Luke 6:27-38
Active commitment on behalf of the other, when the other is an enemy who hates you is challenging.
But that is the test of our living of Agape Love. When we only commit to those who please us, care for us and benefit us we are living empire rules of quid pro quo and not the Kingdom values of unconditional love.
If you believe at all in Grace, then you must be gracious. If you believe at all in God's mercy for you, then you must be merciful to others, regardless of their merit or deserving, status or worthiness. If you want to receive mercy and Grace, you must be willing to be merciful and gracious with others.
It's good karma. The measure you give will be the measure you get back. While some regard this teaching as a reason to tithe in the hopes that their cosmic ATM machine will pay off, a priming of the supernatural spiritual pump, it clearly has nothing to do with that. The context here is around Forgiveness and Judgment.
If you judge others, you will be judged. If you refuse to forgive, you will not be forgiven. Elsewhere we read and have said the words, "forgive us our trespasses AS WE forgive those who trespass against us." "Do not judge" is an imperative - a command. What we give in forgiveness and/or in judgment we will receive, "A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap..."
What are we putting out in the world around us - in the world in which we live?
Whatever it is that we put out there creates that environment in which we must live.
If we want to live in a gracious, merciful place, we must put grace and mercy out there.
It ain't easy. It is much better for us and for all around us, however, when we live that out there.
Agape Love is difficult, especially because we've been taught our whole lives to live within empire values based on status, merit and quid pro quo interactions in society. Empire values are designed to benefit the few over the many and especially to divide some who believe themselves better than others from all the rest. It breeds division, poverty, injustice, oppression and usually violence. It causes people, families, communities and societies to be torn apart. Agape Love wipes out the false and divisive critera and demands equality, equitable treatment and gracious mercy in how we live with one another. It is a better way. It is THE WAY of Jesus.
Agape Love is sustainable. It promotes life because it promotes community - life together. It means that we would not more want harm to come to the other than we would want harm to come to ourselves. It means that all receive the best of the others around them because all are giving their best to one another, regardless of differences. Politically, economically, ecclesiastically and socially we have been conditioned for many years (especially since 1981) to embrace empire values in our nation, but the Good News of Jesus offered an alternative in a very similar context under the oppression of Rome. That alternative is still viable if we would only embrace it as OUR WAY. It is the only way for us to have a future as a people and a world.
To follow Jesus means that we live what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us, as we have that witnessed in the Gospels. Jesus' Way means living Agape Love with one another, even when it's hard. It also calls us to the accountability and the hope that "the measure you give is the measure you will get back."
What do you want to receive from others? Put THAT out in the world around you for them. That alone sustains life, and alone is our salvation.
Pastor Jamie
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