"Loving Enemies?" / Rev. Dr. Richard Coble / 8.23.26

All right.

We are continuing on with our preaching series on the Sermon of the Mount.

This is part two of four.

Next Sunday, we're actually especially blessed to have the Reverend Dr.

Wendy Neff, who is a member of this community and also the general presbyter of the entire presbytery, is going to be coming preaching for us next week.

So please come out to hear her.

But in the meantime, we are in Matthew 5, the Sermon of the Mount.

Let's listen to the word of God to the church today.

Jesus said, You have heard it said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer.

But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.

And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well.

And if any one forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

Give to one who asks of you, and do not refuse any one who wants to borrow from you.

You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous.

For if you if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers and your sisters, what more are you doing than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This is the word of the Lord.

I'm not so sure about this one, Jesus.

Loving enemies.

Do you all have enemies?

I do.

I'll be transparent.

I have enemies.

Notice Jesus doesn't say don't have enemies.

He says love your enemies.

He presupposes you're gonna have enemies.

And I get that.

Every once in a while, I am fully cognizant of the fact I will rub somebody the wrong way.

Let me give you one example.

This was like 10 years ago, so I think it's safe to explain it now.

It was at my first church, my other church in Asheville.

I got in the middle of something I shouldn't have gotten into.

Um there was a woman in the congregation who is an expert in parenting psychology.

And there was a staff member on the church who was not a fan of this expert in parenting psychology.

And the parenting psychologist had indicated that she wanted to teach in her area of expertise at the church.

And the staff member was kind of like, uh, thanks, but no thanks.

Somehow it fell on me as as like the new guy, as uh as the new associate pastor in like my first month at the church to relay this message to the parenting psychologist.

Um I could have handled it better.

Let me say that.

What I should have done was say, no, I'm not getting in the middle of this.

But I was young, um, and I wanted to please everyone, and I thought I was charming enough uh to just win over anybody.

So this is what I did.

Uh I met with a parenting psychologist, and I invited her to be on the spiritual formation ministry team, you know, to help kind of build the program for the teaching at the church, but I didn't invite her to teach.

And this happy compromise did not go well.

Um, when it became clear to her that she was not going to be invited to teach during the meeting at our church, uh, this parenting psychologist, what she did, she just she just got up, she left.

And then I think it took about a month.

Um, she went to my head of staff whose office was like was right next to mine, so I could hear everything they said.

And um and just just laid into me.

Like um said things to my head of staff, who was my supervisor, who was my boss, said said that I had said things that I'm pretty sure I never said, Um, and just called me all sorts of names to my supervisor.

I got defensive instead of pastoral.

Um I got I was angry at this parenting psychologist.

I was angry um for a long time.

Relationships are messy, right?

We all know this.

Do you all get a sense of discomfort hearing this story from the pulpit?

I gotta tell you, like, I feel a sense of discomfort telling it from the pulpit.

Um but, and I said this last week, like if we really believe as followers of Jesus Christ that we are meant to follow the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, then we really have to bring like our stuff.

We gotta bring our mess to it, the real mess of our lives, and say, like, hey, is this thing actually gonna work?

Right?

What I'm trying to say to you all is I'm not so sure about this one, this whole like loving your enemies thing.

Um, what do you all do in terms of loving your enemies?

Let's look more closely at the verses, okay?

Um, there's been plenty of preachers who have read the verse about turning the other cheek and have said that means we are meant to be passive in the face of abuse or evil.

Um that is not what Jesus is saying here.

Um, if you read the rest of the gospel, you will realize very quickly Jesus has no problem telling people when he thinks they're wrong.

Um, he tells people to their face when they're acting like hypocrites.

If he sees somebody abusing someone, he will say, Hey, don't do that.

If you read the gospel in its entirety, Jesus is anything but passive.

But another thing you'll realize when you look at him closely is he's also not reactive, right?

There's a couple exceptions to this, but for the most part, Jesus doesn't just fly off the handle at folks, right?

Um, and I think that's what he's saying here.

I think when he's talking about turning the other cheek, he's basically saying, like, you don't have to let other people drag you down with them.

