24 February 2019: Genesis 45: 3-11, 15; Luke 6: 27-38
The Golden Rule is in many cultures; possibly the earliest affirmation of the maxim of reciprocity, comes from BC Egypt: “That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.”[13]
Tamil culture records: “Do not do to others what you know has hurt yourself” (K. 316.); The (proper) punishment to those who have done evil (to you), is to put them to shame by showing them kindness, in return and to forget both the evil and the good done on both sides (K. 314)
In Hebrew scripture: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.: — Leviticus 19:18. In the Apocrapha: in Tobit: “Do to no one what you yourself dislike,” and in the Book of Sirach “Recognize that your neighbor feels as you do, and keep in mind your own dislikes.”
Peta’s story told of Jesus radically interpreting God’s wisdom saying it’s not enough to love who it is easy to love. Jesus is hoping to develop our capacity to love, to listen with new ears, and take in conversation & body language with empathetic eyes. Holiness, which God has created as our birthright, is wholeness. We cannot do it apart from divine love. Our loveliness, our holiness cannnot be reached alone, but only through healing relationships with one another.
Genesis goes from ancestral history to the transmission of God’s promise through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob & his 12 sons; Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt during the 7 year drought and his first words to his brothers was: ‘come closer to me’; we see Joseph interpreting this amazing surprise as God’s action bringing safety to his family.
Were you thinking: ‘blimey I’m not too sure how I would be feeling at seeing my little brother in luxurious trappings and our Dad & brother Benjamin are starving back in Palestine’. Jesus is saying to us: “Do what Joseph did!” What did Joseph do? he forgave his brothers for their crime of sending him away as a slave, and he did good to them. He offered them compassion, and generosity. He didn’t see himself as a victim, and freely chose reconciliation.
When we live our lives according to our fears, hates and regrets, as Joseph’s brothers did, our lives become small and defensive, lacking the deep, joyous generosity of God. With God, life can be much, much larger, shattering our little categories of control, permitting us to say that God’s purposes led us well beyond ourselves to give and forgive, to create life we would not have imagined.
Peta’s reading had Peter the disciple asking Jesus: ‘we can’t just love everybody’, with Jesus replying: “Oh yes we can, but it’s pretty hard. Let’s chat about it. Of course it’s not going to be easy”. These are ways to uncrust our heart gradually as Jesus tries to persuade us that it is in our interests to merge with God’s loving interest and live in love and compassion. Jesus is not asking us to love in an emotional sense, but in the sense of willing the good of the other, even though it’s still a tall order:
I fall down sometimes – and need to follow the instructions in this morning’s story where Jesus replies: take a few deep breaths, and ask God, in your mind, what should I do? maybe your insight will be: try and think about something about that person that you can love. Think about all we learn from each other: when someone in their vulnerability, or neediness, or their absolute over-flowing joy, shares an insight – it becomes a blessing in deed from our Father.
Have you ever had this experience: “Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”
We have the imperatives: to love, do good, bless and pray for enemies – ‘phew, almost impossible; I’d rather cut people from my life’. Retaliating multiplies brokenness, and becomes a failure to live up to God’s dream of restored relationships and abundance for all.
Do African Americans love white supremicists. Do the opposing sides down at St Kilda Beach try to understand each other. One of my dear younger colleagues goes to these displays of racism and mis-understanding with the aim of promoting understanding.
Joy Han, from the Malvern Korean Uniting Church was part of the Walking on Ngarriundjeri Country in the lead-up to the National Young Adult Leaders conference. Joy tried to explain the wonder of the conference by first recalling how in her grandparent’s generation during Japanese domination Koreans were forbidden to speak their own language; her grandmother found it hard to explain how painful this experience had been and of the jubilation for each person when Gwangbok occurred (Restoration of Light or Korean Independence 1945).
While these young Christians from every culture in our Uniting Church were on Njarrindjeri country, they were telling each other stories – disclosing their inner selves, about their people, and about their land traditions. For Koreans, talking about their homeland, is gohyang – feeling sad as well as remembering their people’s resilience. A feeling of ‘hometown’ (gohyang). Joy began to understand how generous it was for the Ngarrindjeri friends to invite sisters and brothers in Christ to their country, and to translate their stories into English for friends from different heritages.
“You know how often a person whom we have just met will require us to account for how and when we came to this place known as Australia, and how we feel the question is because of the colour of our skin and we react with indignation: ‘you are saying I’m not Australian even though I am second gen migrant, and I feel you refuse to accept me.’
Whereas she now understands from her time ‘on country’ “ I don’t need to be defensive”. “My Koori sisters and brothers first shared where they were from and invited me in to their story and I was liberated enough to be proud of my background, and my grandmother; it gave me understanding of the racial prejudices around us, and how, with patient truth-telling and forgiveness instead of my earlier feelings of bitterness, despair and resignation, the Ngarrinjeri friends had offered me a gift of encouraging each other through whatever pain and violence we have had in heritage.”
Joy ended her article: “it was in fact a fresh revelation of the powerful grace of Christ into corners of my soul that it seems I had unconsciously written off. Joy describes the new feeling as: ‘rays of sun over the water’, representing a glimpse of the Gwangbok (restoration of light) we yearn for. It’s the rejoicing, anticipation and commitment to a destiny together as First and Second Peoples. Amen.
Rev Deacon Jenny Preston, Koonung Heights Uniting Church