagious. It gives others courage to do the same.
I’d like to close by reading the gospel passage again from the biblical paraphrase The Message by Eugene Peterson, giving Jesus the last word here, in a translation that brings home the power of generous, sacrificial love.
“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it.
If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
“I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never – I promise – regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind. “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults – unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back – given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”1
Generosity begets generosity.
Forgiveness begets for forgiveness.
Love begets love. And love is contagious.
Amen.
1Martin Luther King, Jr, Loving Your Enemies, Strength to Love, 1963
2Video: The Prince of Tides (1991) – Ending
3Luke 6:27-38, The Message by Eugene Peterson
