Lectionary Texts: Genesis 45:3-11, 15; Luke 6:27-38

Last week we talked about how the blessed ones are like trees planted by the water. And some of our blessed ones experienced some serious tragedies this week. Leslie Zinkl’s brother and nephew died in a tragic house fire barely two weeks after her mother’s death. Marjorie’s brother Tyrone died this week as well. His funeral was yesterday. Peggy let us know this week that her sister Betsan is nearing the end of her life on earth. These are difficult times. Quite apart from those tragedies that cause us so much grief, I am also aware that some of us are having really hard times keeping our heads above water. An article in Christian Century this week suggested that perhaps we should call our time, the Age of Overwhelming. To be "whelmed" is to be covered by water, said the author. If so, to be overwhelmed is to be drowned, or nearly so. In this context, last week’s scripture from Jeremiah 17is still very relevant – it is also about water. "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord … They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green. In the year of the drought it is not anxious and it does not cease to bear fruit." Rather than being in the water (drowning) we are by the water (being refreshed, nourished, sustained). Blessedness, being planted by the water, comes from trusting God, says Jeremiah, and living in that trust even when we are feeling overwhelmed. Even in the time of drought or in a season of anxiety, blessedness is about finding ourselves to be as a tree planted by a stream of water, drawing in the water, keeping your leaves green and producing fruit.

We have an interesting story as our first scripture reading today. If you haven’t read it lately, it’s a good story to go back and read. It begins in Genesis 37. As you begin the story, you will wonder what this has to do with blessedness. This story is about a family squabble – an intense and cruel sibling rivalry. It has to do with Joseph’s being sold as a slave, being unjustly imprisoned and oppressed. As Joseph was going through that ordeal, there was no way that he could have thought of himself as blessed. Overwhelmed would have been a more appropriate description. He would have laughed if someone said that that main theme of his story would be God’s abundance and generosity. We meet him today, after he had been made the Pharaoh’s right hand man to oversee the food supply of the nation, and when his brothers came to Egypt to get food during the time of famine. And we read today, that part of the story when Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. Now, you know, Joseph could have said, "Off with their heads." In fact, that’s what most people would have done. But instead, he says, "Do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life." In the midst of the cruelty of being thrown in an old well to die, or being sold as a slave, or being unjustly imprisoned, it would have been easy for Joseph to fall away from God. But through the whole ordeal, Joseph was faithful and steadfast in his love and commitment to God. And now, when God has miraculously brought him to this place, he can look back and he can see God’s hand all through the time when he was feeling overwhelmed. "God sent me before you to preserve life," he said. Joseph was one of the blessed ones. He may have felt like he was drowning, but all the time, he was like a tree planted by the water.

So, what does Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Plain have to do with this, you ask? Sermon on the Plain, by the way is Luke’s version of what Matthew calls Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is teaching us how to live – but its is an ethic that is impossible to live by. This is so unreal you wonder what Jesus was thinking. I mean, look at this: love your enemies, do not retaliate, give to anyone who begs, and lend without expecting return -- don’t judge, don’t condemn, forgive, give? How do you expect these teachings to make any sense to us? These go so against the grain of our culture that we are tempted to not take it seriously. But let me tell you, this is about blessedness – remember Jesus had just made that point in the paragraph above this -- and we neglect these at the peril of not experiencing God’s abundance and generosity.

The problem is that if we try to be live by this ethic, any follower of Jesus comes off looking a lot like a spineless jellyfish. I mean, somebody slaps you, turn the other cheek. Somebody takes your coat, give them your shirt too. Somebody hates you, send them some roses and chocolates for Valentines Day. How can this make sense to 21^st century Americans -- I mean, we are just so happy to go out and bomb Iraq just for the heck of it! To read these words of Jesus, one gets the feeling that to be a Christian is to be a doormat!

But that doesn’t make sense does it – because we know, Jesus was nobody’s fool. He was not some kind of weak, pushover -- he didn’t let others walk all over him. In fact, he was just the opposite. I look at that, and I say, perhaps he means something different here, something more. Perhaps, rather than being naive and overly simple, Jesus’ teaching is actually very powerful and very creative and even subversive.

