Good evening, Cottage friends!
I wanted to share my sermon from this morning with you. It’s on the text from Luke 6:27-38. Sunday Musings covered some of the same material, but the preached sermon was different from the written reflection on the same passage.
It opens with a history lesson on the Roman context in which Jesus preached the Beatitudes and the instruction to “love your enemies.” And it gave me a chance to use the pulpit as a real “bully” pulpit with a demonstration of turning the other cheek.
This isn’t the doormat story you might think it is. Jesus didn’t encourage his followers to roll over and play dead in the face of oppression.
Rightly understand, it is a profoundly relevant biblical passage about trying to survive — faithfully — under a dictator who thrives on revenge and retribution. It is about the kind of love that insists on equality, dignity, compassion, and peace.
We need to turn this “doormat” passage into a doorway that opens to a more just and loving world.
Listen in. I loved preaching this (I think you’ll be able to tell that I had fun with it) — and I hope it nurtures your courage and wisdom in these stressful days.
Love relentlessly,
Diana
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This sermon was preached on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Fairfax, VA. You need to know that to get the Lutheran joke. And, given where it was preached in the suburbs of Washington, DC, you might rightly imagine the worries present in the gathered congregation.
This Morning I Pray for My Enemies
by Joy Harjo
And whom do I call my enemy?
An enemy must be worthy of engagement.
I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking.
It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind.
The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.
It sees and knows everything.
It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing.
The door to the mind should only open from the heart.
An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend.
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