On February 12, 1993, in Minneapolis, Mary Johnson’s only son was murdered. Ironically it happened less than 48 hours before a holiday that celebrates love. The backstory sounds downright familiar, downright senseless. Two groups of macho young men got to trash talking each other at a Friday night party. Things, as can happen, escalated from there. Words were weaponized, and before long a real weapon emerged. One shot, at point-blank range, was fired, killing 20-year-old Laramiun.

Mother Mary, in that instant had lost her only son. She was devastated.

When the killer was identified three days later, a 16-year-old named Oshea, her feelings of loss now had a target. Mary was angry with Oshea, of course. Hate for him soon set in.

Mary says she viewed Oshea as an animal, and wanted him locked up for the rest of his life. She went to his trial to ensure justice prevailed. It did, arguably; Oshea was sentenced to 25 years in prison for second degree murder.

It’s safe to say that if Mary had an enemy in this world it was this young man now behind bars.

Enemies
Today we reflect on the second section of the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6; Pastor Bryan covered the first part last week. The dozen verses of this text pack quite a wallop.

After considering all sorts of ways to approach the text I keep coming back to one word in verse 27: enemies.

And find myself ruminating over what enemies are, and what Christ calls us to do with them.

I soon realized, after Googling around some, that who or what is considered an enemy is entirely self-defined.

What one person describes as the enemy of the state another may consider their favorite newspaper.

In war times who the enemy is depends on which side of the battle you’re on.

Heck, sometimes an enemy can be made while simply driving down the road. Perhaps that’s what leads to road rage.

And some enemies are downright cool. That’s the case for the 80s/90s hip hop group Public Enemy. The group made a career out of defining themselves with this label. This rap ensemble was pretty good at it too, and were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. Love me some Chuck D and Flavor Flav.

Put another way, an enemy is merely a label we place on another. Nothing more, nothing less.

Tires
The tendency to apply this enemy label to people can pop out of nowhere, seemingly, with storylines that are downright mundane. Driving over to Cabin Coffee earlier this week, to prepare this message, I noticed the nearby Kum & Go had a tire pump, excellent. The tires on our Honda Fit have been low for a while.

But there was a big truck right parked right in front of the pump.

And a guy near that truck looked to be involved in some kind of construction project. I watched as he methodically cut into the slab of concrete on the ground with a huge circular saw. He was totally unaware his truck was in my way.

After considering the situation I decided to move the Fit as close to the air pump as I could. Which was inches away from his truck. To my delight it turns out the pump hose was long enough!

Long enough to reach the first three tires.
But not long enough to reach the fourth.

Oh this silly man! I found my emotions going to unhealthy places.

As I drove away, my feelings toward this guy were less than charitable. Was he my enemy? The dude had, after all, unknowingly prevented me from reaching my goal.

Wars have been fought over less.

In that moment I certainly wouldn’t have called him friend.

Groups
Because what makes for an enemy is self-defined it turns out today’s text applies to each of us in different ways. I have my enemies, conceptually speaking, you have yours. It’s part of each of our shared, broken, human nature.

And lest we think that this passage isn’t compatible with local sensibilities and #IowaNice consider these synonyms to the word:

Adversary
Opponent
Foe

With more than one side, the other side might just be your adversary.
Multiple viewpoints can give rise to multiple opponents.
A few perspectives make it possible to have more than a few foes.

Mexicans, Americans, Russians.
Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians.
Beer swillers, Wine connoisseurs, and those that choose to abstain.

Oh my. Oh my. Oh my.

Sometimes having an opponent is all in good fun. When the Green Bay Packers tied the Minnesota Vikings earlier this year – a foreshadowing of a poor year for both, as a Chicago Bears fan I couldn’t help but smile.

The smile widened when I heard a quote from the legendary Packer coach Vince Lombardi about it. Coach Lombardi, after a tie, proclaimed that a tie in football is like kissing your sister.

Aka satisfying for no one.

