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I don’t want to sound arrogant or anything like that, but if I ever invite you over for dinner, please do not say to me, “What can I bring?” But if you do, I will politely say, “Yourself”, which means don’t bring anything. And then if you still show up with something in hand, well, of course I will politely accept it and act surprised and blessed and thankful and all that and say, “Oh, you didn’t have to.” But, to be honest, there is a small part of me in there that gets a little bit offended and I will pass judgement on what I consider to be your inadequacy of character. I will inwardly say to myself “You obsequious Roman”. I’ll be petty like that unless of course, it’s something personal to you like beets you canned yourself or homemade maple syrup – something where you’re trying to share a bit of yourself. I will graciously accept and cherish that. But, this thing of never show up at somebody’s house empty-handed, I loathe that. I really do. At my house you don’t have to put on pretenses or worry that I might think you ungrateful for showing up empty-handed or that I’ll put a knife to your throat for eating too much. Like I said, I don’t want to offend anybody here and please accept the facetious nature of my comments. I’m just trying to be a bit humorous.
Again, I don’t want to sound arrogant but coming to my house and eating my cooking is a unique experience that you’re not going to find anywhere else. You never know, my cooking (if it doesn’t kill you you) might change your life. If you come to my house to eat, it is my intent to pour on you grace and hospitality in the same way God pours out grace and hospitality on us – free and lavishly. I don’t expect anything in return. If I did, I would just charge you money up front. The same is true if you happen to show up at my house invited around a meal time, I will cook for you and feed you expecting nothing in return.
Now, I know you were all brought up that “don’t show up empty-handed” way. There’s actually a name for it. It’s the way of reciprocity. The way of do unto others as they have done unto you. If someone has treated you mean, you treat them mean in return. If your neighbour’s a jerk, be a jerk back. If someone has been good to you, be good in return. And so it is, if somebody invites you over for dinner, you bring something because that’s what respectable, well-mannered, brought-up-right people do.
This way of reciprocity is ancient and it is based in the belief that nothing is ever free in life. Romans used to give gifts, lavish gifts at that, to people from whom they wanted something in return. The way you got things done was to make people obligated to you, make people owe you one. It worked that way in religion too. If you wanted the favour of a god, wanted a god to do something for you, prayer wasn’t enough. You had to bring something, something sacrificial.
On the upside, you would have thought that this way of reciprocity would just set in motion a whole lot reciprocal kindness being done in society. That pay it forward thing. But in reality, it just made it so that you always had to be suspicious of people’s motives. It’s like if I, the minister, invited you for dinner just to deepen the friendship, you would have to be asking yourself, “Well, what’s he want from me? What’s he going to rope me into?” And so, to get yourself out of any obligation that I might beholden you with, you pick up a box of TimBits on the way over. That way if I were to ask you to do something for the church, you’re no longer obligated. We would both understand that the TimBits took away any obligation on your part. You would no longer owe me one. The TimBits bought your freedom. That was everyday life as a petty Roman but people still live that way today.
And so that leads me back to Jesus and his Sermon on the Plain, or better yet, his Sermon on the Level. If I had to come up with what his key point to his sermon is, I would start by noting that he’s got word play of a title here. We could call it “Living on the Level”. And then, I would have to say that his key point is that to live on the level is to live mercifully always showing unconditional love, forgiveness and generosity rather than living according to reciprocity. The heart of this sermon is wrapped in Jesus’ statement that we are to be merciful as God is merciful. Afterall, he is our Father and we are his beloved children. Be merciful as God is merciful. The word for merciful there isn’t the word we usually see in the Greek for mercy. It should rather be translated as compassionate or sympathetic – to feel with somebody. Be compassionate as God is compassionate.
It's time to pull out my trusty level from last week’s sermon. Remember this from last week. In Jesus’ Kingdom, which we have inherited and are to live according to in this world even if it means that what the world calls a blessing is a woe to us…in Jesus’ Kingdom the bubble on the level stays in the middle so that things are level meaning equal, fair, and just within the communities that bear his name and one day it will be the whole world. Just like when you build a house, if the foundation isn’t level, if the bubble’s not in the middle, the house will lean and torque and eventually collapse in on itself. So it is in life together as followers of Jesus. In Jesus’ Kingdom the way things keep level is that the people who call him Lord, who follow his teachings, live according to love, forgiveness, and generosity – off the scale unconditional love, forgiveness, and generosity.
And there’s a huge "rather than" implied here in Jesus’ sermon. We live Jesus’ way "rather than" the way of reciprocity. Rather than reciprocating hate for hate and love for love, we pour out compassion on everybody just as God does even on those who hate us and do us harm. We pray for everyone, even our enemies. We lend and give generously to everyone not just to those we think deserve it or we know will pay us back. We lend and give expecting nothing in return. We even give to those who take from us. We wish well to everyone, even those who wish us harm. We do good to everyone, even those who do us harm and when we do good, we don’t expect people to do good to us in return. We treat others the way we want to be treated.
We love. We forgive. We give. We do good. We do so unconditionally and generously because that’s the way God is and we are God’s much beloved children.
We also don’t judge or condemn. Elsewhere in the Bible it says we are to leave those tasks to God. And, it may surprise us what ultimately happens when God judges and condemns. You see, God’s graciousness is surprising to say the least. Some examples from Luke’s Gospel, a prodigal son who has offended his father in every way is welcomed home with a feast but it’s the unforgiving brother who can’t bring himself to celebrate. A tax collector who has grown rich off of overtaxing, Jesus calls to be one of his Twelve best friends. Jesus routinely sits at table, fellowshipping over a meal with “sinners” and it’s an example of the way things will be when he returns to establish his reign. Jesus was judged for doing such gracious things, pronounced cursed by God, condemned and hung on a cross by the religious authorities who assumed the right to judge and who expected God to operate according to the ways of reciprocity. Moreover, when we judge and condemn others, what it almost always if not always amounts to is little more than our keeping a grudge. Grudges become toxic to us over time.
We love. We forgive. We give. We do good. We do so unconditionally and generously because that’s the way God is and we are God’s much beloved children.
Finally, Jesus notes here in his sermon that the way we measure it out is the way it will be measured to us presumably by God. He’s not saying what the TV preachers say when they dupe people into giving money to their false ministries so that God will return it to the giver many times over and their financial problems will be solved. Rather, if we measure out vengeance instead of love, forgiveness, generosity, and doing good, we will not know God’s compassion nor know ourselves as God’s beloved children is what Jesus is saying. If we measure out compassion scantily so will be our experience of God’s compassion.
Rather than living according to the conventions of reciprocity, we love, forgive, give generously, and do good. That is what it is to be merciful or compassionate as God is. So, since we are God’s beloved children: We love. We forgive. We give generously. We do good. Unconditionally and generously. That’s living on the level. Amen.
