Love the Porcupines, a sermon based on Genesis 45: 3-11, 15 and Luke 6: 27-38, preached on February 23, 2025

I’ve always believed that there are two kinds of people in the world, those who dip their French fries into their ketchup, and those who squeeze ketchup all over their French fries. Jesus also believed that there were two kinds of people: neighbors and enemies, and He commands us to love them both. That’s a tall order. It’s hard enough to love your neighbors, but everyone does that, Jesus says. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Well, that’s a good point. Our neighbor Dan McCloud, a couple weeks ago, he was driving out to County Farm Road to take his glass to be recycled. He offered to take ours as well, which was so kind. I’m thankful, but every time I drive out to County Farm Road, I do the same. He carries my glass to the glass recycling center, and I return that favor. Before too much longer, things will change. Thanks to Jim Sommerville, we’re going before the City Council tomorrow night to place our own glass recycling bin in our church parking lot, and I suspect that we’ll be heroes to our entire community who have grown tired of driving out to County Farm Road. Even the Mayor told me that he’s tired of driving so far, but what credit is it to us to be kind to our neighbors? Even sinners love those who love them. Love your enemies, Jesus said. 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. Why? I have a friend who works for the federal government. Anyone else have a friend who works for the federal government? Is your friend as scared as my friend that he might lose his job? Whenever people are angry and afraid, the world divides into two kinds of people: friends and enemies. Love your enemies, Jesus said, and some have done it. Have you seen Les Misérables? I hadn’t seen it before last week. It was mentioned on my favorite TV show of all time, Ted Lasso, so last week I watched it. In this play-turned-movie, the main character, Jean Valjean, is out on parole. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. Upon release, he must present his papers, which state that he’s a criminal, so no one will hire him. No innkeeper will host him. He falls asleep in a cemetery where a bishop takes him in. To repay the bishop for his kindness, Jean Valjean steals the silver from the bishop’s church. Caught red-handed on the run, he’s dragged by the police to kneel before the bishop with his bag full of the church’s silver. Expecting condemnation, he’s surprised to hear the bishop say, “I tried to give him the silver candle sticks as well, but he left before I could. All this silver I gave him freely. Release this man. He’s done nothing wrong.” Love your enemies, Jesus said. Why? Because such love as this changed Jean Valjean’s life. Divine love is the only force that can change your enemy into your friend. Divine love is not so much concerned with fairness as it is with mercy. Divine love is patient. It is kind. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Divine love does not delight in evil but always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Think with me about God’s divine love and consider with me the very essence of who God is. How has God been at work in your life? When have you felt His mercy? We read about it in our first Scripture lesson, which is the conclusion of one of the truly great narratives. The narrative begins when the boy Joseph was thrown into a pit and sold into slavery by his brothers. Do you know the story? Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote a musical about it. It was on Broadway. But just as the book is better than the movie, so also the Scripture lesson is better than the Broadway play. This narrative that unfolds in the book of Genesis begins with a little brother, Joseph, Daddy’s favorite, who, by his brothers, is thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, accused of a crime he didn’t commit, and is locked behind bars in Egypt, but because he can interpret dreams, he ends up the Pharoah’s right-hand man. While he advises Pharoah and accumulates grain for the Egyptian Empire, his brothers and their families face famine. Desperate for food, they go to Egypt, begging for grain before the throne of the one who controls the granaries of the Pharoah. My how the tables have turned. As his brothers kneel before him, Joseph finally had the chance to get revenge. Can you imagine how many times he thought of it? From the bottom of the pit they threw him in, he swore he’d get even if they ever let him out. Then, bound in chains on that slaver’s caravan, he plotted retribution. On those cold nights in his cell, he was warmed by the thought that payback would rain down on the brothers who put him there, only as he looked down on them from his throne, saw the gaunt looks on their hungry faces, the thought came to him, “You threw me into a pit, sold me into slavery, so that I ended up imprisoned in Egypt, but had you not done that, I would be just as hungry as you are now. God put me here. God sent me before you to preserve life.” Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” Why? Because they deserve love? Why should we bless those who persecute us? Because they deserve our blessing? Such love makes no sense to those of us who follow the social contract. A social contract is this agreement. It’s not necessarily a formal agreement. It can be nothing more than a handshake or a nod, and it works like this: If I take my neighbor’s glass to the recycling center then he’ll likely offer to take my glass to the recycling center. If my neighbor Jamie blows the leaves off part of my yard, then I’m going to blow leaves off part of his yard. There are these social contracts. The few people who don’t abide by them are called sociopaths. They’re like the people who put ketchup all over their French fries. No, seriously, some people just take. They never return favors, but most people do. Even sinners, Jesus says, love people who love them. They return generosity with generosity. That’s a social contract. We’re used to that. We give favors to those who do us favors. But love your enemies, Jesus says. Why? Because our lives are not governed by the social contract. Our lives are not governed by a human contract, but by divine love and divine mercy. Jesus is saying, “Give to your enemy expecting to receive nothing in return, for you’ve already received everything from God.” Don’t forgive expecting to receive forgiveness. Just forgive because you’ve already been forgiven. Consider God’s abundant mercy, so don’t just invite people over for dinner who invite you over for dinner. Instead, consider the feast we are invited to in the Kingdom of Heaven. Can anything compare to the glory about to be revealed to us as the children of God? Notice what God has done and consider what God has promised. I think about His mercy today as I watch a cycle of revenge unfold before my eyes. Russia invades Ukraine. Terrorists from Palestine commit atrocities in Israel, so Israel strikes back until there is nothing left in Palestine. These cycles go on and on and on, for the dark deeds of our enemies fill our bodies with rage. We long to return evil with evil. To stop the cycle, Jesus says, “Lift up your eyes to consider, not what your enemy has done, but what God has done,” and what has God done? What has God done for you, in your life? Consider His mercy and His blessing especially amid affliction, for people are mean. Last Thursday, I sat down at a table. One I sat down with asked me if I’d gotten a haircut. Hearing the question and noticing my lack of hair, another asked me, “Which one did you have cut?” My friends, there’s a great story in the Bible about the Prophet Elijah who calls a bear to maul a group of boys who call him “old bald head.” I can relate to that thirst for vengeance. It’s not my fault I’ve lost my hair, yet while I may have so few hairs that my Creator will have no trouble numbering them all, I will never be able to count all my blessings, so will I fume in anger or buy my neighbor another round? You know which is better for your heart, and you know which response reflects the divine love and mercy of our God. Don’t lose yourself in getting even. Get lost in counting your blessings, for the blessings of God are not just a little, but a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. That’s what will be put in your lap, for the measure you give, that will be the measure you get back. You see, it’s not the social contract that matters most, but the divine contract that has made all the difference in our lives. It’s God’s mercy that defines us. That’s what the bishop taught Jean Valjean. That’s what Joseph realized as he looked down on his brothers, and that’s what Jesus always knew, but that is also what this world is always forgetting. That God gives. God forgives. God provides. God suspends judgement. Consider these things and share with your enemies out of the abundance of what God has provided. Now, somebody said, “Pastor, my enemy doesn’t deserve it.” Somebody said, “I’m not going to give them that. They’ve taken too much. They’ve done too much evil,” and I say to you, “Harboring hate in your heart is like drinking from a bottle of poison and hoping that your enemy is going to die.” Hate is doing harm to your heart. Hate is doing harm to the heart of our nation. Hate is too great a burden to bear, so I choose love. That’s a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was beaten, imprisoned, slandered, criticized, and maligned, but trusted in the dream of a new heaven and a new earth where all God’s people lay down their grudges to love one another as brothers and sisters. My friends, we are living in scary times, and fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. It was Yoda who said that in one of the Star Wars movies, and he was right about where hate will take us, while love will lift your soul towards Heaven. 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. Amen.