You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.… If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?
—Matthew 5:43–48
In a 2017 homily based on this Scripture passage, Father Richard reminds us of the foundational requirements of Christian living:
As Christians, we proclaim that this scripture has authority over our lives, but I am hearing from more and more pastors from all denominations that they are afraid to preach the gospel in this country because they know half the church will walk out. You know what I’m talking about. We are in a state of such deceit, dishonesty, and lack of love for anybody but ourselves that is almost impossible to preach the gospel. The ancient Israelites were told “to love your neighbor,” but Jesus takes it to the nth degree. He says, “No—love your enemy.”
Is there anything happening in America today that would make you think we believe we should “love our enemies”? If Christians do not decide to finally be like Jesus, then let’s just give up on this whole Christian thing. It doesn’t mean anything! If it’s just going to church on Sunday, then we have to stop pretending we’re following Jesus, because we’re just like everybody else—we are into power and money and deceit and war. If we do not preach the gospel, if we do not begin to live the gospel now, then let’s stop pretending that we care about Jesus or about following Jesus.
We are in a very scary position in the United States, and the whole world sees it. We are called to engage in a great mobilization, recognition, conversion, and transformation, because now the issues are too big, too real, and too right in front of us every day.
We cannot be silent any longer. Do not expect me to be silent, and I won’t expect you to be silent, either. It’s going to take courage. It’s going take each of us making little decisions in our little worlds to love, not just our neighbors, but even to pray for our enemies, to pray for our president, to pray for our country. If we can’t do these little things, what does it all mean?
Every one of us in this room has power. To pretend we don’t, so we can just be silent is to say what’s happening is OK and it isn’t! I just read the gospel aloud and held the book above you. You stood up and you said, “Thanks be God,” so now let’s say thanks be to God with our lives. Thank you for allowing me to preach the gospel.
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| Confusing Creature and Creator |
 Click Here for AudioIf the first of the Ten Commandments is about keeping God first, the second commandment is about keeping God separate. The Lord said, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath . . .” This command is not a prohibition against artistic works, which is how some have understood it. Traditional Islamic art, for example, usually features plants, words, or geometric patterns, but no animals or people out of an abundance of caution. Islam, which is adamantly opposed to all idolatry, doesn’t want anyone to interpret God as a person or animal even accidentally. But within the context of the Old Testament, it becomes clear this is not what the second commandment intended. Remember, the tabernacle that God himself commanded his people to build as the centerpiece of their worship included many images of animals and angels. Rather than a prohibition against certain forms of art, the second commandment establishes an absolute barrier between the uncreated God and the rest of creation. It accomplishes this by forbidding the representation of the Creator as a mere creature. This is the basic error of all idolatry—it confuses the Creator with the creature, the eternal with the temporal, the non-contingent with the contingent. It was a radical idea at the time. Other ancient cultures depicted their gods as animals, human kings, or celestial objects. When we equate God with some element of his creation, however, we diminish his glory and limit his grandeur. Thomas à Kempis in his classic work, The Imitation of Christ, spoke of the utter uniqueness of God. He wrote, “The difference is great—yes, very great, indeed—between delight in the Creator and in the creature, in eternity and in time, in Light uncreated and in the light that is reflected.” This cosmos, its creatures, and the works of human hands are marvelous, but their glory is at best a reflected one. To be against idolatry doesn’t mean diminishing the value of God’s good creation. It doesn’t mean eliminating the beauty of art or the delight of beautiful things from our lives. Instead, it means recognizing the glory we see in creation is not from itself. It is the indirect radiance of the Creator. Therefore, when we marvel at any created thing we ought to offer our praise and gratitude to God, rather than to the thing itself. The second commandment invites us to delight in the One who cannot be contained by space or time, nor by the human mind, and certainly not by any craft of mere human hands. DAILY SCRIPTURE HABAKKUK 2:18–20 ROMANS 11:33–36 WEEKLY PRAYER Leonine Sacramentary (the fifth century) Almighty God, who did wonderfully create humanity in your own image, and did yet more wonderfully restore them, we ask you, that as your Son our Lord Jesus Christ was made in human likeness, so we may be made partakers of the divine nature; through your Son, who with you and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, world without end. Amen. |