But even our innocuous sports team fandoms can sometimes go too far.
Silly banter can lead to shouting matches at the stadium.
Or worse, to fistfights at the bar.

And when how we treat the opposition ends up hurting another, we all lose.

The Acts
So what exactly are we called to do with our enemies?

Jesus is clear.

We are to forgive them, just as we have been forgiven.
We are to love them, just as we are loved.
We are to pray for them, despite their actions.

Perhaps hardest of all, we are to do good to those who hate us.

This text goes down *hard*. I mean really, who wants to love their enemy?

Especially when everything in our broken nature tells us to plot, attack, and harm them?

Loving your enemy isn’t Discipleship 101. It’s a graduate level course. And mastering this class is downright difficult. In fact it’s a lifetime endeavor.

It’s messages like this from Jesus that make him so radical.
Ultimately it’s wisdom like this that got him killed.
Yet it’s this ethos of peace that has, does, and will continue to transform our world.

Tires Revisited
After reflecting on this text some more I found myself thinking back to the construction worker at the Kum & Go. There are so many other approaches I could have taken. I could have asked the guy to move his truck. But really, he’s working, I really could have just let it go and filled my tires elsewhere.

I began to consider the nature of his work, having to be out there in the snow and ice for long spells. I found myself wondering how his day was going, who he was going home to; perhaps a wife and a couple of kids not too unlike my own.

The moment now gone I prayed God would keep him warm on the frosty Iowan day, and safe on our occasionally treacherous roads. I asked God to keep him safe with the circular saw that rotates around thousands of times a minute. I asked forgiveness for my own occasional tendency to label people in unkind ways. And I asked God to soften my heart the next time a similar situation pops up.

Mary and Oshea
A decade after Mary’s son was murdered in 1993 her heart, too, began to soften. Hers was a much harder task than mine, after all she’d lost her only son at the hands of another. After some reflection Mary came up with a way to harness her personal tragedy for good. To do this she wanted to bring mothers of murdered children together so they could share their stories. What a cool idea.

But before she could do that Mary, a devout Christian, realized she better get to prison. She wanted visit with her son’s killer, to make sure she’d forgiven him.

Walking up the prison ramp that day she almost turned around. It was so hard, she recalled. It took a friend to nudge her, step by step, up to the entrance.

When the two sat down for the first time she opted to keep it simple. “I don’t know you, you don’t know me,” she told Oshea. “You didn’t know my son, and my son didn’t know you. We need to lay a foundation. We need to get to know one another.”

After hearing this Oshea’s defenses began to come down. He’d expected to be verbally attacked for all the pain he’d inflicted on Mary these many years. Instead she simply wanted to build relationship.

One prison visit became two. Shared handshakes became shared hugs. With that first hug mother Mary became hysterical; imagine the pain that moment must have held.

It was then, she says, after that first hug, that the two began to bond.

All that Mary could say to a friend afterwards was, “I just hugged the man that murdered my son! I just hugged the man that murdered my son!” She found herself repeating this over, and over, and over.

She describes then feeling something that began in her feet, that moved up, and up, and up, and then left her. And she knew, instantly, all the hatred, the bitterness, the animosity, the anger, it was all gone. It just took a hug to get things moving.

Since then the two became friends, Mary refers to Oshea as her spiritual son. And when he finished serving his time, in 2010, Mary threw a welcome home party alongside other mothers of murdered children, some former gang members, and several local Catholic nuns too.

She even helped Oshea find housing; the two literally live next door to each other.

These days the two have partnered up, speaking to inmates, churches, and some pretty large audiences, sharing their story. Their goal is to teach and preach forgiveness that’s strong enough to break the cycle of violence that stems from taking an eye for an eye.

Mother Mary models what it means to love your enemies. And she does so on the daily.

CBS News ran a brief story about these two, check it out:

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Close
While I pray you never face the loss of a child like this – so horrible – Mary offers a beautiful example of what Jesus calls us to do.

