Discipleship in Christ calls us to a path of nonviolent love that is actively engaged in a ministry of reconciliation, peacebuilding and justice-seeking. Any violence, negligence or abusiveness in our words, action or attitudes is a sign that Christ’s work of transformation in our lives remains incomplete. “

– “Resolution on Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism,” PNMC, June 2025

Having this clause of the resolution on Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism fall on the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend seems very appropriate. 

In 1957, King preached a sermon entitled “Loving Your Enemies” at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama. Almost a year after the end of the bus boycott, a tactic of non-violent direct action that ended segregation on Montgomery public transit. He acknowledged to his congregation that non-violence and the power of love are themes that he keeps coming back to. They are, after all, themes that Jesus keeps returning to. 

And Jesus, King say, “is not playing” when he talks about loving our enemies. He says this: 

In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.

As King talks about loving the enemy he notes Jesus’ words, “You have heard it said…but I say to you.” That is one of what are called “The Antithises” here in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus offers a whole series of them, reframing the way his Jewish followers should understand God’s instructions in the Torah.  

The particular ones that we’re looking at here are, indeed, not just sentimental expressions of love. They are creative refusals to give in to force, violence and oppression. My understanding of Jesus’ instructions about turning the other cheek, going the extra mile and giving up even my cloak were blown wide open when I first read Walter Wink.

Wink frames these responses to violence, force and injustice not as passive submission but as active resistance to evil. In fact, when Jesus says, “Do not resist the evil doer,” what that word ‘resist’ means is ‘do not violently resist.’ But there is room for creative acts of non-violent refusal and resistance.

So maybe you’ve heard these interpretations before but it’s one of my favorite parts of the sermon on the mount: 

• Turn the other cheek: When Jesus says ‘turn the other cheek also,’ he specifically means the left cheek.  Someone who has been struck on the right cheek has been hit with the back-hand. A strike of humiliation and subservience. Jesus instructs that person to show that they deserve the equality of being struck with a fist as one would an equal.
• Walk the extra mile: occupying soldiers could and would commandeer people into service to carry their gear but the limit on this service was one mile. Anything above that would have them breaking the rules. To go another mile would subvert the power dynamic and may get them into trouble.
• Give up your cloak as well: in debtors court a poor person could be sued for their outer garment in lieu of payment. Jesus suggests that if you would take off even your undergarments that would put shame on the debtor, again subverting the intention and exposing the injustice.

This is a loving resistance that is creative, but it is also not for the faint of heart. We have seen in recent days that those who resist evil will be caught up in the violence of empire. But, as king rightly recognized,

[Humanity] must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.

But it is really freaking hard to love someone who only demonstrates hate and rage and contempt. It’s hard to love someone who we can’t respect and who doesn’t show love or respond in return. How do we do that? Jesus suggests active/external ways to respond to the enemy/oppressor. 

But there’s also the matter of shifting the internal.  Richard Rohr says that we can’t think ourselves into new ways of acting but we can act ourselves into new ways of thinking (or something like that). So putting our bodies on the line in courageous ways will definitely help that shift.

But praying for our enemies, though not an external act of resistance, is also an act of shifting how we understand them.  Last week we talked about how God’s love is complete…that means God loves our enemies. Dr. King understood that. He talked about the way Jesus uses agape ‘love’ and its differentiation from eros or phillios, other facets of love.

King says:

Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all… It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen.

You know how, in detective procedurals the investigator will often ask a victim’s friends and community if they have any enemies. I always think, ‘who even has enemies??’ While there are people I don’t like, or who I find hard to get along with, I can’t think of a person who I would consider an ‘enemy.’ 

But King absolutely did have enemies. People who hated him. And it is no small thing for him to proclaim love for those who bore such enmity toward him. The Kingdom of Jesus, built on love and not violence, is not for the faint of heart. 

We are seeing more and more clearly that it takes courage to act with loving non-violence. 

Wink:

[Jesus] Lived this new creation out in his table fellowship with those whom the religious establishment had branded outcasts, sinners, renegades: the enemies of God. He did not wait for them to repent, become respectable, and do works of restitution in hopes of gaining divine forgiveness and human restoration. Instead, he audaciously bursts upon these sinners with the declaration that their sins have been forgiven prior to their repentance, prior to any acts of restitution or reconciliation. Everything is reversed: you are forgiven; now you can repent! God loves you; now you can lift your eyes to God! The enmity is over. You were enemies and yet God accepts you! There is nothing you must do to earn this. You need only accept it. 

Even sitting at a table with someone who acts and believes something different – even hateful – to you takes courage, though. No matter how much love loves and accepts that person.

I have often felt inspired by a fellow member of Pastoral Leadership Team, a member of Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship in Boise, ID. who has been a part of the Braver Angels organization for a number of years and often shares about his work when we meet.

Braver Angels is an organization that is committed to inviting people across the political divide into brave conversations. They “envision an America where courageous citizenship is the honored norm, renewing civic culture and building trust across political differences. [they] inspire and equip Americans to practice courageous citizenship across political differences through skill-building, convening, and collaborative action.”

While I have a passport from the United States, (and Canada), my citizenship is in the Kingdom of God. But the value of courageous commitment to being at the table with those with whom you disagree is inspiring! And I believe their norms for these conversations apply in so many places where conversations could be alienating and divisive: 

• We state our views freely and fully, without fear.
• We treat people who disagree with us with honesty, dignity and respect.
• We welcome opportunities to engage those with whom we disagree.
• We believe all of us have blind spots and none of us are not worth talking to.
• We seek to disagree accurately, avoiding exaggeration and stereotypes.
• We look for common ground where it exists and, if possible, find ways to work together.
• We believe that, in disagreements, both sides share and learn.
• In Braver Angels, neither side is teaching the other or giving feedback on how to think or say things differently.

Already, in making these courageous commitments to remain in community, to value relationship over division, love over violence, the role of enemy disappears.

Discipleship in Christ calls us to a path of nonviolent love that is actively engaged in a ministry of reconciliation, peacebuilding and justice-seeking. Any violence, negligence or abusiveness in our words, action or attitudes is a sign that Christ’s work of transformation in our lives remains incomplete.

This love is not for the faint of heart but it is transformative in the lives and actions of those who follow and in the world we live in.

As we conclude, I invite you again to pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, inviting God’s Reign of Love to come on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen

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