OK - technically it is not much of a photograph. It's just something I managed to snap quickly through a shop window in Venice. But what a cool pair of shoes, don't you think?
Shoes disguised as feet!! Now that's what I call originality!
I guess we all know what it means to walk in someone else's shoes - even if it is not something we do very well. As a Christian I am supposed to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, but I don't find that at all easy: not when I start to think seriously about some of the things he said.
In particular I am thinking about his command to his followers to "Love your enemies!" I'll be preaching about this on Sunday- though I don't yet know what I'm going be saying.
I tried to find a hymn that might go along with the text but, to my surprise, couldn't find anything suitable. So I decided to write one myself today. It's a bit rough yet. One or two lines I'm not happy with. But I won't have time to refine it before Sunday.
Although my congregation will give the hymn its 'premiere' you saw it first here!
It is no easy task, O Lord,
to walk the way that you have shown,
to pray for those who wish us hurt,
or love the ones who cause us pain;
yet your commands are very clear
we cannot doubt what you desire.
For your example, Lord, is plain
and your commands are all too clear;
forgiving words at insults thrown,
demanding words for those who fear—
“Love more than friends, love enemies too:
not only those who will love you.”
Give us the strength, O loving Lord,
to take this costly path of peace,
and though it be no easy road,
teach us this day to live by grace;
as children of our God above
we’ll learn to walk the way of love.
© Iain D. Cunningham, 2006 [Tune: St. Petersburg]
7 comments:
Preaching on loving your enemies is a very sensitive area for those who have been deeply hurt by others . For a start I think you need to define what love is what Christian Love is. There are people whom are unloved and to add to their rejection and hurt by commanding we love our enemies when we cant as christians even love each other is to me negative. You are right God does ask us to love our enemies to me this is not wishing them harm and if they are lying in the road hurt I would not pass by without helping them. However I could not have a relationship with them beyond this and I dont think God would expect me to either. This to me is a command that in theory works but not in reality and I hope you recognise that in your sermon. In my experience christians dont even love each other many with the attitude as long as im okay. Or happy to listen to someones problems but dont ask them to do something about it. Ofcourse there are a few who are true christians with true love in action for others but to me this is the very small minority. Lets be brutally honest if your enemy needed your help as in you would have to take them into your home as part of your family would you? Would you even do this for a friend? I dont think so and I dont think any one would. Yet would that not be the loving thing to do? We can say we are not Christ like yet but working toward it but is this not our get out of jail excuse every time? You can take the example in general of the Muslim community and suicide bomers but is it not easy to say in principle yes I can love those who wish to do harm when we are not touched directly. There is a huge difference when you are personally involved in a situation. Can you preach from a personal situation or experience of having to love an enemy? In my experience loving someone who wishes you harm leads to more rejection, pain, loss of self worth and is detremintal to me. Life is harder and a cold, cruel place to be. No one can truly walk in your shoes and neither do they want to when it means hardship and pain.
Dear Anonymous...
You can see why it is not an easy topic to preach on. Of course loving someone is not the same as liking them. And it is certainly not about condoning things they do. To love someone is only to do what is best for them - and sometimes that involves a lot of tough love. But that doesn't make it all that much easier.
It is interesting that Jesus links his comments in with not just loving those who are like ourselves. So I reckon this is where we have to start.
Asking someone who has been the victim of another person's cruelty or brutality to love that other person is not something I would do. Only Christ himself has the right to ask that of anyone, and he has that right to ask it of his followers because he knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of the very worst of human nature.
All the same there are incidences of people who have been able to show that kind of Christ-like (supernatural?) form of forgiveness.
You are right to say that many Christians don't even love each other. I think that's because they often get hung up on secondary matters and forget what Jesus himself taught. As one friend of mine once said "too many of us are ready to go to the wall for truth but not for love." How true!
I agree loving is not the same as liking although we would probably all agree that it is easier to love those we like. Tough love can be a dangerous area. How do you know you are acting out of love for the other person and that is the best thing to do for that person. Let me throw in another thought How many times do you try and show love to your enemies when they reject that love? God wants us to love our enemies but he also tells us we are not to be door mats! What I mean is that we can try and do the loving thing over and over again but this can be rejected over and over again. At some point you have to preserve self from destruction in the face of this. What would Jesus say to this? Jesus can love to destruction after all that is what happened him. There are so many contradictions in the bible proverbs being just one example and even in Jesus teachings. I think he does want us to love others, our enemies but not to our own ultimate destruction. My concern about teaching on loving your enemies is that vulnerable people in abuse type situations hear the message that they should love their enemy and thus interpret this as they should stay in an abusive situation. Dont get me wrong Iain I am not suggesting you think this way or would preach this way. However I do think people can hear different things from a sermon especially if they are vunerable. I leave your wisdom however to write a fair sermon and preach Gods word. I will come on Sunday to hear it anyways.
All I would say is that if someone is abusing or hurting another person it is NOT being loving to THEM to encourage them in any way whatsoever to continue doing this. And I would not advocate anyone staying in such an abusive situation. In this instance loving your enemy might mean getting as far away from them as possible.
Jesus is not against a person offering resistance. (In fact I think he is encouraging a certain kind of resistance.) What he IS against is the idea of the sort of tit-for-tat retaliation that merely fuels the cycle of violence. His form of resistance can sometimes break that cycle.
I haven't even started writing the sermon yet but (since the order of service is already printed) I can say that the title of the sermon is "The Impossible Demand."
After our comments last week on the subject of loving your enemies I did come on Sunday to listen to your sermon. I thought it was a very good sermon and it touched my heart and situation. I still have problems defining love especially when we can love people in different ways and to different degrees. What I had never thought of before was the idea that the most loving thing to do for someone who is oppressing you is to get away from them. I have mulled this over the past couple of days and I agree with this thought. I wish the mike had not stopped working as I would have liked to have got a tape to listen to your sermon again. I liked your hymn you wrote thought was very appropriate and speaks especially to those who are in painfull situations.
Dear anonymous,
Thank you for your comments on Sunday's sermon.
I haven't heard the recording from Sunday but the team might still have managed to record the sermon using the 'background' mikes. It just won't be quite as clear and there may be a lot more background noise. Contact the Church Office and they will get you a tape anyway.
During your sermon Iain I realised ,(I think for the first time), that Loving is not just about feelings and that to love someone, you should do what is best for them - which might include getting as far away from them as possible or telling them a truth which might hurt them. I also realised that love is from God and that we can't truly love without Him. Thank you.
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