The One Day of the Year that the Sun Shines

Luke and I are home safely, and we have stories to tell. But I will first tell the home story.

I have been anticipating seeing my lilies bloom for nearly a year. They were the first thing I planted in my yard last Fall, and I knew they were going to bloom while I was away in California. So I asked Derek to take a picture, which he of course forgot to do, but it didn't matter because some of the neighborhood kids pulled all my blooms and buds off! I cried so hard and long that I got hiccups. I am devastated. My Mom tried to tell me to be forgiving. Derek told me to watch this U2 movie The Sweetest Thing to understand how he feels about it. I thought that was sweet, but I still miss my lilies. I was so upset that I went next door with the lilies (roots and all) in my hands to ask the German speaking neighbors what they knew (they have three often unsupervised children playing in the street - chances were good it was them). It was hard to converse with their mother, but I was pleased to see how sternly she spoke to her children, and even more pleased that later on the little boy came over to apologize and stared hard at his toes. I reminded him (in English and his mom tried to translate) that if you let the flowers bloom, they will bloom more so we shouldn't tear them up. I was glad my Mom's advice allowed me to be kind when minutes before I wanted to rip the eyeballs out of the person who hurt my flowers so they could never again appreciate a lovely lily. I'm not really mean and unforgiving. In fact, I feel especially tender towards children. But this emotion is so powerful. I feel like the child in the story that lives on the moon and is shut in the closet on the one day of the year that the sun shines.

Wasp Killer Extra-ordinaire

Luke sat and ate his pancake while I buzzed away at Mom and Dad's bushes this morning. He could see me through the kitchen window because I was working on the bushes by the garage and he laughed and laughed and laughed at me with my bandana, orange ear plugs, pitchfork and wasp spray. I would buzz about a foot and have to stop when the wasps exploded out of the branches. I'd hunt down the nest with the pitchfork and then douse the little suckers with poison that attacks the central nervous system so that they'd start falling like moths who hit the lightbulb. The nasty buggers organized eight barrage attacks and sent several kamikaze flights straight into my line of fire. I thought I had taken care of all the wasps a few days ago, and that I could go out to peacefully prune the bushes. But as it turns out, they all stayed well under cover until the last moment, and then they climbed out on the ends of branches and leered at me with those satanic, striped little faces. I was besieged, and after unleashing my fury on eight nests with no end in sight I was starting to lose hope in the cause. Hope was restored when Mom came out in her housecoat, nightgown, and sunglasses to provide backup. She re-named me Laura Thiessen, Wasp Killer Extraordinaire and I do believe I can hold that title proudly. The only good wasp is a dead wasp.

Re-introduction

Today I was re-introduced to a journal after a year-long hiatus, and I must say I feel inspired. Those empty pages smell so good, and are incredibly appealing to someone who enjoys a cup of coffee at her elbow and an inky stick in her hand. Mm. I spent a good half hour sitting in the ! 80 degree weather scribbling randomness and feeling rejuvenated. Luke was also re-introduced to something today: Hawaiian t-shirts, his grandma's favorite.

I hit the salvation army this morning and got seventeen articles of clothing for $16. What a bargain! Probably part of my rejuvation is from being able to run errands hands-free today. I got so much done! I had a photo shoot this morning in Bakersfield and then went to the bank, Trader Joe's, Snead's, Bath and Body Works, Salvation Army, Barnes and Noble and Generals for a late lunch. Unheard of efficiency!

Luke Wears the Pants

Yesterday Mom and I sewed Luke a pair of pants made from Nascar material that grandpa picked out. This morning he got to try them on for the first time.

Today is a visiting day. We are going to see Kathleen, Vernon and Laura, and maybe even Luke's great-grandparents if we can squeeze it all in. I also spent a good deal of time killing wasps this morning so that I can finish trimming Dad's myrtle bushes which are towering up over the garage windows. Yesterday I trimmed the african boxwoods around the grotto and my arms were shaking for hours afterwards! I thought it would be safer if I took a little break - not just because it gave me some time to get rid of several wasp nests.

I'm hoping to finish some finish line flag pattern shorts for Luke this evening, so look for pictures tomorrow.

