Let’s go over the lessons, and see what they say: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. This is important and we need to pay attention to it – be holy, God says, as I am holy. Be holy? Really? Us? So hold that thought. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God. God makes it very clear that we are to provide for the poor. This is how they did it in their day. They did not strip the fields bare, there were leftovers for the poor. We are not a farm economy here, so we need to do it differently, but we need to make sure that there are ways for the poor to survive. It is a command, not a suggestion. The next four sentences says that how we deal with each other matters, and that dealing includes God. Finally, we come to the last sentence: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Here is the summary of the section, love your neighbor as yourself. So when we look at the Hebrew Scriptures, we see a list of do’s and don’ts, all very acceptable in our thoughts, and that provides the basis for the conclusion of the golden rule. Then we move on to the Epistle, and there we are reminded to pay attention to the foundation. I was taught that the creation of the foundation of a building normally takes as long as putting up the rest of the building. Putting in all of the underground stuff, after you have prepared the ground to receive the building, and then finally putting in what we see of the foundation, all of that takes as long as it does to put up the rest of the building. The simple truth is that the building can only be as solid as the foundation is, and if the foundation is not good, the building will not last. So Paul reminds us that we need to have Christ as our foundation. If we do not base our selves on that foundation, we will not be solid when the tsunami comes, and we will go down. Then we get to the Gospel lesson, and again we are getting lessons for living. But what we find here is not the norm. As usual, Jesus turns everything on its head. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Jesus says, if you want to be like God, love without limits. That’s it. If you want to be like God, love without limits. Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. Jesus makes it very clear that the old way is simply that, the old way, and not his new way: “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.” There are two commandments here. Both of them are based on loving without limits. The first one has to do with seeking revenge. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was actually the beginning of real law and civilization, because although it allows for retaliation, it was intended as an equalizer of justice. You were not allowed to up the ante. In other words, you only got one in return for one. This law allows you to get even within limits. Furthermore, in the Jewish law, there were monetary values set on how much an eye was worth, over against how much a tooth was worth, so that rather than actually putting out someone’s eye in retribution, you could pay a fine instead. And there are still places in the world where, if you are caught stealing, your hand is cut off. Jesus does not say that this kind of justice is wrong, he simply says that if you want to be like God, you will not demand revenge.. We have to go into the context carefully here to see what Jesus is saying. When he says turn the other cheek, what does he mean? First of all, Jesus says if someone strikes you on the right cheek – which means they have hit you with the back of the hand – in other words, they have given you a huge insult. What Jesus is saying is, do not seek revenge for an insult, no matter how terrible the insult. He does not say you should allow someone to strike you, rather, this is totally about honor and shame. The second commandment has to do with being a disciple. If you are going to follow Jesus, the way to do that is to love without limits, even to the point of loving one’s enemy. It is difficult, it is sometimes impossible, but what we are asked to do is to take the first step. When someone has hurt you, pray for them, pray for their welfare, pray that they be blessed. When you do that, you are being like God. Jesus shows us the way, and that way has to do with not demanding revenge, and praying for our enemies. Being like God, is that even possible? God is too big, too everything! How can we think about this? We start with what we know, with what we have been taught by Jesus. This is not about how to be a good person, we know how to do that! Being like God is the upside-down world that Jesus shows us. He gave us the way, it is our job to follow it. In the White Temple in northern Thailand, you must first walk over the bridge that goes through Hell. Then you walk over another bridge that leads into heaven. You have to take off your shoes, and put down your camera. This is a place of worship. When you enter the temple, what first grabs your eyes is a monk seated on the floor at the base of the altar. Then your eyes are drawn up to the Buddha figure, then you realize that there is a larger Buddha figure above that, and finally on the wall and up into the ceiling, a huge Buddah is painted on the wall overarching all of it. The huge painting is too much, and so your eyes drop back down to the monk, who looks alive, but is a good life-like sculpture. Then your eyes go up again, and you see the progression. On the wall is the essence of Buddha, the “form” of Buddha, then two of the four incarnations of Buddha, but the monk on the floor is also both partaking of and an example of Buddha. In the same way, God is the essence that is at the very structure of the world, and God is incarnate in human form, perfectly in Jesus, and also in us. We are not the perfect example of God that Jesus was, but our job is to attempt to do that, to be holy, to love without limits. Perhaps you have seen the movie Gandhi, the part where he is on his cot fasting during the religious war between the Hindus and Muslims. A Hindu man asks him how to go on, his only son has been shot in the conflict. Gandhi says he needs to find a Muslim boy who has lost his father in the conflict, and to raise him as his son, and as a Muslim. The man is confused and disappointed, but Gandhi had read the words of Jesus and did his best to follow them. Shouldn’t we? Robert Wright, the current bishop of Atlanta, has recommended a book to the diocese called The Daniel Plan by Rick Warren. Someone wrote the bishop, asking what he was thinking, because Warren’s views on many social issues are not what the bishop espouses. Here is what he said:

• I struggle with thin, single issue-based fellowship that gets passed off as Christian fellowship. On both sides of the issue. I deeply believe that human beings are too complex and valuable to write off even when their understandings are deemed deplorable. I am afraid that I have preached and taught about a God of limitless grace, love and mercy too long to banish people to a garbage pile of contempt. Or, to teach polite indifference as an acceptable substitute for Christian fellowship.
• For decades in the Episcopal Church we have debated and dialogued about the full inclusion of people. And I am proud of the gains we have made. But full inclusion must mean full inclusion even of those we vehemently disagree with, even those who cannot at present celebrate our humanity or dignity, or it is a hollow sentiment. When we say in our churches on Sunday morning, “Wherever you are on your journey you are welcome here,” do we really mean “wherever you are” or something much smaller?
• As an African-American, I am well practiced at embracing those who cannot fully embrace me. I have had too many experiences of being slighted based on race and the injury to dignity that that causes. So I have great empathy with those who have these same kinds of scars and who are asked to love those who hate them. But I am sure that retreating into hermetically sealed conversations and communities is not the way forward for followers of Jesus. Fellowship that has Christ as its center is more durable and life giving than single issue-based fellowship. And, I am sure that people who we differ with on issues and biblical interpretation, still have something to teach us.

I’m going to have to go look up the Daniel Plan. We are getting close to the end of Epiphany, which means the beginning of Lent. Traditionally Lent was a time of fasting, and we were told exactly how to do that. In the Orthodox churches, it is still the tradition to eat no meat, oil, eggs or milk products from Ash Wednesday until Easter. In the Western churches, we have seen that there are other ways of fasting that may be more relevant. Fasting from watching TV, or from complaining, or from engaging in other things that are not life-giving are all good to do. A favorite of mine is to keep a gratitude journal, to get oneself into the practice of paying attention to giving thanks to God each day for specific things. How will you lead a holy life this Lent? Where will you be willing to lose honor in order not to seek revenge? Where will you pray for an enemy? How will you help a neighbor who needs something in order to keep food on the table, without making it a loan? What will you do to follow the way of Jesus?