Sermon for February 20

May God’s grace, mercy, and peace be with you, through God the Father, and the Son Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Over the years, I’ve become acquainted and maybe a little bit of a fan of western, or cowboy music. You know the kind Gene Autry and Roy Rogers sang in the days of yesteryear. But the songs are not limited to the ones they sang around a campfire on the silver screen. One of the writers nowadays is a woman named Jean Prescott. Some years ago, she wrote a song called “Dining Out”.

It tells the story of a wife, who after helping her husband get the hay in, was asked if she wanted to go out to eat in town that night. She gets excited about eating at a restaurant that has an address that’s not a rural route. She gets dressed up and they get in the pick-up and go into town. He pulls up at the feed store, and she tells him she’ll just sit inside while he gets some feed. And he tells her that if she wants anything to eat, she’d better get out. It’s then she realizes that he’s brought her to the annual pancake supper. Anyway they wind up having a good time.

But she remembers her husband’s birthday is next weekend and she’s going to invite all his friends over for supper on Saturday night. But instead of grilling steaks she decides she’s going to have—yes, pancakes.

Revenge, sweet revenge. We would say she got her due. She turned the tables on him. We’ve all done it—we got revenge as children, maybe even as adults. We remember Joseph in our first reading, how his brothers sold “daddy’s boy” into slavery. As it turns out, the brothers had to go to Egypt to buy food because of a devastating famine back home in Cannan. Joseph recognizes his brothers and plays around with them for a while. He could have done anything he wanted with them since he had the power of Pharaoh himself. But he didn’t. He told them how it was God’s plan that he was in the position he was so he could save their lives. He told them to bring his father and whole household that they might settle there since there would be five more years of the famine. The ending of this story could have been very different had Joseph decided not to forgive them.

Luke writes to us about Jesus speaking to his disciples. These were his followers, not ones he was talking to the first time. He was telling them about how they should treat people, even their enemies and the outsiders. Jesus gives us a pretty long list of things we should do and not do.

So let’s take a brief look at some of the requirements if we are to be considered one of his disciples. We begin by looking at the first one, “Love your enemies…” OK, doesn’t sound too bad, I can try it. Then there’s “Do good to those who hate you.” That’s a little shakier, tougher. Number 3, “Bless those who hate you.” Bless? Now it’s getting really difficult. Why would I want to bless somebody who hates me? Four, pray for those who abuse you.” That’s about the last straw—praying for the good health of someone who’s trying to do me in.

And the list goes on. We even get Jesus’ version of the Golden Rule (popular in religions the world over.) “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” We’ve heard that ever since we stepped into a Sunday School room. And then more teachings on how we should give these good things to people that we don’t even know—like the ones we donated food for last week and shoes today. Jesus even asks us to give to those that we don’t like very much!

Verse 36 is closely connected to verse 37. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. As I sin, (it’s not if or when) I want God’s mercy, although it’s undeserving. My goal as a Christian is not to judge my neighbor, for I believe that as I judge, God will judge me. (And I want him to be real lenient with me.) Actually, I don’t really want to be judged; I want to be forgiven. And as badly as I want and need to be forgiven, I need to forgive others.

God expects all of this of us. Jesus taught it. Give and it will be given back to you. So, it’s not about revenge and getting even, it’s about love and mercy. I don’t know if what the wife did for her husband on his birthday was real revenge; perhaps she only did it to teach him a lesson, or that she read too much into his invitation. And there’s nothing wrong with pancakes—we’re having them on March 1 for Shrove Tuesday.

But the bottom line is, we as humans just cannot live up to these expectations. It’s our human nature to do just the opposite. Therefore, we must repent; that is, we must ask for forgiveness for these known sins and for these sins we do unconsciously. Then we must consciously try to change and do what is right.

Fortunately, God is more forgiving than we are he is more loving than we are, He is more merciful than we are. And in the end, we receive far more than we deserve or can expect. That’s because he out gives us and out loves us!

Amen.