Imagination

Listen for: "Hi grandma grandpa"
Grandpa noticed Luke's passion for telephones and dragged out an old broken one for him to play with. Luke spends a lot of time greeting imaginary telephone correspondents. Another new imaginative game involved the butter churn. The butter churn is usually an end table beside Grandma's chair but is now a perfect place for Luke to stir with his wooden spoon. Grandma started dipping her finger into the crock to taste the imaginary butter and Luke decided he likes imaginary butter very much. He stirs the spoon around, dips his fingers in, tastes them, and then stirs some more!

Luke's newest skill: climbing up into chairs. He spends a lot of time high centered, kicking his legs in the air with his face pressed into the seat of the chair before he finally gets a knee up on the seat and can pull up to squatting.

Realizing Our Identities as Children of God

This weekend we visited family in Fresno. Luke's auntie Sarah let him stand on the table and eat champagne grapes. So he ate, and ate, and ate. Today we are going to visit Plain 'Ol Great Grammy and eat yummy food, and I am getting a massage! It's going to be another full, lovely day.

Luke is waving bye-bye to everyone we see, and sometimes even waving hello. But still his quickest response is to the telephone. The minute he sees it he scrunches up his face and says enthusiastically, "Hi! Hi! Hi!"

Of course my family thinks that he's a genius. They watch him playing with his toys with more relish than a NY hotdog. It is deeply satisfying to watch my son being loved.

Derek delivered this sermon in Grace Church yesterday. I got to read it before he presented it. I was very impressed and wanted to share it with you. He put a lot of work into it and it really shows. It makes this blog entry pretty lengthy, so go get yourself a cup of coffee and come back to enjoy.


Realizing our Identities as Children of God

Our text this morning is Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect,” says Jesus, “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus’ words are striking. And they are also easily misunderstood. If we are careful readers we will note that these words follow closely on the heels of Jesus’ command, found in v. 44b, that we love our enemies. “Be perfect,” in this context, has little to do with making no mistakes, but rather, concerns imitating our heavenly Father who “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (5:45bc). The perfection that Jesus commands is not abstract. As we will see, divine perfection is realized in concrete acts of love, even, or perhaps especially, acts of love directed towards enemies.

When we step back and focus our attention on the wider context, we note that v. 48 is climactic.
In six paragraphs, addressing everything from anger to oaths, Jesus contrasts the righteousness of the kingdom with that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20); the formula with which these blocks of teaching are introduced is familiar: “you have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you.” Illustrated is a righteousness which majors on motive and intention, a righteousness which in some cases moves behind or beyond the letter of the law, in others, sets the law to one side, and in still others, perhaps, challenges the law. The righteousness of which Jesus speaks is a righteousness firmly anchored in the character of our God.

The climactic role of v. 48 is brought into sharp relief by the rhetorical questions that immediately precede it (vv. 46–47), questions that clearly allude to the need for a righteousness that “exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.” Jesus drives home his point with characteristic clarity and force: “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” Once we have seen the connection between v. 20 and the concluding verses of chapter five, the climactic, summarizing, role of v. 48 comes clearly into focus. “Be perfect . . . as your heavenly Father is perfect,” reveals the “‘greater righteousness’ of v. 20 . . . in all its otherness” (France 2007, 224). Such perfection, then, is what Jesus has been getting at all along. With these questions, Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter.

While the connections between v. 48 and the wider context are of great significance, our first concern must be its role and meaning within its immediate context, vv. 43–48, the final paragraph of chapter five. As I have already suggested, “Be perfect” has a clear and concrete meaning for Matthew’s Jesus: to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect is to love with the same undiscriminating love. Let us hear the text:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (5:43–48)
The source, or sources, of v. 43 provides an acute problem for the interpreter. While “You shall love your neighbor” has been lifted directly from Leviticus 19:18, nowhere in the Pentateuch, nor anywhere else in the Old Testament for that matter, is hatred of enemies explicitly commanded. To be sure, the underlying attitude is reflected at various points, in Psalm 137:7–9, for instance, or Psalm 139:21–22, but nowhere do we find the clear formulation, “you shall hate your enemy.” The judgment of William Klassen provides a way forward and is worth quoting at some length. Klassen, a noted scholar who has done extensive work on the theme of enemy love, writes:

Much effort has been spent trying to understand why Matthew added, “and hate your enemy.” The answer seems to be quite simple. The formula “Be good to (or love) your friends and hate your enemies” was very widespread in the ancient world and occurs in many layers of documentation. Rather than look in vain throughout Jewish sources, including Qumran, for these exact words, we should simply treat them as part of general folk wisdom which Jesus’ listeners had heard and which were well known to Matthew’s audience as well. (1992, 11–12)

Despite its appeal, Klassen’s conclusion, namely that these words should be treated “as part of general folk wisdom which Jesus’ listeners had heard,” fails to completely satisfy. This is because the pattern of the previous five paragraphs leads us to expect a text drawn from the Pentateuch, most likely from either Exodus, Leviticus, or Deuteronomy. And as we have seen, “you shall love your neighbor” is directly derived from Leviticus.