Now, take the matter of turning the other cheek. Most people, even those who have no interest in the Bible have heard the expression "turning the other cheek." It has come to mean simply "not fighting back." But rather than letting others slap us around, there is another meaning. The phrase "strike you on the cheek" refers to a backhand slap. In that day, one’s left hand was used for personal hygiene and nothing else, and one would always strike another with the right hand. So, as Matthew says, "if anyone strikes you on the right cheek…" it doesn’t make sense. Because to slap someone you would have strike the left cheek. You can turn to your neighbor and try it out! You don’t need to get all your aggression out now! Also, you see, to strike the right cheek with the right hand, it has to be backhanded. What Jesus is talking about is an insult, not a fistfight. A backhand slap was meant to demean or humiliate. One only did this to those considered inferiors. Masters backhanded slaves, husbands backhanded wives, adults backhanded children, Romans backhanded Jews.

Why would Jesus advice people who were already humiliated to turn the other cheek? Because this robs the oppressor of the power to humiliate. It says, "Try again. You have failed to humiliate me." Logistically, you can’t backhand someone’s left cheek with your right hand. By turning the other cheek, you say, "If you are going to strike me, treat me as an equal. Here is my left cheek." Now suddenly, the aggressor is no longer in a position of power and has lost the ability to shame. So, you see, "turning the other cheek" is not to let another walk all over you; just the opposite. It was nonviolent response, but it was not passive. It did not return the other’s hatred, but it resisted it. It was active.

The same is true of giving both the shirt as well as the coat. Jesus’ words here refer to a legal practice. A coat was frequently used as collateral for a loan. The New Testament is filled with references to debts. People had heavy debts because Roman taxes were very burdensome. Wealthy people looked for non-liquid assets in order to secure their wealth. The obvious means was land, but land was passed down generation to generation. And so land owners charged exorbitant interest in an effort to put peasants so deeply in debt that they could be pried from their land. By Jesus’ day, there were absentee landlords with large estates managed by stewards, with day laborers and slaves, who perhaps once owned the land, now working the land for the absentee landlord.

So, a peasant would give a coat, or outer garment as a pledge for payment of a debt. The law required that this be done compassionately. Exodus 22 says that if you lend to the poor, you cannot charge interest, and if you take a neighbor’s coat in pawn, you have to give it back before the sun goes down. The reason was that most people only had one coat! Jesus says that if someone takes your outer garment, which they would as pledge for payment of a debt, to give them your undergarment as well. What would that leave a person with? Nothing! If a wealthy person hauls you into court and takes away your outer garment, give him your undergarment as well. In effect, this says, "Here, you’ve already taken everything else, why don’t you have it all." Nakedness was considered shameful in that society but the shame was primarily on those who saw another’s nakedness. So, giving the shirt as well as the coat is not being wimpy; it is standing up to injustice in a nonviolent way and bringing to light the injustice of those who abuse the poor. Again, the tables are turned.

Jesus does not ask us to be spineless jellyfish. Rather, he gives the blessed ones, the ones feeling overwhelmed, the ones struggling now, who are on their way to where God is sending them to preserve life, creative ways to deal to those who oppress. Jesus is saying here are some practical ways to be like a tree planted by the water.

Now one could use this method vindictively, as a way of returning hatred with one’s own hatred. That is why we have to see it in the context of the teaching to love one’s enemies. Loving one’s enemies – I don’t think that instruction occurs anywhere else in the world’s religious literature, and I know a lot of them. And Jesus is saying this is how you become a blessed one and experience God’s generosity and abundance.

