All Saints’ Sunday Luke 6:20-31
The world under empire operates in complete
opposition to God’s Will. The Kingdom
values that Jesus taught, commanded, and modeled for us in agaph are so revolutionary because they fly in the face
of empire’s values of greed, lust for power over others and desire for status
above others. The Law of Love in Jesus
calls those who follow His Way to live very different lives from empire’s way,
reflecting the very different values of the Kingdom.
Those who are hurt by empire and whose lives are
damaged or destroyed are blessed under the Kingdom of God. When you are held with disdain or
discriminated against or excluded and considered “less than” others, you are
blessed and have reason to celebrate.
You are celebrated in the Kingdom.
Those who benefit from empire and its values, who
participate in the unequal systems and exploit others or ignore their plight
are much to be pitied according to the Kingdom.
When others hold them in high esteem or raise their status among them,
they join those who were unjustly privileged in history. They are about to find themselves in very
different situations.
Those who have gone before us, who have suffered the
injustices and immoral practices of empire, are now blissed in their existence. Some of them have given wonderful examples of
how to live and how not to live, as children of God. We remember them and celebrate their lives
today. We also honor them by how we take
their examples of what it means to live Jesus’ Way in the world.
And those who live within the Kingdom today must see
the Love of Jesus differently and live it differently in the world. We must love even enemies and do good to all
people, not because they deserve it but because they need it and because it is
the right thing to do for those who follow Jesus’ Way.
We are commended to resist the evil others do to us
and point out the absurdity of their maltreatment of us in defiance of a system
that allows them to strike another human being.
We are commanded to give to those who beg, whose
lives have been destroyed by empire and even to allow others who are desperate
enough to take what we have without expecting repayment. They are desperate and thus they do desperate
things. The circumstances created by the
evils of empire make people desperate. Understanding
their need is the call of all who follow Jesus’ Way of agaph.
According to Matthew (7:12), the “Golden Rule”
fulfills the Law and Prophets. It seems
that the author of Luke here agrees. We
are called and commanded to live by a different set of rules as children of
God. Putting ourselves on top in an
unjust system does not change the unjust and immoral system. * Completely countering the ways of empire is
the only way – changing the system to make it just is the only way. Loving Neighbor as Self and doing to others
as you would have them do to you is the only way.
· Gustavo Gutierrez,
A THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION
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