So, what does the Lord require of us? Well, in this congregation, you can answer that. All you have to do is look at the banners, right? What does the Lord require of us? That’s Micah 6:8. Seek justice, love kindness, walk humbly with our God. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with our God – Micah 6:8. What does the Lord require of us? Micah was one of those prophets in the Bible from the 8th century BCE. So, is that it? That’s what’s required of us. As I’ve already mentioned, that’s in the Hebrew Scriptures, and then Jesus comes along today in Matthew and says no less than be perfect. That’s God’s perfect. Really? Let’s do that in order to increase membership at our church. What’s the requirement to be a member here? Perfection. And as I already mentioned to the children, there’s really good news here. Very good news. Amazing news. Before this sermon is over, I will show you how to be perfect in the eyes of God. There is a line of Scripture today that we look at that is singular in its importance and significance. It is singular.

The Jesus Seminar, many of you know about it, the Jesus Seminar was a group of about 50 biblical scholars and 100 lay people that was founded in 1985. The group was very active in the 1980s and ‘90s and into the 21st century, the Jesus Seminar. The seminar worked to determine which sayings and actions by Jesus of Nazareth in some ways actually were spoken and done by Jesus. Not every branch of Christianity was excited about the Jesus Seminar. I was, most of the people in our branch were and are. The Jesus Seminar produced new translations of the New Testament. One of them is down in my office. I forgot to bring it up, but that’s OK. One of the major takeaways of the work of the seminar was the determination that some of what we read of Jesus in the Gospels was not necessarily exactly the way Jesus himself said some things or did some things, but rather were the interpretations of the things Jesus said and did by the people of the early church. Sometimes we’re not necessarily hearing the direct words of Jesus, we’re hearing the direct words of the early church interpreting the words of Christ. In these instances, Jesus did say something important and did do something important, but maybe not in those exact words or in exactly that way. Like with so much about Scripture, there is room for wonder and interpretation.

So, I’m trying to expand our understanding of Scripture at this point. What did Jesus actually say? And this morning, the scholars of the Jesus Seminar felt that of the top 10 sayings of Jesus that he most likely actually said word for word that would have come down to us, “love your enemies” is one of them. In the translation, in the first translation which I got, they put the words that they felt that Jesus actually said, and of course they put them in bright red. “Love your enemies” is in bright red. Jesus said it. Uh-oh. In fact, six of the top 10 sayings of Jesus, six of the 10 that they feel he actually said word for word, occur in the Sermon on the Mount. That’s where we are this morning, in the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew makes love of God and love of neighbor the fundamental command on which all else depends. Let me say that again in light of current events. Love of God and love of neighbor is the fundamental command on which all else depends, in the meaning of that word agape, and makes the love of enemies specific and concrete. Let me push this a little further. In its absoluteness and concreteness, that statement, “love your enemies,” in its absoluteness and concreteness, it is without parallel in history. In other words, “love your enemy,” the words of Jesus in Matthew, is the only place in all of history where this appears. Jesus, as far as we know, is the only one in history who says it. I will once again announce my candidacy for the President of the United States, and on all of my buttons it’s going to say, “love your enemy.” I’m sure I’ll win. So, let’s do it. How do you do that?

Mark Twain said, “Love your enemies. It will scare the hell out of them.” Joseph Campbell said, “Love your enemies, for they determine who you are.” I have a very dear friend, the late, great Joe Ledwell, Presbyterian minister of the same Presbyterian church in suburban Chicago, one of my mentors. He retired. It somehow came up in conversation. He retired and he said – and it’s fitting, what we were saying at the time – he said, “Jay, you know what?” He was in the ministry almost 40 years. He said, “Looking back over 40 years of ministry, I’m really proud of the enemies I made.” G.K. Chesterton said, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also love our enemies, probably because they are generally the same people.” Miroslav Volf said, “If you take the ‘love your enemy’ out of Christianity, you have unchristianed the Christian faith.” Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Love your enemies because they bring out the best in you.” Desmond Tutu said, “Love your enemy. It will ruin his reputation.” And Martin Luther King Jr. had a lot to say about love your enemies. Think about that for a second. He wrote a lot. If you Google “who said love your enemies,” you’ll get a lot from Martin Luther King. And he said this: “There may come a time when it will be possible for you to humiliate your worst enemy or even to defeat him. But in order to love the enemy, you must not do it.”

The Greek language has another word for love. It’s called agape. Agape is more than romantic love. Agape is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all people. Agape is an overflowing love, a spontaneous love, which seeks nothing in return. Theologians will say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. The love of God operating in the human heart. When you rise to love on this level, you love all people – not because you like them, not because their ways appeal to you. not because they are worthful to you, but you love all people because God loves them. You rise to the noble heights of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. I think this is what Jesus means when he says, “love your enemies.” Who – be careful now – who is willing to say that they are there, that King just described? I’m willing to say that I am not, and I want to be. Be perfect, therefore, as God is perfect. That’s all. That’s all Jesus is asking of us – perfection.

And here’s the good news. Maybe there are people that we know or people in the news who we are not ready to love, certain people we see as enemies who we are not ready to love. I am in this category. This notion of perfection that Matthew utilizes goes all the way to back to Deuteronomy 18:13, that says this. And you know, the Hebrew Scriptures were Jesus’ Bible. Deuteronomy 18:13 says, “You shall be perfect before the Lord your God.” That Hebrew word that we translate as “perfect” is the Hebrew word tamim, and it does not mean moral perfection. It does not mean perfectly following all the rules and the laws of the community. It means wholeness. It means serving God and serving each other and our nation and the world wholeheartedly with single-minded devotion to love of God and love of neighbor. This concept of perfection is a state of being. It’s a state of mind. It’s a state of heart. It means single-minded devotion to seeking justice, loving kindness, walking humbly with our God.

If we are not ready to love our enemies, as we seek ways to stand up to hatred and stand up to fear – and this is key – if we’re not ready to love our enemies we can begin at least with not returning hate for hate. We can begin by not hating. We can begin by fighting our enemies with love., somehow, some way, even when we are not sure how to do that. The Hebrew notion of tamim means we are perfect when we are fulfilling the task of love and justice that we are called to perform. Let me be very clear here. This is not in my script, and I’m talking to me. I came to this insight as a result of this sermon preparation last week. I may not be ready to love everyone, all my enemies, but I can’t give in to the hate. We can at least start there. Don’t give in to the hate. We are not always perfect in the result, but we are perfect when we wholeheartedly take the leap of faith and fight. That is our task, and attempting a task is perfection in the eyes of God. So today, and I’ll finish, maybe we can start here. Look! There are my enemies. I had another head-shaking moment in my car listening to NPR on the way up here this morning. Another, “Oh my God.” Look, there are our enemies. I am going to try very hard not to hate them, and by the grace of God, I am going to stand up to them with courage, grace and love. St. Francis De Sales said this, “Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.” Amen? Amen.