It is possible to alleviate this difficulty by pushing Klassen’s insight a step further: if it is the case that the formula “Be good to . . . your friends and hate your enemies,” was ubiquitous in antiquity, then it seems quite possible, perhaps even likely, that Leviticus 19:18 was understood by many in a restrictive way. Read in context, particularly in the light of the previous verse, the neighbor of Leviticus 19:18 is clearly seen to be the fellow Israelite. Although this need not imply that love ought to be limited to the neighbor, it is easy to see, particularly in light of Klassen’s observation, how such an interpretation might arise. Jesus’ “and hate your enemy,” then, serves to make explicit a possible inference of the levitical passage. This point of view, however, is raised by Jesus only to be rejected.

Against any such attempt at circumscribing the requirement of love, stands Jesus’ “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (v. 44). Jesus’ words push far beyond the bounds of Leviticus 19:18 to include even enemies in love’s purview. In doing so, Jesus sets himself and his teaching against the widespread human tendency to restrict love to one’s own group, to one’s own family, ethnic group, nation, etcetera. Such a tendency is evident not only in the ancient literary sources cited by William Klassen, but also, I would add, is evident in our contemporary experience.

I have deliberately avoided turning this into a sermon about pacifism. And at heart, it is not. Yet, since there is no way to neatly separate these things, how we are to live out the life of discipleship from ethical questions related to self-defense and war, I cannot help but at least raise these issues. What I am asking is that, in light of this text, we carefully, critically consider what are basic, common sense assumptions for most, if not all, people: if someone attacks me I have a right, if not a duty to defend myself with whatever means are necessary. And the same is true with respect to a member of my family, or a friend. Can such assumptions be sustained in light of this text? I am not sure that I have the answer; it is important, however, that they be asked and that we not too quickly acquiesce to “common sense.”

We must not be lulled into an ethics content with the lowest common denominator. As any careful reading of the Sermon on the Mount reveals, and as I have been arguing and will continue to argue, Jesus’ ethics do not proceed from our notions of what is realistic or practical. In the words of one recent commentator, “. . . to love those who do not love you is not offered as a piece of pragmatic wisdom, but as a reflection of the character of God himself (v. 45)” (France 2007, 224). This same thing could be said of all Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount: far from being the distillation of pragmatic, common sense wisdom, Jesus’ teaching is typically counterintuitive. Yet while it is true that the ethic assumed by Jesus does not proceed from notions of the realistic, possible, or achievable, it is certainly not the case that it is impossible, unachievable, and unrealistic. Jesus is speaking to people living in the real world about the way they ought to live and behave in that world. The New Testament in general, and Matthew in particular, everywhere assumes that we can, and indeed must, behave in certain ways. This does not, or need not, lead to a theology of salvation by works. Rather, throughout the New Testament, salvation everywhere assumes the transformation of behaviour even as it proclaims that salvation is a God-given gift. Rather than beginning with notions about what is realistic, such an ethics looks first and frequently to God’s character and example for guidance in ethical decision making. In practice, I would suggest, this means looking to Jesus’ own behaviour for our cue.

Such an ethical approach is not calculated to avoid suffering and persecution; this is no health and wealth gospel. Instead, the assumption of Matthew seems to be that the righteousness of Jesus, and that of his followers who are to be like him, is destined to encounter opposition. The beatitudes suggest that eschatological blessing is reserved for those persecuted for righteousness’ sake (5:10–11). Elsewhere, in Matthew 10:34–39 for instance, Jesus highlights the cost of discipleship and the need for decision, painting the life of discipleship in cruciform shapes and colours:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

On the basis of these and other texts, and above all, in light of Jesus’ passion, it would seem that the righteousness of the kingdom is as likely to lead to suffering and a cross as it is to guarantee the good life.

