Sermon: Jesus’ “If” Questions, Masks, and “Love Your Enemy”, (Luke 6:27-38), Feb 20th, 2022

Reflection: Jesus’ “If” Questions… 

“If someone strikes you on the cheek, what will you do?” 

“If someone takes away your coat, how would you respond?”

“If someone takes away your goods, what could be your response?” 

These past two years have been rough. We’ve had such a roller-coaster ride of good news and bad, that it’s hard to know how to take this past week’s news. (Hmm… Not the Alberta Clipper! :) ) The Manitoba government plans to lift its Covid-19 restrictions by March 15th. On March 1st, I will no longer need to show proof of vaccination when I enter the hockey arena with Jah-bi for practices and games. Soon, I will no longer have to tell the kids “Jah-bi, did you get your mask? Peace, find your mask in the laundry room!” before school every morning. 

Personally, I do not have a full grasp of what lifting our protective mandates means. I just can’t wrap my mind around all the possible aspects: political views, scientific data, economic concerns, mental health, versus the ongoing physical threat of Covid. I will continue to study the impacts of the pandemic and the continuance of certain restrictions for health care, elder care, and disability justice. One thing I have noticed is a general increase in anxiety - not only anxiety about physical health and safety issues, but anxiety about divisions in society, divisions between family members, friends, neighbours and more. Consensus is hard to achieve in response to unprecedented questions. We are wrestling with many different kinds of “if” questions. The answers depend on how, in the present, we can work together without leaving others out, unheard, unsafe, and disrespected.

No single expert, group, or community’s opinions should be overvalued; they need to be laid down equally on the table, everyone’s equity held in mind. Of course, it sounds like an impossible task at this point. There seem to be so many voices, so many needs and wants. Some want to protect the most vulnerable – the immunocompromised and our elders. Some want to go back to ‘normal’, for a whole host of reasons. With conflicting goals comes anxiety. 

As someone who came from a culture which puts the highest importance on harmony, unity, consensus, and collective identity, I wonder how, as members of Canadian society we, individually and communally, could respond to the pandemic-caused issues, to divisive political views and choices, in light of faith and the Gospel in our hearts and minds. I wonder if we can take the questions Jesus asks in the Gospel, apply them to our own situations and try to respond to each challenge from Jesus’s point of view. 

Keeping that in mind, I would like to share three different points of view which I read in different articles this week. 

The first one is from the Opinion column in the Winnipeg Free Press (date, the author). N says that “I’ve come to understand in politics, there are many divides in this county — English and French, Indigenous and non-Indigenous — the gulf between urban and rural may be among the most powerful. The so-called “freedom convoy” is a good case in point. Organizers have portrayed it as a protest against COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in general, and vaccine mandates in particular. In reality, this is a group of mostly (but not exclusively) rural protestors bringing their anger over a whole range of issues to bear on urban dwellers. … There are quite a few obvious and unambiguous links between low vaccination rates, anti-vaccination activism and rural communities. There are city dwellers who don’t like mandates, but in some rural communities in southern Manitoba, not getting vaccinated is not just a decision, it’s a cause. Now that they’ve brought the fight to Canada’s biggest cities and most important border crossings, the results have been nothing short of absurd.”

Of course, these protestors are a vocal minority of the rural community; they do not represent everyone outside the cities. However, this article motivates me to understand the situation with a larger perspective, especially with my new awareness of the history of rural communities’ grievances against provincial and federal governments. As someone who did not grow up in Canada, I would be willing to learn more about why and how certain grievances have grown among the citizens of rural communities. 

On the other hand, I have been also reading about the deep concerns of parents with immunocompromised children, worried about sending them to school without masks. How frightening it is, especially as Covid is still very real “whether there is Covid fatigue or not.” A mother of two immunocompromised children says, “It still frightens me today like it did the first day of the pandemic because of kids’ illnesses.” The same concern is also shared among people with disabilities whose lives could be seriously affected by the early lifting of the mask mandates. The people in vulnerable communities feel even more alone and disconnected from society, as society decides to move on without considering those who are at most risk of severe illness or death by Covid. 

