church at watershed

“but i say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  to one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  and as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. if you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? for even sinners love those who love them.  and if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? for even sinners do the same.  and if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.  but love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.  be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:27-36 (ESV)

to get started i must first say that asking Jesus to come into your heart is not the same as giving your life to Jesus Christ.  one tends to be a statement we make about when we “asked Jesus to come into our hearts” when we were four years old, and many people today say that they are “christian” because they followed some prayer chant that asked Jesus to come into their hearts.  for some that has stuck and more than likely they have given their lives to Christ, but for most people, they think they are good to go with “the big guy upstairs” because they said some prayer when they were four.  now they simply do whatever they want.  on the other hand, when a person gives his life to Christ, he hands over control of life to God and lets him truly decide where he goes, what he does, what he says…basically, every aspect of life that we all so very much want to control.  the latter of the two would be what we call discipleship.  honestly, i’m not really sure what we can call the former.

that being said, let’s get into it shall we.  my buddy, luke, has been wrestling a lot lately with this whole idea of what it really means to follow Christ.  one of his big hang ups is that so often we claim that we are christians, but then we don’t let the scriptures effect the way we live and act.  he made the statement that if i am walking down the street on a cold winter day and see a homeless man without a coat while i have one on and one at home, am i not obligated by the teaching of Christ to give my coat to that man?  this has really bothered me because i have a tan leather jacket that i really like.  honestly, i wouldn’t want to give it up.  that has bothered me for weeks.  sadly, i think most of us would agree with me that we wouldn’t want to give up our coat.

here’s the deal.  we take the golden rule as “don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you,” but that isn’t what Christ said is it?  in fact, if you read that whole passage again, you see that in all reality, Christ really is saying to love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you.  so, the idea is not “don’t hit those who hit you” for those of us who have children.  it is, for we adults, put yourself in the position of the homeless guy in luke’s scenerio – in the cold without a coat.  what would you want someone to do for you?  if you were hungry and your children were starving, would you want someone to feed you and your children so that you didn’t have to hear their sad cries and growling tummies?  if your daughter, sister, or niece were being sexually exploited or forced to service 30-40 men a day, if not more, what would you want done?  would you not want someone to end that?

question, then.  what are you doing?  it’s easy to love those who treat us well.  in fact, there is psychological idea in sales that is called the rule of reciprocation. this rule says that people are more likely to do what you want when you do a favor for them, even if they didn’t want you to do the favor for them.  people feel obligated to “return the favor.”  it’s easy to love those to love us and treat people well who treat us well, but Jesus isn’t saying that.  you see, just as it is easy to love those who love us, it is easy to hate those who hate us.  we even think it is our right to do so.  but Christ says that his followers don’t live by the same rules as the rest of the world.

we love those who hate us because that is how we usher in the community of heaven.  we treat others the way we want to be treated because in doing so, we bring heaven to earth.  so, are you bringing heaven to earth, or are you just simply trying to keep from doing to others what you wouldn’t want done to you?  we do not follow confucius who made that statement.  we are followers of Jesus who told us to usher in the community of heaven by treating others the way we want to be treated.  that means that we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, free the slave, seek justice for the oppressed, help the single mother, adopt the unwanted child, and give freely of ourselves and resources so that those who don’t know the love of Jesus can taste a drop of heaven.

that’s right!  our boi nate eckhart is the winner of the toms and element shoe and board drop contest.  he found out yesterday that he will be going to africa in 6 weeks to help give new shoes and skateboards to tons of children in need.  i am going to try to stuff myself into his luggage so i can go too!!  there were a lot of entries for the contest, but i have to say that when we finished the video, we knew he’d win.  i am so proud of his heart and his hard work to make this happen.

i truly believe that he had the best reason for wanting to go on the drop – the only reason he bought his skateboard was because it would help a kid in need, because it would keep a kid off the streets and increase his/her chances of remaining drug free.  that is the whole point of what toms and element is trying to do.  nate, you deserve this trip!!!  go put shoes on the feet of Jesus and give him a skateboard!!  we love you and are proud of you.