But back to our passage. The parallelism of v. 44 suggests that “enemies,” in this instance, ought to be understood as those who persecute the Christian community. Thus, the second half of v. 44 interprets and clarifies the first half. Matthew’s reader is reminded of the beatitudes with their characterization of Jesus’ disciples as the “poor in spirit,” as “those who mourn,” as “the meek,” and as those “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” (vv. 3, 4, 5, and 9). “Blessed are you,” says Jesus, speaking to his disciples, “when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (5:11).

It must be said that while “enemies” has been given a very specific, concrete definition by Matthew’s Jesus, the underlying theological reasoning, manifest in v. 45, admits of no exceptions and points to a universal obligation to love. As Paul says in Romans 13:8, in a context that significantly parallels that of our passage, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

Both the goal and grounds of such love are spelled out in v. 45: we are to love our enemies in order that we may be children of our Father in heaven, “for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Jesus’ point is quite clear: there is to be a family resemblance between God’s actions and those of God’s people.

It is interesting that teleios, translated “perfect” in v. 48, can, on occasion, be translated “mature,” or “adult.” Thus, the author of Hebrews can suggest that “solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil” (5:14). In 1 Corinthians 14:20, the word is used in a way that suggests the translation “adults.” Paul writes, “Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.” Such a translation would be in keeping with the parent/child metaphor with which Jesus expresses his teaching in our text. Yet whether we prefer “perfect” or “mature,” or something else, Jesus’ demand remains the same: in the same way that God loves both righteous and unrighteous, we too are to love. Jesus’ words leave no room for equivocation, no “wiggle room.”

Notice that the goal of such behaviour is not that we become God’s children, something that we are not. We are God’s children. What is in question is if we will live out that identity in our day to day lives. The thought here is similar to that of 1 Corinthians 6:9–11. In this passage Paul writes to his Corinthian converts:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Paul, in effect, is admonishing the Corinthians to be who they really are. In much the same way, Jesus’ teaching, as recorded by Matthew, demands of his disciples actions consistent with their identity as children of God. Identity precedes behaviour. What God has done for us, precedes what is demanded of us. As God’s children, we are to imitate our Father’s all-inclusive love, extending it even to our enemies.

A question that naturally arises, concerns the nature of the love required of us. As I suggested earlier, the parallelism of v. 44 helps to clarify the nature of the enemies we are to love. This same parallelism serves to illuminate the nature of the love required: even as we set “those who persecute you” alongside “enemies,” so also we must set “prayer on behalf of persecutors” alongside “love.” What I am suggesting is that prayer on behalf of enemies functions as a concrete example of what Jesus means by “love your enemies.” With this in mind, and with one eye on the rhetorical questions of vv. 46–47, we see that the love commanded by Jesus is not some sort of pious sentimentalism, it is not a feeling. Instead, what is called for is action.

The prayer envisioned by Jesus must be understood as a prayer for the bestowal of God’s blessings upon the enemy. That this is so is strongly hinted at by the grounds expressed in v. 45: particularly rain, in a dry climate such as that of Palestine, must be understood as a blessing and, in terms of its critical role in food production, represents the provision of food.

As was observed earlier, the rhetorical questions of vv. 46–47 serve to forcefully drive home Jesus’ point and refer Matthew’s reader back to the demand, found in v. 20, that the righteousness of Jesus’ disciples exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. What is called for is a righteousness that goes above and beyond. Jesus’ questions suggest that the righteousness of the kingdom is to express itself in a love that is extended not merely to those who love us, but also to those that do not: “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” As throughout Matthew, “brothers and sisters” are fellow Christians. Jesus thus highlights a love extended beyond the immediate circle of the Christian community, a love extended to outsiders.

And so we come full circle: the call to be perfect concerns the love of enemies, even as it calls us to a righteousness greatly in excess of the common sense expectations of the surrounding world. As we strive towards this end, we realize our identities as sons and daughters of God: “When this kind of love is operative in our lives, our righteousness will greatly exceed earlier models, and the law and the prophets will truly be fulfilled (cf. 5:17–20)” (Gardner 1991, 111).