Let me give you a couple of stories to bring this home. A group of Klansmen came one night to Martin Luther King Jr.'s home and burned it down. For the King family it was a terribly scary experience. And the situation after the fire was extremely dangerous. Dr. King’s followers were very angry. A crowd of his friends and supporters gathered and some talked about getting guns and others talked about getting gasoline and going and setting fire to the homes of all the white people in the area. This was pure vengeance, you see -- the crowd wanted to hurt those who had hurt them, - they wanted to hurt those who had burned Dr. King's home, - they wanted to hurt their enemies - indeed they wanted to destroy them. A pretty natural feeling I would say - We all feel like hitting back when we are hit, We all feel like returning insult for insult, and curse for curse. That night however did not end up that way - the way that feels so natural - instead the crowd left determined to win the victory with votes instead of with guns, with politics instead of with fire, with love instead of hate. One of the things that Martin Luther King Jr. told the crowd that night as calmed them down was this: "When you live by the rule "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, you end up with a nation of blind and toothless people." A blessed one. He lived by Jesus’ kingdom ethic. Loving your enemy must have been hard, particularly that night. But he was like a tree planted by the water.

I think Nelson Mandela lived by these principles. I woke up at 3 a.m. or whatever they day he was released from Robben Island several years ago. After 28 years in prison, we could have easily seen a man bitter and hateful, seeking vengeance. But the man we saw coming out of prison looked like he was free the whole time he was there. Like Joseph, he knew that God had a plan for him and that in God will bring him to the right place to preserve life. While in prison, he chose instead to respect those he came into contact with each day, and it made all the difference in the world. Mandela wrote about the many kindnesses of his white prison guards. And because of the suffering he endured and his ability to love his enemies, Mandela gained a great deal of moral authority that enabled him to lead his country peacefully out of apartheid when almost everyone had anticipated a bloodbath. At his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa, four of those white prison guards were on the podium with him as Mandela’s special guests. And South Africa which could have seen a blood bath as you would have rarely seen in history, because people’s anger at apartheid was so intense, became a model of showing to the world how reconciliation works. A blessed one, Mandela lived by Jesus’ ethic, found that loving one’s enemies actually works.

We live in a time in our country when state sanctioned murder in the death chambers of our prisons, is fueling people’s thirst for revenge perhaps like no time before we hear a story like this. 25 members of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation toured Georgia on a "Journey of Hope," speaking throughout the state about their experience. All had lost a loved one to murder. And all had taken the long journey from grief through bitterness to forgiveness. They had discovered, as on of the sponsors, put it, "the power of compassion to heal their own wounds." The community at Jubilee Partners gathered one evening to hear George White, one of the tour members, share his struggle to overcome the hatred that had poisoned his life for years after the murder of his wife. "A man kills your wife, and you forgive that man?" responded an emotion-laden voice in the crowd. "I don't understand how it is possible!" The voice was that of a 16-year-old Bosnian who had recently arrived at Jubilee as a refugee from her war-torn land. "I hope..." she continued softly, her eyes brimming with tears, "I hope I can forgive the Serbs like that in 10 years." Mr. White, who has a daughter about the same age as the young woman, crossed the room and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. "Honey," he said warmly, "you have to try. It's the only way to find healing from all this rotten mess." That’s a blessed one. One who has found healing through perhaps the toughest challenge of his life through Jesus’ ethic.

There are, of course, countless other blessed ones. But you don’t have to be a great hero to live out Jesus’ ethic. These people didn’t go seeking after greatness. When they were feeling overwhelmed with their circumstances, they just heeded the instruction in Jesus’ kingdom ethic. So, the question for us is how do you live it out in your own world – in your neighborhood, work place and community? Jeremiah says, if you are planted like a shrub in the desert you will let it overwhelm you. Or if you are like a tree planted by the water, with roots going out to the water, so that the time of heat and drought will not overwhelm you or cause you anxiety, but your leaves will still be green and you will still bear fruit and provide shade for people under it, you are blessed.

So, Blessed Ones, come to the Lord’s Table. This is where you get the refreshment, the nourishment and sustenance. You are planted close to this table, to this community of faith. You and planted close to Jesus who lived by that ethic, powerfully and victoriously, such that even death couldn’t hold him down. There is no reason to be drowning in the water. There is good reason for drawing refreshment from the water.

So, hear Jesus’ last point today about how to receive God’s generosity and abundance. "Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back." That’s God’s promise to you.