Oh my, a challenging Scripture that I have not taken into the pulpit for 45 years! The text is below the sermon video…
Click here for sermon video: https://zionepiscopal.com/Sermon%20Videos/thirteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-9-4-2022.html
Sermon Preached at Zion Episcopal Church, Washington, NC; Sunday September 4 2022
The Reverend Alan Neale ; “Hate… Really?!”
For as many years as I can remember, I have tried to discipline myself never to use the word “hate” in any context.
For as many years as I can remember, I have strongly encouraged our children never to use the word “hate”.
Even the sound of the word causes me to shiver and I detect (but maybe it is my imagination) that a stark and unattractive countenance accompanies the articulation of the word.
And yet… in today’s Gospel (from Luke 14) I am forced to confront Jesus urging his disciples, his followers, to “hate” father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters and “yes, even life itself”. Can this be the same Jesus who touches the untouchables, includes the outcasts? Can this be the same Jesus who is the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep and calls them by name? Can this be the same Jesus who, in that royal commandment, bids us “love God, love neighbor, love self”? “This is my commandment that you love one another”!
Maybe to help me… this very week I came across an advertisement for “The Cherry-Picked Bible”. It contains, so I am told, none of the verses Christians do not want to follow, they have all been omitted. The advertisement continues, “Get yours today so you can eat shellfish, forget the tithe, get tattoos, control women and, as a bonus, we have added anti-gay verses Jesus never said!”.
I confess to you, brothers and sisters, that I have never (in forty-five years) preached on this verse from Luke so maybe, in my own sweet and innocent way, I have indeed chosen to read “a cherry-picked Bible”. How about you?
Some commentators argue that in such a verse as Luke 14:26, Jesus is using hyperbole, extravagant language, in order to grab the audience’s attention. It is as if he suddenly claps his hands to stress… this is important.
Surely it is hyperbole, extravagant language, when Jesus (Matthew 5:29-30) urges his disciples to pluck out right eyes, or cut off right hands if these cause the owner to sin. Although, we do know of at least one disciple (Origen, theologian of the third century) who castrated himself in obedience to this text.
We agree, don’t we, that the word hate in a Gospel reading demands our attention and compels us to think!
The waters become less muddy, our minds less confused, when we look at the word used for “hate”. It is “miseo” and is better translated as “to love less, to postpone in love or esteem; to detest but only on a comparative basis”. Hear this (Malachi 1:2-3) “Joseph I loved, Esau I hated” – it means, Jacob loved Joseph as his favorite. And in Genesis 29:31, we read that Jacob loved Rachel, but Leah he did not love – or better, he loved less. The law was not indicating emotional hatred, only preference.
You see, Jesus is not asking us to hate family, definitely not to hate life and self; but he is asking us, expecting us, to love God first. Here God is no constitutional monarch but rather a reigning King who expects us to surrender first, above all things, to God and His Kingdom. But remember this is a process, not an instant transformation.
We see this dynamic in action in the engaging letter that Paul wrote to Philemon.
Paul is in prison, probably in Ephesus, and has enjoyed the friendship, service, companionship of a slave called Onesimus. We are not sure how Onesimus managed to arrive at Paul’s lodging but there he is. Paul wants so much to keep Onesimus but is ready to release him so that he may return to his master, Philemon (some 100 miles inland at Colossae).
You see the dynamic of preference at work – what Paul wants, he wants so dearly but he prefers to do the will of God; he puts God first, loves Him first and discharges Onesimus.
Now consider Onesimus. He has been in joyful and happy service with Paul, he has been treated as freeman and not as slave. But now he is being returned to his erstwhile master, Philemon.
Again, the dynamic of preference at work – what Onesimus wants, he wants so dearly but he prefers to do the will of God. Though now a Christian, Onesimus returns to Philemon, uncertain of his future for he loves God first.
And the final character in our drama, Philemon. Poor Philemon has endured the strong, persuasive, cogent, demanding, maybe even bullying arguments of Paul. Paul begins by praising Philemon as a wonderful example of Christin discipleship and service, he is an old friend… a canny beginning! Paul points out that Onesimus was once useless to Philemon (a pun on his very name which means “useful”), it is Paul who has helped make him useful. And Paul argues that he could “in Christ command Philemon” but he will not do that, he will not even mention it. The practice of praeteritio!
And so Onesimus returns to Philemon; and we are left guessing as to whether Philemon preferred to do the Lord’s will or returned Onesimus to slavery. Yes, we are left guessing… but… though Scripture is silent we do have a letter from Bishop Ignatius (sometime before 108AD) who wrote to the church in Ephesus “In God’s name, I have received… Onesimus whose love is indescribable and who is your bishop”.
Let me imagine, please, that Philemon put God first, released Onesimus for service… even as a bishop!
The infamous trinity of a selfish, self-centered Christian is “Me, Myself and I”; may it not be so with us.
May we have the wisdom and trust to put God first, to love God first in all our relationships… with partners and family, with friends and colleagues, with local and national political affiliations. Truly to love well, we love God first.
We sang this recently, but do we know this deeply?: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you”. Or as the Message reads, “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”
AMEN