Sermon for an Advent Service

(Woodford Ecumenical Service)

Text: Matthew 38-45 Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'  But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him. "You have heard that it was said, "Love your friends, hate your enemies.' But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.

One summer evening, a weary truck driver pulled his semi into an all-night truck stop. He was tired and hungry. As he waited to be served, three tough looking, leather jacketed motorcyclists - of the Hell’s Angel’s type - decided to give him a hard time. Not only did they verbally abuse him, one grabbed the hamburger off his plate, another took a handful of his french fries and the third picked up his coffee and began to drink it.

How did this truckie respond? How would you respond? Well, this truckie did not respond as one might expect. Instead, he calmly rose, picked up his bill, walked to the checkout, paid what he owed, and went out the door. The waitress watched through the window as he crossed to where his truck was parked.

As she turned around one of the cyclists said loudly, "Well, he’s not much of a man, is he?"

She replied, "I don’t know about that, but he sure isn’t much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles."

Pay back, revenge, getting even, is an automatic reflex action when someone hurts us in some way.
Children do it. A mother ran into the bedroom when she heard her seven-year-old son scream. She found his two-year-old sister pulling his hair. She gently released the little girl’s grip and said comfortingly to the boy, "There, there. She didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know that hurts."
With that he grabbed a handful of his sister’s hair. As she screamed, he calmly said, "She knows now."

Adults do it. A farmer noticed a car stop at the front gate of his orchard. The occupants of the cars climbed over the orchard gate and proceeded to pick his apples without asking permission. As he walked up to them, one of them smiled sheepishly and said, "We hope you don’t mind that we took a few of your apples."
"No, not at all," said the farmer, "and I hope you don’t mind that I took some of the air out of your tyres."

Nations do it. We see it all too often on the world scene when one nation retaliates against another usually ending in bloodshed and grief.

No one likes to be a victim – well at least a victim that doesn’t in some way seek retribution for the wrong that has been caused. No one likes to "lose face" in front of others and to walk away from a situation that is causing harm to our reputation. When others hurt us we feel quite justified in applying some kind of reprisal. We apply some kind of natural justice. "You hurt me and I’ll hurt you back twice as hard."

And so our newspapers are full of reports about people who have taken revenge.
A father kills his children to get revenge on his former partner.
One driver bashes up another driver to settle some kind of score – commonly known as "roadrage".
One nation retaliates against another for acts of terrorism under the pretext of justice.
One person stabs another to get even.
A man shoots into a crowded restaurant because he wants to get back at someone who has treated him unfairly.

It is just this kind of revenge that Jesus is addressing in the reading from Matthew’s gospel. But it’s not just these extreme cases that Jesus is talking about. He is talking about the vengeance that sits in the sinful heart of every human being. Even Christians are found with this vengeful spirit. One can hardly begin to calculate the damage that has been done to the unity of the church when Christians have let this spirit of revenge take control. Jesus was fully aware of how powerful this kind of thing can be, so he addresses this issue. Jesus is addressing those of us who at some time find ourselves getting even with someone.

Let’s stop a minute. Doesn’t the Bible say, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"? Doesn’t that verse from Exodus 21 encourage us to hit back if someone hits us first? Doesn’t the Bible sanction pay back?

This Old Testament principle of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" was a guideline for judges in the law courts. This is a principle designed for judges so that they are able to hand out just punishment. They were to be fair, not excessive, when passing sentence. This has nothing to do with personal revenge.

Then Jesus goes one step further and introduces a new concept – one that goes against the grain of human nature. It’s a principle that has astounded the people of the world when it is put into practice. Jesus gives several examples – if someone insults you, if someone takes you to court, or you are forced to do something you don’t want to do (like carrying the pack of one of the occupying forces) don’t retaliate in anyway. Instead, go out of your way to be friends with that person. Go the "extra mile" if you have to in order to restore and maintain your friendship with that person. And then Jesus adds this almost seemingly impossible sentence, "I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you."

Someone who did just this was David before he became king. He was hunted by King Saul who saw David as a threat and was determined to kill him. On one occasion while Saul and his men were exhausted from the chase, and so they camped for the night and fell into a deep sleep. David and one of his commanders crept into Saul’s camp walking amongst all the snoring soldiers. They came to the king and the soldier with David told him that he would be happy to take the king’s own spear and kill him then and there for all the trouble he had caused David. That would have been an easy option and for David’s companion a sensible one. But David wouldn’t hear of it. Saul had been appointed by God to be king and it wasn’t up to David to destroy the king, no matter how horrible he had been to David. David was not interested in seeking revenge on Saul.

We find Jesus practicing what he preached. When he was arrested in the garden by the temple guards, he could have called down angels to protect him and get revenge on those who would treat the Son of God in such a shameful way.
When he was dying a cruel and horrible death on the cross at the hands of his enemies, instead of retaliating and striking down his enemies, he prayed for his enemies. "Father forgive them".

We are entering the Advent season. Advent is not simply a time of getting ready for Christmas. The commercialisation of Christmas can easily lead us to forget all about the Advent season. There is a danger that we can be so focused on Christmas that Advent with its emphasis on the Second Coming of Jesus and what we should be doing as we wait for his return is lost.

Advent is a time for reflection.
It is a time of contemplation as we ponder the reasons why God had to send his Son to earth as the baby of Bethlehem. We marvel that God's love for us is powerful that even though we have disappointed God in so many ways, yet he was still prepared to sacrifice his own Son for our sake.

Advent is a time of meditation as we consider the Second coming of Christ and how we should live as we wait for that day. Will we be ready for his return if we crowd God out of our lives as we pursue the pleasures and things of this world? Will we be ready for his return if our lives are controlled by vengeance and evil of every kind as if there will never be end to this world and never a time when we will be asked to "please explain" why we have ignored God and his love for us?

Advent is a time of repentance as we reflect on just how often we have failed to be the people of God in the world letting the light of Christ shine through us into the darkness of hatred, vengeance and retaliation in our world.

Advent is a time of humility as we realise how often we have fuelled the fires of reprisals and disharmony and alienation rather than smothered them with grace and mercy.

Advent is a season we spend on our knees as we confess that too often we have enjoyed the taste of sweet revenge, and failed to foster love and peace. This is the time to decide that it’s time to do something about the vengeful spirit that has taken control and affected a friendship or a relationship with someone in the family, with someone at work, or with a fellow church member. Decide on forgiveness, mercy, and kindness rather than foster a hateful attitude.
Let the love of God change you,
the grace of God make you new,
the forgiveness of God make you generous with your forgiveness to others.

Advent leads us into Christmas when we celebrate what God has done for us through his Son. We are thankful that God did come down at Christmas to rescue us from our hopeless entrapment in sin. We praise God for the confidence that Jesus has given us when it comes to facing the judgement throne of God. Jesus has made us clean and guilt free. Even though we were enemies of God he has shown us grace and mercy. May we also show this same kind of grace and mercy to those around us.

© Pastor Vince Gerhardy
St Paul's Lutheran Church, Caboolture - 28th November, 2003
E-mail: gerhardy65@hotmail.com 

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Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from Good News Bible: Today's English Version (TEV), revised edition, © American Bible Society 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992, 1994, inclusive language with Australian usage text, 1994 

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