"The Questioning Crowd" - Sermon, February 24, 2019

Community UMC, Quincy

“See All the People: The Questioning Crowd”

Rev. Andrew Davis

February 24, 2019

Luke 6: 27-38

            This last week has been a test of will, no doubt. I think since we are having a real winter, this year, there are things we tend to take for granted at times, such as heat and lighting, even electricity.  And likewise, we are in the midst a test of will for our denomination, Nevertheless, if I’m being fully honest with myself and others, it’s been a test of individual will with stress and anxiety being sky high this last week. At the same time, there’s always a reminder that no matter how hard things are, they could always be worse and that this too shall pass, even if it may pass like a kidney stone.  So when I become a whiny, little, you-know-what, there’s always a reminder things can be much worse and that we can still rejoice in God, even when the entire system feels like it’s on the blink.  

As we continue our series, “See All the People” and continue engaging with Jesus’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’ this week, Jesus is expanding on the blessings and woes he pronounced in last week’s Gospel, which are very fitting to right now. Last week, we heard Jesus’s beatitudes, in which he pronounces four blessing and four woes.  Jesus extends blessings to the poor, marginalized/oppressed, hungry, and grieving while pronouncing woes to the rich, the full, oppressors, and those who are put on a pedestal.  In our text this morning, Jesus goes a bit further in his teachings which may lead to questions from the crowd after the crowd gathered with expectations of being healed by Jesus and hearing the word of God.  In the ‘Sermon on the Plain,’ Jesus is pointing towards new behaviors and a new way of seeing the world in his beatitudes and in the ‘Sermon on the Plain,’ as “those who follow him must examine their own lives and behavior before instructing and discipling others.”[i]

            By pronouncing blessings and woes in last week’s text and in his further instructions in this morning’s text, Jesus is encouraging the crowd to look deep inside themselves, do some serious self-reflection, and to look at the ways we all fall short and can live better than we do now.  Jesus is encouraging all who are willing to hear him to “be merciful as God is merciful,” which was a challenging message at that time because “in the ancient world, many groups believed that the community was to imitate its leader.”[ii]In the ancient world, leaders weren’t always merciful and this message Jesus preaches to the crowd is another example of the upside-down kingdom that Jesus is bringing.  As New Testament scholar Ronald Allen explains, 

Luke perceived many of the [religious authorities] and many Romans as hateful, even as enemies.  Instead of responding to various forms of threat with corresponding recrimination, [the Kin-dom of God] calls for attitudes and actions that seek the good of the other, and, hence, that build up the community.  Luke’s form of nonviolence in this passage thus goes beyond non-retaliation.  The disciples are to take positive steps that promote the welfare of the parties with whom the community is in conflict.[iii]  

While many of us may have been taught the ‘Golden Rule,’ and while things look good on paper, when we hear Jesus say such words as “love your enemy” today, it still makes the hairs on the back of some of our necks stand up.  I know the first time I heard that, it did because I believed in ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ and in getting even with someone who would do me wrong.  Or, anytime our core beliefs or values are challenged, the same thing can happen, as we are quick to go on the defensive.  The reality is that we can all do better and that we as individuals can always be more merciful; we can always be more compassionate, more generous, and more accepting of others who aren’t like us, think like us, voted like us, yet it’s hard to do.  When we find ourselves in a situation where someone has done us wrong, said something to us to tick us off, or posted something on social media that put us on the defensive, it’s so much easier to obliterate the you-know-what and fight back instead of turn the other cheek; it’s easier to judge; it’s easier to return hate with hate.  

Except that’s not what Jesus wants of us, which even at the time he was teaching the crowd, likely led to some questions, especially if many in the crowd were still under an ‘eye-for-an-eye’ mentality and the many codes that were prescribed in Leviticus, the Mosaic, and Roman laws. 

