Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity
“Jesus said, Love your enemies”
The Gospel reading for today ends where the reading for The Fourth Sunday after Trinity began, “be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Both Gospel readings are taken from the 6th chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, from what might be styled Christ’s Sermon on the Plain, in obvious allusion to Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. There are certain parallels and commonalities and I like the idea that what is conveyed on high is also present for us here below. Like The Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain also turns the world on its head. Everything, we might say, is being placed on an entirely radical and new foundation.
What is that radical and new foundation? It is grace conveyed principally here in terms of the theme of mercy which challenges, corrects and ultimately perfects all the limited forms of human interaction. To my mind, Christ’s command to “love your enemies” is utterly astounding and gives fuller meaning to the nature of the divine mercy which is meant to rule and govern our lives. Why? Because I cannot help but think that this is a distinctive and unique feature of the Christian Faith which goes to the radical meaning to the idea of God as love. It signals the radical idea of the overcoming of all that opposes the truth and goodness of God and makes that idea the governing reality of our lives.