It's helpful to remember in Jesus' day, striking someone on the right cheek with your left hand was meant to be an insult.

It was more like a sign of dishonor than it was actually trying to like hurt or abuse someone, right?

It's more like today, when, of course, you never do this, but when when someone gives you the finger on the road, right?

Like it's nasty, it's mean, but it doesn't like physically hurt you.

That that's that's what striking someone on the cheek was meant to do back in Jesus' day.

And what Jesus is saying is like when someone dishonors you, um, you have the freedom to rise above the situation.

Someone strikes you on the cheek, don't curse at them, uh, don't punch them in the face, turn the other cheek and dare them to strike that one too.

And if you do that, what Jesus is saying is you get to keep your self-respect, and basically you ask the offender, like, hey, do you really want to go there?

Do you really want to sink that low?

And then, of course, Jesus goes further.

It gets even more difficult.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Because God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good.

God makes the rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Another real quick explanation here.

Love in the New Testament is an action word, right?

It's not a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Jesus is not saying you have to feel warm and fuzzy to the person badmouthing you to your boss down this hallway.

Instead, in the New Testament, love is patient, love is kind.

It is not envious or boastful or rude.

Love believes all things, bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

That is what love is in the New Testament.

And God, Jesus says, demonstrates this love on everybody, right?

The sun rises, the rain falls on the good and the bad alike.

Why?

Because God never sees anyone just as an enemy, right?

God sees us, God sees you and me and everyone we know as full and yet flawed beloved children of God.

More than just our worst moments, more than our bad decisions, and God treats us accordingly.

The rain falls on everybody.

A bit abstract, right?

Like you really do kind of want to ask Jesus, like, okay, well, let's let's put some meat on the bones, right?

Um, let's be more specific about what turning the other cheek looks like in this life of ours.

I'm still not sure.

Let me just say that.

I'm still not sure.

But I tried to be on the lookout this past week, and this is where I saw this operating in my life.

On Tuesday night, I know many of you all were here.

On Tuesday night, we had this viewing of a local filmmaker.

Her name is Carolyn Crowder.

We saw her movie At the River.

How many were there?

Lots of y'all.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, it was we had a good crowd for it.

So, for those of y'all who aren't were not there, At the River by Carolyn Crowder is a movie about white Presbyterian ministers in the Deep South struggling with their congregations in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s through the civil rights era.

And this movie is uh especially beloved to Westminster because one of our former um interim pastors, Eid Anderson, uh, is is featured in the film.

He gives this beautiful interview.

He's like 97 years old when he gave the interview.

It's just it's wonderful.

Um, here's how Eid loved an enemy.

Uh Eid said that he used to be at a church in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1961.

And the session of that church went to fire a black woman who worked in the preschool because she had been seen outside the church demonstrating for civil rights.

And folks in that church were saying she was causing a ruckus.

Of course, she wasn't causing a ruckus, everybody, all the families loved her in the church, but they wanted to get rid of her.

So it was during a session meeting, Eid stood up and he said, I don't think she should be fired.

And after that session meeting, Ead said that an elder approached him.

I believe Eid said he thought this elder, or I believe he said this elder was like either the sheriff or the former sheriff of the town.

And Eid actually said the words.

I'm not gonna say the words that this man said.

Um, but the sheriff took Eat aside and basically he said to him, like, keep your GD nose out of this.

Um, we know how to deal with.

I'm not gonna say the first letter of that word.

Um, and Ead said he didn't say anything.

Like he was just he was just so shocked.

Um, he just kind of stared at the guy.

But you can kind of tell like what Eve was thinking um as he's doing this interview, because Ead says um he knew this sheriff.

Uh in fact, just before that confrontation, Ead said that he had stayed up one night with that sheriff with his family in the hospital because the sheriff's son had hydrocephalus.

And you gotta think, as that sheriff got into Ead's face, Eve was thinking to himself, like, come on, man, you're better than this.

How'd you get so much hate in your heart?

Like I said, Eve didn't say anything.

Um, there was another preacher in a in a very similar situation who was interviewed.

This was um Wallace Alston, and he was in a church in Waidsboro, North Carolina during the same time.

And uh and one Sunday, Alston had preached a sermon on civil rights that that really angered one of his parishioners named Joe.