Fortunately we have the opportunity to put the words of Jesus into action for our enemies, either real or perceived, every single day. We can do that –

With the construction worker at Kum & Go;
On social media threads that go sideways;
In our political conversations not all agree with;
And even during an occasional church squabble too.

Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. These are the words of Christ. Amen.

• 

A first-person retelling of Luke 4:16-30.

Imagine, you were there that day, in Nazareth, in the synagogue. You’re a farmer, have been working the fields all week, and finally, it’s your day off. You don’t work on the Sabbath, of course, this a holy day.

You go to be among God’s people.
You go to hear scripture being read.
You go to hear scripture interpreted.
You go frequently, religiously.

And you go, most of all, for a glimmer of hope. You seek a hope that will brighten your days in the here and now. Your crops this year have been decent, but boy it’d be nice to have better yields. You decide to take those prayers of bounty with you to the Synagogue that day.

Even better, this particular Saturday is pretty special. A friend mentioned that Jesus is coming to the synagogue to read and interpret scripture. You remember Jesus! He’s from Nazareth too. You watched the kid grow up, Mary and Joseph and Jesus and all his siblings lived right down the road. You’re aware of his humble beginnings, of being born in a stable. You’ve heard about how he got left behind at the temple as a pre-teen. Jesus struck you as a rebellious teen-to-be back then. He was definitely a non-conformist. You know those stories, and so many others about Jesus, because you and he hail from the same town.

And really, how could you not know them? Nazareth is pretty small, only 400 or so people live here. For reference that’s about the size of the Story County cities of Collins, Kelley, or Sheldahl. It’s downright impossible not to know a ton about everyone in town. Especially when we’re talking someone as unique as Jesus.

Sitting Room
As you enter the synagogue you find your favorite spot on the floor and get comfortable. With a town this size the space isn’t overly large.

But you know this space, the synagogue, and you know it well. You went to school on this floor, all the kids did. You went to court here when that bad deal with a neighbor went down. And when it came time to give back some of your harvest to those without, you brought it right here.

This space is the center of action for Nazareth. It holds so very many memories.

Your mind snaps back to the present as you see heads turn. Jesus walks in, He’s here! My how tall he’s gotten! He always was a good looking lad, it’s nice to see he’s grown up so well.

Initially Jesus sits down next to an old friend and the two begin to catch up. He fits right in, you realize, he is one of us.

The buzz in the air is downright electrifying.

Scripture
When it comes time for the reading of scripture Jesus stands, requests a scroll, and is handed one. Which scroll will he read? You find yourself filled with wonder, filled with excitement. Jesus slowly unrolls the scroll to his selected passage.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” he begins,
”because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.”

Hey, you recognize that passage! It’s from Isaiah. And it happens to be a personal favorite.

Jesus continues, saying,

“He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
to deliver sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus then rolls up the scroll, hands it to the attendant, and goes back to where he’d been sitting.

You find yourself smiling; what a great selection. He picked a really good one. It’s a message of hope, for the marginalized, that things, very soon will get better. And he delivered it like a pro.

And you’re not alone in your awe, all eyes are on Jesus. He has everyone’s rapt attention. You could have heard a needle drop in that room.

What a way to make a mark in your hometown.

You then lean in, excitedly, to hear how he’ll interpret this fine passage.

Interpretation and Prophesy
Today, by hearing this, Jesus continues, scripture has been fulfilled.

What bold words! This must be where things get interesting!

You’re feeling better and better about that bumper crop you’ve been praying for.

The room fills with chatter, people talking over themselves, excited about all he had said.

Someone in the back of the room wondered aloud is this not Joseph’s son?

You find yourself mildly wondering the same thing. For all the excitement we’re still talking about the kid who grew up down the street, right? That he’s done some exciting stuff in other towns doesn’t make him that special you find yourself thinking.

