A Cup of Sugar
Read Luke 6:27-36.
As I mentioned in my sermon yesterday, it was easy to go over to Jennie's house and ask to "borrow" an egg or a cup of sugar. It seemed she always had what we needed, and we had what she needed. But then we were more like family that we were just friends. I always had called her Nenny (because I mispronounced her name when I was little and just kept doing it) and her husband was Papaw (not sure why). Our house was theirs and theirs ours.
The problem, then, is when I read Jesus. He says what we did there doesn't amount to much. It's just normal behavior; it doesn't require and faith or trust or extra effort to be able to do that. He says, "Even sinners lend to sinners" (6:34). It's just expected. What Jesus asks me to do is to loan an egg or a cup of sugar...or maybe something more...to that person around the corner and down the street that I don't really care for. The one who creeps me out. The one who yells at my dog or my kids. The one who seems to never be happy. I might not call him an "enemy" but Jesus knows my heart—he knows how I really feel, even when I'm unwilling to use the actual words.
And Jesus even says to give such things to other people without expecting repayment. He doesn't say it, but it's almost like, "If it comes back, great. You'll have that to loan to someone else. If it doesn't, then find a way to be at peace with it." I've had to learn that the "hard" way. For instance, Dr. David Seamands, one of my professors at Asbury Seminary, once told us that he had learned not to loan out a book you have to have back. Like him, I've purchased multiple copies of some books just so that I have one to loan out. And there are some books I've loaned that have never found their way back to me.
Those things might not upset you all that much, but then it comes down to the things we tend to hold onto most tightly: money. The greenback. The thing we too often worship in our culture. What happens when someone comes to you, in a desperate situation, and needs some extra cash? Do you loan it or gift it? Jesus asks, "What would you want them to do toward you? How would you want them to treat you?" He puts it in the form of a command, actually: "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (6:31). So what do you do? And what do you do if they don't pay you back?
Jesus makes it simple for us: enemy or friend, neighbor or distant cousin, family or stranger—do to others as you want them to do to you. What might the world look like if we lived by that simple creed? In a world that seems hell-bent on fracturing along ideological lines, we need to hear Jesus' word again: "Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked" (6:35).
Or, put another way: give them a cup of sugar.
As I mentioned in my sermon yesterday, it was easy to go over to Jennie's house and ask to "borrow" an egg or a cup of sugar. It seemed she always had what we needed, and we had what she needed. But then we were more like family that we were just friends. I always had called her Nenny (because I mispronounced her name when I was little and just kept doing it) and her husband was Papaw (not sure why). Our house was theirs and theirs ours.
The problem, then, is when I read Jesus. He says what we did there doesn't amount to much. It's just normal behavior; it doesn't require and faith or trust or extra effort to be able to do that. He says, "Even sinners lend to sinners" (6:34). It's just expected. What Jesus asks me to do is to loan an egg or a cup of sugar...or maybe something more...to that person around the corner and down the street that I don't really care for. The one who creeps me out. The one who yells at my dog or my kids. The one who seems to never be happy. I might not call him an "enemy" but Jesus knows my heart—he knows how I really feel, even when I'm unwilling to use the actual words.
And Jesus even says to give such things to other people without expecting repayment. He doesn't say it, but it's almost like, "If it comes back, great. You'll have that to loan to someone else. If it doesn't, then find a way to be at peace with it." I've had to learn that the "hard" way. For instance, Dr. David Seamands, one of my professors at Asbury Seminary, once told us that he had learned not to loan out a book you have to have back. Like him, I've purchased multiple copies of some books just so that I have one to loan out. And there are some books I've loaned that have never found their way back to me.
Those things might not upset you all that much, but then it comes down to the things we tend to hold onto most tightly: money. The greenback. The thing we too often worship in our culture. What happens when someone comes to you, in a desperate situation, and needs some extra cash? Do you loan it or gift it? Jesus asks, "What would you want them to do toward you? How would you want them to treat you?" He puts it in the form of a command, actually: "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (6:31). So what do you do? And what do you do if they don't pay you back?
Jesus makes it simple for us: enemy or friend, neighbor or distant cousin, family or stranger—do to others as you want them to do to you. What might the world look like if we lived by that simple creed? In a world that seems hell-bent on fracturing along ideological lines, we need to hear Jesus' word again: "Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked" (6:35).
Or, put another way: give them a cup of sugar.
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