Loving Enemies For God's Sake

We continued our reflections on 1 Peter 2 and 3 again this week. For my point of departure I referred back to the imaginative and challenging words of last week's preacher, Aaron Kuecker. Peter wanted his fellow Jesus-followers to train each other to ask themselves tough, mission driven, gospel focused questions when they considered how to respond to those who had authority over them. Aaron suggested that Peter wanted his people, in the face of criticism and oppression, when imagining how they might respond, to ask themselves questions like this: " 'What is best for the Gospel?' Or, put more provocatively and to the point, 'What is best for my enemy?' (Kuecker)."

As I write this recap, I wonder how many of us at Grace have grown tired of hearing homilies and reflections on Jesus' call to love our enemies? We have been talking about it for a while. Some of us may be asking ourselves, "is this aspect of the Gospel being overemphasized in our community?". Good question. I have been asking myself that question recently. The issue at hand, however, is that Peter, in 1 Peter, makes this issue a major concern. The call to ".... stumble in the footsteps of the enemy-loving God.... (Volf)", is on the top of Peter's mind as he pictures the priestly role of the Christian community as the mediator of God to the world. So, we'll linger on this important topic as long as Peter does, as we continue to move through the study of this epistle.

There is a sense in which Jesus' call to love our enemies should make us uncomfortable - but uncomfortable in a good way. Really - who can hear these words and not be taken aback? "But 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 (Luke 6:35....)." Kind to the wicked?! Yes. This is the way God is and it is the way we are to strive to be.

There is much talk in the church today about the need to be missonal. Many are making the very helpful argument that the only way for the church in the West to experience revival is by understanding that it exists not for itself but to demonstrate God's love in word and deed to those who have not yet heard, experienced, and become convinced of God's love for them. This is all very helpful. However, at the core of what it means to be missonal is to know how to love and bless one's enemies and I don't hear this talked about enough. In a world where people are becoming each other's enemies increasingly and at an increasing rate, loving and blessing our enemies may very well be the most important thing we Christians are known for. This might be the unique prophetic word that, in our generation, can awaken the life-giving collision between the powers of darkness and the light of the Gospel. This may be the message which when enacted, to paraphrase Kierkegaard, will preach to life the possibility of offense. For, "nly the possibility of offense (the antidote to the apologists' sleeping potion) is able to waken those who have fallen asleep, is able to break the spell so that Christianity is itself again (Kierkegaard)."

So, we live out the story of God's love for the whole world when we bless our enemies; and we practice enemy-love for the sake of the enemy coming to know God. We must take care, however, not to think of this approach as a missionary strategy or methodology. As Stanley Hauerwas puts it: "The basis for the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount is not what works but rather the way God is..... God is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish." Loving and blessing one's enemies is "the missionary side of following in the footsteps of the crucified Messiah..... It is..... part and parcel of Christian identity itself (Volf)". This is an identity we seek to acquire, as individuals and corporately as a church community, as Christ is formed in us. When we become more at home with the notion that this way of life is not a stratagem but simply how God shows his love to the world we are much more likely to be a community of people who point away from themselves and towards the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ.

Questions for discussion:

1. This came up in another recap some time ago but I think it is one of those questions that gets us thinking about issues of spiritual formation in such a deep and meaningful way that it bears asking again in the context of the discussion above. My minister friend Cuck DeGroat at City Church, San Francisco has urged us to see that "enemy love" is necessary when dealing with ourselves. "I’ve seen healing and transformation when men and women begin to love their enemies, even their inner enemies. These unreconciled parts of ourselves which live in extreme conflict cannot thrive.... And like the Prodigal Son and his Elder Brother, they need to be invited to a feast of reconciliation and redemption. You can only thrive as you become the Father in the great story, as the new and redeemed self led by Christ races out to both the Prodigal and the Elder Sons with an embrace of love and compassion. Transformation begins when you kiss the demon on the lips (DeGroat)". What do you make of Chuck's remarks? Do you find them helpful? Do you think you do pretty good job of preaching the Gospel to yourself?

2. On Sunday I said that if you pull the strand that is God's call to love our enemies out of the Gospel that the whole garment will come unraveled. Can you think of ways in which your experience of God's grace and love has been diminished by a refusal to bless, pray for, or love an enemy?

3. Why is it important that, in the words of Kierkegaard, the Gospel give offense, creating collisions between how the world thinks and how God is?

4. Why is it important to draw a distinction between strategy and identity when it comes to practicing enemy-love?