7th Sunday after Epiphany
February 23, 2025
St. Michael’s-on-the-Heights, Worcester, MA
A recording of this worship service is available on the congregation’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/oeSVsoxSPWY?si=O0YplK0foQTkWRJO
[Jesus said:] 27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” – Luke 6:27-38
Oh, dear people of God, sometimes the words of Jesus are difficult. Turn the other cheek, pray for your enemies, extend mercy, share even the shirt off your back, and don’t judge anyone.
These are likely familiar admonitions, even for those who might not have a long history of Bible reading. And certainly we manage to do them some of the time. But to really live a life this way – to really follow the way of Jesus, the way of love, the way of mercy. That is a radical way of life that I struggle to even come close to. In part, so much of it seems to mean sacrifice and giving up. But maybe today we can look together at these difficult commands of Jesus and see what life they might offer not just others but to us who seek to live in this way.
In part I think Jesus is urging us into a way of living that author and speaker Brene Brown calls strong back, soft front. To have a strong back means having a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for. It means you’re confident in who you are and you’re going to stick to it when someone challenges what’s really important to you. At the same time to have soft front means that we make ourselves vulnerable and open to others.
But as she herself points out, some of us – maybe most of us? – want to have a strong everything. Strong front, strong back, strong top and bottom and everything in between. The culture we swim in teaches us to stick to what we think is right, to struggle to get ahead and hold on to power, wealth, and success, to put forth an image of being together, confident, and independent. Strong at everything, show no weakness. If asked in a job interview what your greatest weakness is, we’ve learned to play off some theoretical weakness as something that is actually a strength. And sometimes we put all this on God as if God is asking us to buck up and stay strong, power through. What it does is leave us tired, afraid, and isolated from others.
Today Jesus is inviting us into something different. Jesus invites us to stay present in conflict – not ever to suffer abuse, let me be clear – but in the regular conflict and disagreement that exists in our relationships to stay present to those we love and care about, to be open to learning, growing, and changing. Jesus invites us to offer to those in need what we can give, to know that we are people rooted in community, love, and grace and from that place allow ourselves to share something of ourselves that might even open us up to hurt or pain. Jesus invites us to set aside our judgment and make room for others. Again, a tall order to live up to, yet something that might be life-giving in ways we might not expect. When we take such a stance, we might even feel it in our bodies. A fighting stance is one that is tense, often curled forward. But a strong back soft front allows us to pull our bodies up tall and take in a deep breath, strong but relaxed.
Yesterday, three of you from St. Michael’s joined 50 others from across this part of our diocese to talk about our mission together. We have long thought of ourselves as a set of connected outposts of mission. Individual churches who each do their own thing. We’ve perpetuated a narrative that we’re strong when we can fund our budget on our own, call our own clergy person, maintain our own building, and call the shots on our own ministry. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things in and of themselves, but as someone from this congregation pointed out, none of those things are actually our mission as Jesus people. And they tend to push us into the corner of “we’ve always done it that way.” We’ve tried to be strong in the way the world defines it and that has sometimes worked ok. But if it ever was, it’s not now a time that it’s working well for the church. Maybe Jesus intends not a word of law but a word of grace in teaching us to open ourselves up. What if all of us found a softer front that allowed us to name our challenges and seek strength in working together, trying new things. This is work you are doing now at St. Michael’s. In this challenging time of transition, taking time to tune in to who you are as a parish and naming what you need.
If what Jesus suggests is actually more along the lines of what Brene Brown calls strong back, soft front, then we have an opportunity to find strength in returning again and again to our core values as God’s people. We can find a strong back in knowing who we are as Jesus people, as people called to the way of love. We can find a strong back in renewing again our baptismal covenant:
To continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers; persevere in resisting evil, proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves; and strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.
We can find a strong back in knowing and calling each other’s attention to the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, comforting, challenging, calling, enlivening. These, not our own achievements or even our own ministry and church accomplishments are where we find real strength – God’s strength shared in and through our lives.
At the same time as we find strength in those things, we might also find a soft front. To live as Jesus suggests in today’s reading, to live as Jesus himself lived, is to be vulnerable. This is the only way to stay connected. When we spoke yesterday of what is making our hearts sing in ministry, I was not surprised to hear Marie’s Mission lifted up. This is a ministry born out of a moment of deep pain, grief, and vulnerability. It has encouraged you to open your doors to people in this community, to see the deep need that exists in a way that I know continues to break your hearts even as you meet those needs with generosity and kindness. You have a found a soft front that has allowed you to be in relationship with the community and, I daresay, allowed you a deeper experience of God at work among you. Do good and expect nothing in return, Jesus admonishes in today’s reading – you have done this incredible work not because Jesus said, or because you thought it was right, but because your hearts were open to God and neighbor and you have stayed rooted in who God has called you to be. Strong back, soft front.
The way of Jesus is difficult, no question. Turn the other cheek, pray for your enemies, share what you have, hold back your judgments. These things are difficult. And if we approach them of things we must force ourselves to do, we will find the yoke of Christian life challenging. But if we see them as an invitation to strong back and soft front we may find ourselves discovering new and abundant life, which is ultimately God’s deep desire for each of us and for all of creation.
The most incredible gift God gives us in this is walking the way ahead of us. These are not just things that Jesus tells us to do. These are things Jesus lives out in his ministry and ultimately in his death. Jesus remains through every moment of his ministry both committed to his values and clear on his purpose but also radically open to relationship in a way that makes him vulnerable. He is deeply in touch with the needs of the people he encounters and the incredible and unique giftedness of the people he encounters. It is his strong back – his commitment to love above all – that leads him to the cross. In an act of true strength that required deep vulnerability – his soft front – God in Christ offers himself to death. And from that comes resurrection and new life.
Dear friends, walking the way of Christ is hard work. It always has been and always will be. But Jesus comes again and again to us in scripture, prayer, wine and bread, to call us back to who we are as beloved children of God and to invite us more deeply into open and vulnerable relationship with one another. We may wish some days – maybe many days – to be strong in all the ways the world tells us we should be. I’d love to have all the answers and the power to make things happen. But the call we have from Jesus is different: reconnect with the way of love and stay open. Who know what then God will do among us next?
-Pastor Steven Wilco
Stewarding the Word 