You Have Heard It Said

AM Psalm 119:97-120 • PM Psalm 81, 82
2 Kings 6:1-23 • 1 Cor. 5:9-6:8 • Matt. 5:38-48

It has been hot lately and on a Saturday afternoon I went to the grocery store. A man was getting out of his vehicle with a musical instrument as I went inside. On the way out sure enough he had set up a place to play his electric guitar and sing. I went right past him to my own car with the groceries.

But I decided to donate something to him and it felt like gears were slowly cranking into action inside me somewhere. I approached him, put money in his basket and he wanted to talk. He said he had recently gotten this instrument and he happily explained about how that happened. He hardly left me a chance to say anything myself but somehow I remember that we were both laughing about something. As I began to leave we both waved and he had a word to say about passing the good things on.

I felt better than I had before I met him and today’s message from Mark speaks about that. The words are somber and gentle (or at least to me at that moment appeared gentle). You have heard it said to love your neighbor...

We all seem to be broken shells – the kind we find at the beach that are especially large and that we save but which are broken. I have several of those.

...but I say love your enemies. This passage from Mark seems calm to me at this moment of my life and does not sound as something shouted. And the man at the grocery was not an enemy of mine, yet I was carrying an enemy soul inside myself toward anyone who slowed down my day or emerged suddenly in the rosy world of not-being-in-poverty that I move in.

Here again are the approaching words, “You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor but I say love your enemies… or, as in this case, care about people unknown to you “so that you may be sons of your Father...”

Written by Rebecca Newth

Rebecca Newth is a lay reader and sings in the choir.