And uh and right up after the service, by the way, if I ever make you angry, don't tell me right after the service, like give me a week.

But, anyways, but right after the service, this elder named Joe came right up to Alston and put his finger right in his face and just let him have it.

You know, like used every racist word in the book.

And again, you know, this was his parishioner.

Alston knew Joe.

He actually knew Joe had had like some health issues recently.

Um, and Joe, I mean, sorry, Alston, he just said to Joe, just right out of the blue, he said, Joe, you know, you can't die like this.

You uh you can't die feeling like this.

You can't meet your God with that type of hate in your heart.

And Alston said that shut Joe right up.

You know what I really love about Carolyn Crowder's movie at the River?

I love that it shows people as whole and complete and flawed.

I mean, the ministers certainly come off as the good guys in the film, but if you listen closely to what they say, you see they don't really see themselves as just good guys.

In fact, over and over again, you hear them saying things like, I should have done more.

Um, there's this one minister, there's the very last thing he said to camera.

He said, I have my regrets from those years.

Uh there was another minister, this was almost at the very end of the film.

He looks at the camera, he says, if I could do it over again, I would have been more courageous.

Carolyn Crowder herself, who wrote and directed and produced the film, she says that she grew up in a racist home.

She says her mother taught her how to spy on the black maid to make sure that the black maid didn't step out of her place.

Uh, she said that, Carolyn Crowder says herself, um, that throughout her teenage years and then into her 20s, she campaigned for the segregationalist George Wallace.

And then she had this beautiful conversion experience around civil rights.

Uh, it's really beautiful if you watch it.

Her story is is really it's really touching.

So often I think we look back at that time as like black and white, right?

And there um there really was, I mean, obviously, there was clearly a side that was right, that was righteous, and another one that that wasn't, that that really wasn't.

Remember, Jesus never had a problem telling people when they were wrong.

But even the people on the right side didn't get everything right.

And those on the wrong side, every once in a while, they saw the light.

Hearing those experiences, um, this is what I came to appreciate.

I came to appreciate a lot of beautiful, beloved, flawed folks.

Flawed ministers, even a flawed movie producer writing and dedicating so much of her time to civil rights.

Bunch of flawed folks trying to do their best.

I didn't tell the crowd that gathered on Tuesday to watch the movie this, but um, but I know Carolyn Crowder.

Um she used to be a member of my last church.

Um, she was an expert in parenting psychology at my last church.

What I'm saying is there's a lot more to folks than what we see.

There's a lot more to folks than what we see.

Friends, there will be times when you will be misunderstood, and the people who do the misunderstanding will have no interest whatsoever in understanding you better.

And at the same time, you are called nonetheless to see those people as whole, complicated, flawed, beloved children of God, worthy of your hope and your prayers.

Friends, there will be times when you are right and other people are wrong.

And it is your Christian duty to speak up for what is right, to stand up and call wrong wrong.

And at the same time, you are called to see those people that you disagree with as whole and complicated, flawed beloved children of God, worthy of your hope and your prayer.

Friends, there will be times when you are called to see people you disagree with as whole, as complicated, as flawed beloved children of God, worthy of your hope and prayer, and you won't be able to do it.

There will be times when you are unable to do it because of your hurt or your anger or your fear, because of your defensiveness or your self-righteousness or your humanity, um, that's gonna get in the way.

And in those moments, what I believe we are called to do is we are called to cling on to the hope that even though we can't see it, God sees more.

God sees more in those folks.

And so we pray for them anyway.

No, uh, Jesus never seemed to have a problem telling people when they were wrong.

And at the same time, Jesus never failed ever either to see more in people.

More than just a disagreement, more than just a label, more than just a political or religious faction, more than a stereotype.

He always saw more.

Seems like he could always find a child of God in just about anybody, whether it was the centurion or the tax collector, whether it was the Pharisee or the leper, whether it was those who nailed him to the cross or the disciples who ran away, Jesus could see more.

And so my prayer today is help us, O Christ.

Help us to see with your eyes, help us to behold others with your grace.

And when we cannot see it, help us to believe.

Help us to believe there's always more.

There's always more.