Many feel that governments make “political decisions” rather than ones based on science. For example, Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta said, on Feb 8th, “The threat of Covid-19 to public health no longer outweighs the hugely damaging impact of health restrictions on our society, on people’s mental health, on their emotional well-being, on our broader social health… So now is the time to begin learning to live with COVID.”

In this politically and socially divided world, it is reasonable that anxiety increases among us. The Omicron wave tosses us up and down - the waves of anxiety and divisiveness caused by different opinions, beliefs, needs, become even larger and wider. In such waves of anxiety, I hope that, as disciples of Jesus, we choose another option than the famous three F system: fight, flight and freeze, when we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. And the option I suggest is faith. Faith as the fourth F that counters the 3 Fs. 

Two Sundays ago, I shared with you a reflection about God’s Logic (God’s Logic Game) and how we solve it. We need to know the clues and explore deductions. We are the Kingdom of God’s mystery problem-solvers, God’s logic game players, and God’s sophia singers. In the Gospel, Jesus shares clues/questions for us to use and deduce/explore faithful actions and the way of God (as in the parables that begin with ”What the Kingdom of God would be like…”). Jesus wants us to wrestle with the questions he asks and deduce God’s logic, logos and sophia, in our heart and minds and actions, share what we have learned and witness it to the world, and in our lives. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is very intentional in asking questions. You might think you don’t really see questions in the text… Let’s break down each verse and convert them with a question mark. Jesus asks us to ponder, study, explore: 

“If someone strikes you on the cheek, what will you do?” 

“If someone takes away your coat, how would you respond?”

“If someone takes away your goods, what could be your response?” 

“If someone curses you, … If someone abuses you, … If someone hates you, … 

Also, here are more obvious forms of questions he asks his disciples to ponder: 

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” 

“If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?”

“If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you?”

These questions are there for us to explore the clues about what the Kingdom of God would be like as our choice, as our action, as our faith. What would we deduce as God’s suggestion/wisdom for us to learn and apply to our lives? 

In the same Gospel reading, the good teacher Jesus spoon-feeds his disciples with answers too. The credited answers Jesus’ disciples are encouraged to study are: 

Love your enemies. 

Do to others as you would have them do to you. 

Be merciful, just as the Creator is merciful. 

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. 

Recently one grandmother came to her minister’s office and shared that the demands of the “Freedom Convoy” protestors are unacceptable. Freedom should always be linked with responsibility, not selfishness. Her grandson with a disability needed to regularly see his doctor. Isaac, 10 years old, fearlessly enjoys hockey and other sports, combatting the challenges caused by both disability and the prejudice of others. However, his appointments are often delayed – postponed, as the hospitals need to reserve the doctors and staff for accommodating the rocketing number of Covid patients. 

God’s logic, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also” doesn’t mean that we should allow the demands of protestors and lifting of mandates to take away essential and necessary safety efforts, such as wearing masks in public places, work places, schools, from those whose lives would be at direct risk when those protocols are no longer enforced or required. 

Jesus’s command, “Love your enemy”, is never meant to “be kind to evil” or “allowing a bully to hurt you.” As  God’s logos/sophia, “Love your enemy”, should be considered to be mutual and reciprocal. If the Others are “my enemy”, it stands to reason that we are “their” Others. Therefore, everyone must “love their enemy”; Everyone, equally, mutually, and reciprocally, regardless of which political, personal, or spiritual positions each one takes, ought to “do to others, as we would have them do to us,”: offer respect, protection, care, safety, and understanding. As much as “Love your enemy” sounds impossibly difficult, it remains as a question, more than an answer, for us to ponder and pray for. This commandment of God’s is never for one party to take everything on themselves, a one-sided sacrifice, on behalf of the interest of others. 

