Sometimes I find that the more familiar a part of scripture is to me, the more puzzling it becomes. This is true of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain in Luke, which we continue hearing from this week in chapter 6, verses 27-38.
“Do to others as you would have them do to you,” we come to know as the Golden Rule… But “lend, expecting nothing in return” and “if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again”? What would our lives look like if this was the rule we lived by? What would be left?
Once again, Jesus is making a point by turning the world’s logic on its head. Jesus is lambasting those whose sense of security comes from stockpiling resources, or those who confuse justice with revenge. God’s love, forgiveness, and justice overwhelm any human system we have for keeping track of debts and wrongs. With God, there is always more grace to go around.
Perhaps that’s the point for us too, as our adding-and-subtracting brains try to make sense of Jesus’ words. Scripture is not a checklist or a metric, but an invitation into knowing our challenging, illogical, and deeply generous God.
In peace,
Liesl
Three Holy Days
In our tradition, we make space on Maundy Thursday to remember central parts of our faith story. We hear about the...
