Epiphany 7C.2025
Karen A. Calafat (with adaptations from SALT+ Commentary)
Loryn Brantz wrote a poem that has been circulating recently. It states, in part:
In a time of hate
Love is an act of resistance
In a time of fear
Faith is an act of resistance
In a time of misinformation
Education is an act of resistance
I wonder if what we hear in Jesus’ teaching today is a form of resistance? And what about Joseph in our Old Testament story? I’ve never heard today’s readings quite like I did this week during preparation for this homily. With all the chaos and turmoil spinning out of control people are turning to forms of resistance to claim some semblance of agency, some sense of power.
Robert Reich, professor and former Secretary of Labor writes, “Successful resistance movements maintain hope and a positive vision of the future, no matter how dark the present.”
Joseph certainly lived through some very dark times, as did Jesus.
It seems reasonable to say that Joseph practiced resistance by handling with grace all the mistreatment he endured in life. He seriously couldn’t catch a break! He had every reason to be filled with hatred, resentment and bitterness, but he resisted and was able to love those who hated him and forgive those who abused him. He did not do unto others as they had done unto him.
But Joseph resisted the human tendency toward hating his enemies and cursing those who did him wrong. Joseph practiced resistance and was overcome with joy and compassion when he discovered his brothers and his father were still alive. He provided food for his entire extended family during seven very dark years of famine.
I wonder if Jesus’ teaching from last week and this week are a form of resistance. Last week was the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain where we heard about blessings and woes. Blessing for those who are poor, hungry, sad, and outcast. And woe for those who are rich, well fed, and happy.
In today’s continuation of the same sermon, Jesus turns toward instruction on living a graceful human life. His instructions are not the easy road!
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you…. Expect nothing in return.”
(Just a quick word about abuse: “Like any great teaching, this one is vulnerable to disastrous distortion. The call to “offer the other cheek,” for example, or to forgive or lend without return, can be misconstrued to prohibit withdrawing from abusive situations. But this confuses love with acquiescence. True love acts to end abuse — primarily for the sake of the abused but also for the sake of the abusers, who harm themselves as well as their victim. Thus withdrawing to a safe harbor and holding abusers accountable are not only consistent with “loving our enemies” — they’re expressions of it.” SALT+)
And then we come to that verse that we learn early in life: Do to others as you would have them do to you.
We tend to think of the “Golden Rule” as being about fairness, but the love Jesus has in mind is anything but “fair.” In fact, as described in one of my favorite study resources, SALT+ commentary, “Jesus’ critique of reciprocity (even sinners do that!) makes clear that “fair” is precisely what true love is not. Rather, true love goes above-and-beyond reciprocity. In this sense, Jesus is recommending an “unfair” kind of love, an extravagance that benefits not the one who benefits you, but rather the one who opposes you; or indeed, an extravagance that gives more to a thief than the thief takes in the first place! There’s a playful spirit of hyperbole darting in and out of these ideas, as if they’re designed to evoke a kind of absurd, ecstatic state of generosity, a state of pure mercy, a state of grace. Turns out this isn’t a “Golden Rule” at all. It’s a Golden Love, a playful, beautiful, graceful way of life.
Jesus challenges his listeners to love not as a strategy for gain, but rather for the sake of love itself. — And what do we call this kind of love, this completely free, above-and-beyond, gratuitous giving? We call it “grace.” This is exactly the love Jesus calls us to live out, not as gods or angels but as “children of the Most High,” human beings created in God’s image: “Be merciful, just as God is merciful.” When we love this way, we embody the imago Dei.” The image of God. The imago D.E.I. This is the love we were made for.
Our English translation loses some of the power that we might have heard in this passage in the Greek. Jesus’ preaching builds with intensity and it is all about grace which our passage translates as “credit” which loses the spiritual importance. “If you love those who love you, what grace is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what grace is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what grace is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
“What grace is there in that? What grace is there in that?
Jesus’ point is clear: We are made to be gracious, to love gracefully, to practice grace in the image of God’s grace.
When our lives are marked by acts of love (an action, not a feeling; love is treating others with dignity, honor, and respect; love is taking the high road when low road is easier.) when our lives are marked by love and grace even in the face of fear, even when hate abounds, when our lives are marked by love and grace even when situations are unfair, we are practicing resistance.
Loryn’s poem about resistance ends:
In a time or poor leadership
Community is an act of resistance
In a time like this
Joy is an act of resistance
Falling into a pit of despair, being consumed with rage and outrage, even giving in to depression would be reasonable responses to dark and difficult times, but Jesus calls us to something else, to something different. Jesus calls us to love. Love for others and Love for ourselves.
Love is an act of resistance. Grace is an act of resistance.
Indeed, joy is an act of resistance.
Resist. Resist. Resist. (Loryn Brantz)