I believe that “Love your enemy” makes more sense when we understand that this impossible God-command is also given to the Others, which means, it is given to all parties, all of us. In other words, it also means that no one is essentially in or out of God’s radical love. God’s power of love dissolves boundaries, walls, apathy and hatred, and build a flowing river in the middle of the desert of divisions. (Which will be the theme of Lent in March at Immanuel.) This is the realm of faith, and the power of faith gives us the strength to fight the other 3 Fs: fight, flight, freeze, and be on top of covid-causing anxiety. Therefore, let’s hope, Immanuel, together. Let’s love mercy, act kindly, and walk humbly with God in faith, standing firmly on God’s love, the fortitude of God’s Kingdom of God logic: Love our God with all of ourselves. Love our neighbour as ourselves. And “Love our enemies”, the nearly impossible but necessary bridge to build “abundant life for all”, “justice and peace in harmony”. 

Hymn:  VU 593    Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us With Your Love

Sermon: God’s Wordle (Luke 4:21-30), Feb 6th, 2022

Reflection:  God’s Wordle

Scripture: Luke 4:21-30

Have you seen the online game, ‘Wordle?’ It has recently become very popular. You may have noticed friends talking about the ‘word of the day’, or posting cryptic grids of coloured boxes on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Have you, perhaps, joined this trend? 

Wordle challenges players to deduce a five-letter word in six guesses. A new puzzle is published every day and players can post how quickly they solved the colourful grid on social media - - but in a way that does not spoil the answer for those still playing. Wordle was put online in October, gained popularity over the next two months, and is now played by millions of people every day. Players begin by guessing any five-letter word. If any of the letters are in that day’s word but in the wrong place, they turn gold. If they are in the word in the right place, they turn green. If they are not in the word, they turn grey. 

I remained uninterested in the game even as my Facebook friends began to post their results every day, writing, “Humble-brag, whew!” or, “It’s ridiculously satisfying, First time trying the #Wordle craze, fun! First time to get it in two tries!!” until, last week, my 15-year-old son, Peace, joined the club and urged me to try it. 

Initially, engineer Josh Wardle devised the game during lockdown for just two people - himself and his partner. The inventor said, “It has been incredible to watch the game bring so much joy to so many and I feel so grateful for the personal stories some of you have shared with me - - from Wordle uniting distant family members, to provoking friendly rivalries, to supporting medical recoveries.” Wardle’s game definitely worked for me and Peace - - building a bond of rivalry between a mother and her son! 

The reason why I share this Wordle story in today’s reflection is because I am inviting us to look at today’s Gospel story as a game. Wordle is not about testing how big your English vocabulary is. It is more about how quickly and efficiently you can make logical “deductions” from the set of vowels and consonants. Each group has a restricted number of letters without repetition. For example, if, after two turns, you see that M, S, and T are in the wrong places but I is in the right place, and E is not in the word, how many deductions must you make to get to the right answer? The word can’t be TIMES, but MISTY should work! 

Let’s talk more about “deductions.” Recently, I was introduced to a Logic Game that is part of the test for the Law School Admissions Test (called the LSAT). Like solving Wordle questions, in order to “attack” Logical Games which look like this one (showing the image on the screen) deductions are very useful. “A restaurant must choose its main dinner entree for each night of one week, beginning on Sunday and ending on Saturday. The possible entrees are beef, lamb, manicotti, pork, spaghetti, trout, and veal, each of which will be used on a different night. The following conditions must be met when determining the menu:” (The image on the screen shows the four conditions.) Then, the first question is “Which one of the following is a possible menu in order from Sunday to Saturday?”  It’s a difficult problem, but there are many harder Logical Game questions in the world. 

Now, what I would like to highlight for today’s reflection is one of the LSAT textbook writers’ instructions I found on-line. I find it interesting because it is so relevant to the ways we can read Gospel stories and reflect on Jesus’ words and actions. It’s a way to explore and develop skills to be good at God’s Logic Games, God’s Wordle. 

For example, students can encounter a difficult, complicated Logic Game question in which the question writer put in many logical wrinkles. The problem-solvers can be stunned and shocked by the seeming complexity, and just stare at the game, not knowing where to start. The instructor says: “Don’t panic! Some of the new LSAT questions may look different from the games you have practiced on. Once you understand how games work and can recognize the structures the test writers use to build them, you can see how consistent they really are. Just stay calm and take a step back to evaluate the information. The details will change, but the basic ingredients won’t! Focus on the big picture. Focus on the similarities to other games you’ve already done. Don’t simply stare at a game that seems confusing. Focus on the underlying similarities to games you’ve already seen and get to work applying the process. 