            For the crowd that gathered to hear Jesus, this teaching of showing mercy and love to enemies is revolutionary and radical, even for Jesus’s time.  It’s definitely a shock to those who hear this idea for the first time.  Although Jesus 

Doesn’t just tell us to listen to [our enemies or those we don’t like].  We are to love them…[it would be no surprise that] the people around him that day must have looked at one another in amazement, shaking their heads at the absurdity of it all.  Some must have decided that they were ‘not willing to hear; and walked away with their heads full of questions.  Other began to work on the bargain.  Which enemy they ‘love’ without risking their own position?  Others tried to imagine how they could love their enemies. Our imaginations can help us to see all the people who were there that day listening to Jesus.  Their responses were not all the same.[iv]

            Now usually, I don’t like getting into speculation about what happened at that time, considering we don’t necessarily get the crowd’s reaction in the text.  Yet that’s what interpreting scriptures does, as we can only imagine the crowd’s reaction and questioning.  Although am sure that like today, some got up and left just like I’ve had people get up and leave during a sermon over something I said.  When I get up here each Sunday to preach, I know that what I say or how I interpret scripture could come under scrutiny, even lead to an angry e-mail or office visit, or a special meeting with SPRC.  And that’s okay, because I expect to be held accountable, although sometimes when teaching a passage like we have this morning, it could put some of us on the defensive a bit just like the message of Jesus led to questions from the crowd.**

Similar to the time Jesus was preaching to the crowds, even when it resulted in them questioning what he was saying because it was too radical to stomach, we are still apt to cringe when we hear the idea about loving our enemies and showing mercy to those who have done us wrong.  Yet there is a lot more at play today, particularly because there may be instances of psychological trauma or other previous happenings that might trigger an adverse response, which is where acting with compassion and mercy is especially necessary.  As I’ve shared before, we do not have to condone the actions of those who have wronged us in order to show mercy to them.  

The big thing about our culture that makes such a message so challenging is that we want to win, we want to be right; it’s devolved into an ‘us’ vs ‘them.’ And the church is no exception either.  However, is that the message that the heart of the Gospel is trying to show us?  And if Jesus was preaching to us such a message today, would we be willing to hear it? As one of our tasks as the church that is laid out in paragraph 130 of the UM Book of Discipline, “the people of God, who are the church made visible in the world, must convince the world of the reality of the gospel or leave it unconvinced,” leaving us to ask “so how do we convince the world [and our own community] of the reality of this gospel that Jesus preached?”[v]Seeing all the people, those like us and different from us is essential to how we live out the message Jesus is telling when it comes to showing mercy to everyone, loving everyone, doing good, and not judging are all essential to convincing everyone of the gospel, along with doing our best in living it out.  Because in God’s kin-dom, “love is the rule, not an eye for an eye” and it’s up to us as followers to continue bringing that kin-dom here to earth today, even in the midst of division, even in the midst of disagreements, even in the midst of conflict.  We need to keep on loving one another, even if we find it hard to do.  God is merciful to us whether we deserve God’s mercy or not, so it’s up to us to extend that same love and mercy towards all the people we are around because God is a merciful and loving God, even when people may question us.  In his book, A Bigger Table, Rev. John Pavlovitz writes that 

Churches get leveled and relationships are severed, all because we didn’t want to do the messy, costly work up front of sharing everything and admitting that maybe we’re all family precisely because of our junk, that we’re all in equal need of mercy, and that God is more benevolent and patient than we are with one another.[vi]

            Are we willing to hear what Jesus has to say to us today, to love everyone, even those we may not like?  Are we willing to live into the gospel and convince people of the gospel through our love?  Jesus never said things would be easy, neat, or tidy and that’s all part of this journey of faith, no matter where we are on it.  As we live out the gospel, let us continue to see all the people, those like us, those not like us, those who think like us, and those who think differently. Let us love everyone, friend or enemy, because love is what’s at the heart of the gospel, even in the midst of the questioning crowd.  

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let the church say, AMEN!!  

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[i]Stephanie Buckhanan Crowder, “Luke” in True to our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary, Ed. By Brian K. Blount(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 166.  

[ii]Ronald J. Alan, “Commentary on Luke 6: 27-38” in WorkingPreacher 

[iii]Ibid.  

[iv]Margaret Ann Crain, “Preaching Notes on Luke 6: 27-38” in UMC Discipleship Worship Resources

[v]Ibid.  

[vi]John Pavlovitz, A Bigger Table (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), 33.