Jesus responds by saying he knows we’re going to ask about that miracle he performed in Capernaum. Jesus cast a demon out there, how awesome that must have been. There aren’t even that many Jews there; mostly it’s people that worship other gods. Or no god at all. And if he can do His thing among those people certainly he can do the same back home among his own.

Show us a sign, Jesus! The hometown crowd awaits.

But Jesus does none of that. Instead he tells the congregation no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. Your sense of joy, about this local boy made good, begins to shift. Now he thinks he’s a prophet? Perhaps Jesus has gotten a bit too big for his britches. You begin to wonder if the trust you’ve placed in this guy has been misdirected.

Callbacks
Jesus then retells two stories. This is where things get really dicey.

First he recounts a drought in Israel that lasted over three years. But God didn’t have the prophet Elijah end the drought for the Israelites, at least not then. Instead Elijah was called to help but one, a widow, and a non-believer. The widow’s son was healed. And her family was fed. It was then the widow proclaimed she believed in the one true God.

You find yourself really bugged by this story Jesus shares. Why didn’t God’s prophet help God’s people? Instead he chose to heal an outsider! That ain’t right, you find yourself thinking. That ain’t right!

Jesus then shares one more story with the congregation. Quietly you hope he says something lighter. Something more positive. Something that will benefit his hometown. Something more about that bumper crop you’ve been praying for.

But that didn’t end up happening. Jesus goes on to recall the story of Naaman. A leper, Naaman was healed by washing seven times in the Jordan to be clean. There were a bunch of other lepers in Israel, and none of them were healed. In fact, Jesus said, Naaman was a Syrian, and an army commander for another country. The Jewish prophet Elisha healed a non-Jew, and an army man no less!

What is up with the stories Jesus is telling?

• 

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Pivot
At this point you’re downright ticked.

Others in the congregation are too. In fact they’re angry; most gathered there are enraged. You watched as a mob of people surrounded Jesus, and take him to the top of the hill in town.

It sounded like they wanted to throw him off the cliff.

Somehow Jesus escaped. Perhaps that was the miracle.

All you know is the people of Nazareth are still really upset with Jesus. Deep down you hope God is big enough to help with your crops and take care of all of those other people Jesus talks about too.

And that’s went down, that fateful day.

What began as a happy homecoming for Jesus ended as an angry outcasting.

Broaden
This is the first example in Luke of Christ showing just how expansive this new kingdom of God is to be.

It isn’t for one people. Or one nation. It doesn’t even benefit people from just one religion. The kingdom Jesus ushers in is for all.

It’s an expansion from the…

Specific to the general,
Partial to the whole,
Local to the worldwide.

It’s for the atheist widow and her sick son.

It’s for the soldier from another country with a humiliating disease.

It’s for the Palestinian losing both land and livelihood because of religious oppression.

It’s for the migrant caravan families in Mexico escaping violence in search of safety. In search of hope.

And it’s for the groups of society we so often marginalize. Groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation and mental health status, just to name a few.
 
Close
The Nazarenes of old challenge us on how best to respond to God’s new, broader, expansive narrative. A narrative that is for all people of all kinds in all places. A narrative that is for those that often look, feel, act and believe differently from us. There are three basic responses we can take to today’s text.

We can be like the people of Nazareth, filled with wrath at the notion God blesses and is for other people so unlike ourselves.

We can choose to be indifferent, looking away from what God is up to around us.

Or we can follow God’s newly unfolding narrative, and find out, firsthand, where that new narrative leads. It’s a narrative that calls us to contribute to the renewing, redeeming work of God the world round.

Today’s Luke passage contains the first public word Jesus spoke as an adult. Today, he begins, this scripture will be fulfilled.

Today Christ brings good new to the poor.
Today He proclaims release to the captives.
Today the Son of God gives sight to the blind.
Today the Almighty lets the oppressed go free.

May you be not angry with Christ’s new, expansive narrative. May you be not indifferent to it either. Instead, may you dive right in, feet first, partnering with God to make this new narrative a reality.

And may God’s work in you, begin anew, today. Amen.