Let me repeat the last sentence: “Focus on the big picture. Don’t simply stare at a game that seems confusing. Focus on the underlying similarities to games you’ve already seen and get to work applying the process.” Just like in our own lives, analogous to challenging Wordle or LSAT Logical Game questions, in Gospel stories, Jesus’ words and actions can seem very confusing and complicated. That’s why, actually it’s not surprising that the townspeople in today’s Gospel story were so upset about what Jesus said to them. 

If we only focus on how a new challenge looks, its differences from what we have known, we could lose confidence, we could be “filled with rage” (like the townspeople in the Gospel story), or look for guidance from outside rather than the wisdom within. We might even try to avoid that challenge altogether. A better strategy is, rather than being frightened by the difference, we try focusing on the deeper similarities and elements/conditions that are consistent to what we have known and which we have worked through. We know which “deductions” worked, or didn’t work. If we were not able to figure them out in the past, now is the time to explore the possibilities, especially to find which conditions, or elements, have hindered us from experiencing wholeness, success or joy. 

Today’s Gospel tells the story about Jesus, acting like a Logic Game instructor. As soon as he preaches in the synagogue in his hometown, citing Isaiah, speaking of bringing good news to the poor, releasing the captives, and letting the oppressed go free, the majority of the congregation praises his clarity and gracious words. However, there are also those who murmur amongst themselves and ask each other, suspiciously, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”.

On hearing this, Jesus outlines what the Good News can mean to the poor. Jesus says to them, “You might think that you are the insiders of God’s grace, the direct recipients of God’s Word, and that you are not a Syrian or a widow who you believe are out of reach of God’s favour.”

Then, Jesus, like a Logic Game instructor, provokes people to remember, which means to “make deductions” to understand God’s logic, God’s law, the Logos, the Sophia, the principle of how God has intended to create the world, to create us, as a community of the faithful. Jesus reminds the congregation of what their ancestors explored, solved, and recorded in the scripture. In the time of Elijah, there was a three-and-a-half-year long famine that made the entire country starve. God sent Elijah, the prophet, only to a widow in Sidon, while none of those who believed they were the true insiders of God’s favour received God’s grace. Jesus adds that also, in the time of Elisha, God sent Elisha, only to a foreigner, Naaman, the Syrian, when there were many inside the Jewish cohort who needed the same cure. Jesus presented these two clues to show how God’s Logic Game works. God’s love and Word knows no restriction and is not constrained by the logic of exclusivity that is focused on defining who is in and who is out. 

In God’s Logic Game, the deductions we must remember to factor into our lives are the stories that tell us God’s love gives preference to the poor. This preference of God’s good news is profoundly countercultural, creating life-giving and life-sharing challenges to the logic of power and privilege in the world. 

If church is like school, a learning community of disciples of Jesus, we certainly have learned, explored and practiced God’s favourite logic:

 

“The last will be the first, and the first will be last”

“The Kingdom of Heaven is among you.” 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 

These are great conditional logics: 

(i.e. 1) If last, then, First (L -> F) and if first, then last (F -> L); 

2) If the Kingdom, then, Kingdom is always among you. (K -> KY); etc, etc), 

daring us to study, practice, and share God’s logos, sophia, widely. 

The last tip from the online LSAT instructor is this: Don’t just stare at the game, even if it looks difficult. Keep your pencil moving.

Focus on the underlying similarities to games you’ve already seen and get to work applying the process. The clues and deductions to explore God’s logic games, God’s Wordle, in our own lives, in church outreach, in politics, in society, have already been presented to us. We may add more along the way, and need to be flexible and still be very creative, but God’s logos, sophia is our guide. Focus on the similarities (Gospel/life), and keep our faith/pencil moving.

 Hymn:  VU 87    I Am the Light of the World