Such love gives content to Jesus’ description of the disciple community as salt, and as light (5:13–16). Although somewhat obscured in translation–English, unlike Greek, does not inflect its pronouns so as to differentiate between second person singular “you” and second person plural “you,” it is significant that all the pronouns of Matthew 5:13–16 are plural. Thus, the appropriateness of Jesus’ reference to a city built on a hill in which, we might imagine, many lights shine together as one. Setting Jesus’ command to love our enemies against his vision of the Christian community as salt and light, as a city built on a hill, allows us to see that what is at stake is the character of God’s people and its vocation in this world.

We are not, by and large, persecuted here in Canada or in the Western world generally. And yet even now there are places in the world, by all accounts many places, where Christians are experiencing persecution. If we take this text seriously, we will pray not only for these brothers and sisters, but also for their persecutors. Not only ought we to pray for those who are persecuting our Christian brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world, but we ought also to be praying that God might enable them to love and forgive those who persecute them. For their suffering is our suffering, their pain is our pain, and their enemies, our enemies too. This is perhaps the most basic and concrete way of applying our text.

While persecution is not a reality here in this country, Christianity and Christian perspectives, as is the case with most religious perspectives, have increasingly been marginalized. The time may well come when our communities too will be called to suffer for their faith. Whatever happens, Jesus’ word ought to guide us: our attitude is to be that of our God, whose blessings are available to all, without exception and whose love is wide enough to encompass both good and bad.

The perfection called for by Matthew 5:48 calls us far beyond the “realistic” moralities of our day to the realization of our identities as sons and daughters of God, a high calling indeed. In compassionate, loving behaviour towards those unlike ourselves, even to out and out enemies, we bear witness to the character of our heavenly Father who has graciously called us, even us, to be daughters and sons: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (John 3:1, NIV).

If I have stressed the need for action, for “doing,” it is largely because this is the emphasis of the text itself. At the same time, I might add, it is my feeling that much contemporary thinking about salvation reflects what Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to as “cheap grace.” The need for transformation must not be bracketed out of our theology of salvation. Nevertheless, authentic transformation must be rooted in God’s work in and among us. Let us close, then, with Paul’s words, with the benediction found in Ephesians 3:20–21:

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.


Works Cited

France, R. T. 2007. The Gospel of Matthew. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Gardner, Richard B. 1991. Matthew. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale: Herald.

Klassen, William. 1992. “Love Your Enemies”: Some Reflections on the Current Status of Research. Pages 1–31 in The Love of Enemy and Nonretaliation in the New Testament. Edited by Willard M. Swartley. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox.

Dear Dadd-n

I sure miss you. Mom said you got stuck in Denver and you're probably tired and you shoulda just stayed an extra day if only we'd known, but we didn't and if we had we wouldn't have made you late to the airport anyways, but I wish you were here. Tonight Grandma gave me a bath and I gave 'er a real hard time because she wasn't you and Mom said I was a handful but I know I'm bigger 'n that already, so I don't know what she meant except that grandpa held me in his lap tonight and let me drink iced tea out of his glass but then he got himself another glass because he said I backwash. What's backwash? We watched part of the Pirates who Don't Do Anything and I liked it except for the scary cheese nip thingys. Mom closed her eyes then, but she was laughing and I laughed too, but I don't know what was so funny and what's a cheese nip? We had pasghetti for dinner and grandma made it with lots of garlic and onion and when mommy kissed me good-night I could still smell the pasghetti, but grandma smelled like chocolate chip cookies because she made 'em and we ate 'em and boy were they good - so good that I climbed into grandma's lap to eat hers but she didn't wanna share but later when I climbed into grandpa's lap I fell outta his lap and Mom said I landed on my head poor baby, but I meant to do it and grandma said, he's okay he rolled out of it and Nellie was prob'ly laughing at me 'cause she doesn't like me and she wanted me to get hurt and go back to where I came from but I like her just fine because she makes me laugh so hard when I throw her ball at her and she growls and runs after it. Ally's pretty good too but she doesn't chase the ball she just does some tricks when Mommy uses sign so I threw her half of my bagel at breakfast and grandma laughed and gave me cheerios instead which was good cause I like cheerios too, and Ally shouldn't get too conscious about her weight like when Mom says she's a fat girl I feel sorry for her because she's smaller than me and she just wants to sleep all day. I went outside today too but it was hot and my feet got hot on the concrete and grandma held me but I wanted to go in the grass only it was itchy so we went inside instead and grandpa got me up from my nap before I even fell asleep so it was a really good day.
I love you.

Luke