Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign this is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thank you for sharing some quiet time with the Lord for the next several weeks. Our guest reader is Deacon Eric Bissette, a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Rochester, New York. You may recognize Deacon Eric as a regular reader on the Little Books app.
Let's listen Now.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke Jesus said to his disciples, to you who hear, I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well. And from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners and get back the same amount, but rather love your enemies and do good to them and lend, expecting nothing back. Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you. A good measure packed together, shaken down and overflowing will be poured into your lap, for the measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you.
The Gospel of the Lord the decision to be a Christian is a decision to be out of step with the world in which we live.
I don't say that just about America. I don't say it simply about the 21st century culture.
It always has been and always will be true.
It's not that this world and its values are entirely evil. It's simply the fact that the horizons of this world are not large enough to contain the values that Jesus preached.
This world deals only with the here and now.
Jesus preached a perspective that goes beyond history.
Christian values do not completely make sense within the perspective of this world.
That's why Christianity and every individual Christian is countercultural.
That has to be stated because we usually think of countercultural people as unusual. Christians such as the religious or priests or some prophetic figure.
Actually, every Christian is out of step with culture. Unless we're aware of that, we have the potential to absorb the values of this world.
Before going further, I would like to say a word about love.
There are three Greek words that are all generally translated by the same English word, love.
The first is philia. This means a warm affection that we might have towards someone we like, a filial warmth towards a family member or a good friend.
The second is Eros. This is a feeling of passion usually associated with romantic relationship.
The third is agape.
This word represents an attitude of caring toward another person.
We have agape when we value another person very deeply, treasure them, and want to protect and nurture the value that is there.
Those distinctions are very important.
The third word represents the kind of love Jesus is talking about.
As a matter of fact, the early Christians shared a meal before or after the Eucharist that came simply to be known as the agape meal.
Jesus asks us to hold each person as valuable, made in the image of God, to hold some feelings of affection for everyone.
Even toward someone whom I might have feelings of revulsion, I can have an attitude of caring because I realize that this person is made in the image of God.
Jesus calls upon us to relate to each other in that way.
If we care about another person, then we simply want to bring goodness to them. We want good things to happen to them, and that's why we would respond to evil with goodness.
You will notice that the Golden Rule is expressed in this gospel reading and that it's stated in positive terms.
In other words, we're not simply told to avoid doing things to others that we don't want done to ourselves. Instead, we're told to act towards others the way we want others to act towards us.
In other words, it calls for a positive outreach.
We listen to a gospel like this and we have a tendency to nod our heads in agreement and leave everything very vague. We want to forgive distant enemies.
Jesus is talking about a more personal kind of enemy. The people close to us, the people we work with, our family members and relatives. Those are the enemies towards whom we are to minister goodness.
This world tells us to be fair.
Christ tells us to forgive our enemies.
Today's readings tell us about the law of love. That's one of the core teachings of Jesus and one that this world could never fully accept.
We are to love those who hate us, do good to those who do evil towards us.
If this isn't countercultural, than nothing ever was.
It would be a lot easier if we felt that our response of goodness to evil would have some worldwide effect.
The difficult part is that it appears to only be a drop in the bucket. After all, there is a lot of evil in the world and all of the crime and all of the jealousies and all the problems continue. Every day our little bit of goodness gets lost in a world that knows much evil.
If, on the other hand, our act of goodness were to tip the world balance of moral values in favor of goodness, then we could do it. If, for example, the President of the United States reaches out to a foreign country in an attitude of forgiveness that means a great deal, we can see the wisdom of that.
The hard part is doing it in such a one on one way for one person, usually about a petty thing.
We believe that such acts have value. We believe that God does not let them become lost.
Each is a participation in his overall plan and each has an effect on the long range goal of building the kingdom.
Not one drop of goodness is lost.
Instead it spreads and spreads in this world.
God sees to that.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
This podcast is brought to you free of charge by Little Books to help support our ministry. Please donate by clicking the Donate button now. And of course, why not tell a friend about this podcast?
We will begin our Lenten journey with the Little Black Book beginning March 2, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
Sundays with Bishop Ken is produced by Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw.
For more information about Little Books and great resources for the whole family, visit littlebooks. Org.
