Enemies to Friends

Sermon from February 20, 2011
(Epiphany 7 – Year A)
Matthew 5: 38-48
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Waco, Texas

Love your enemies.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
These are the seemingly simple and direct words that Jesus speaks to us today in his good news:
Love your enemies.

On New Years’ Day, just over six weeks ago, a terrible act of violence occurred in Alexandria, Egypt.
On New Years’ Day, Muslim extremists bombed the al-Qiddissin, or Saints’ Church, in Alexandria, killing 23 people.
The bombing of this Christian church by Muslim extremists was the worst act of sectarian violence in Egypt in a decade.

Yet Jesus says:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Most Christians in Egypt are Coptic Christians.
The majority of Christians believe that Jesus has two natures: fully human and fully divine.
Yet Coptic Christians believe that Jesus has one nature, a mixture of the human and the divine.
My guess is that – if we were to take a poll of people in St. Alban’s -many here would actually have beliefs very similar to Coptic Christianity.

Anyway, Coptic Christians are a minority group in Egypt, making up only about 10% of the total population.
Coptic Christians in Egypt, as well as other Eastern Orthodox Christians, follow the Julian calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar.
Therefore, they celebrate Christmas on January 7, rather than on December 25.

After the horrific bombing of the church in Alexandria on New Years’ Day, radical Islamist websites began circulating lists of Coptic churches in Egypt with instructions on how to attack them.
A video attributed to al-Queda proclaimed:
“Blow up the churches while they are celebrating Christmas or any other time when the churches are packed.”

Coptic Christmas arrived on January 7.
Heightened security was present at Christian churches.
Yet, the most amazing thing happened on Christmas this year.
Muslims in Egypt, thousands of them, gathered in Cairo and Alexandria, encircling the outside of Christian churches.
These Muslims made themselves into human shields, surrounding Christian churches with their bodies to protect the Christians inside who were celebrating Christmas.
And when the Coptic Christians came out of their churches after Christmas worship, their Muslim brothers and sisters clapped and cheered, protecting them in solidarity.

Jesus says:
Love your enemies.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

In response to Muslims forming human circles around Christian churches in Egypt,
Another image began to emerge a few weeks ago from Cairo.
In the middle of the public protests in Egypt, Muslim protesters fell to their knees in Tahrir Square in Cairo for their usual daily prayers.
And as the military police started to stone the protesters who were praying, Christians began to join hands and form a giant human circle around the Muslims who were saying their prayers.
In Egypt, Christians, who are in the minority, returned the gesture and protected the Muslims in solidarity and in friendship.

For Jesus says:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

St. Augustine, the great theologian of the 4th and 5th centuries, once remarked in a sermon:
“God has not called us to love our enemies to the end that they should remain our enemies,
But that they should become our friends.”

In tumultuous Egypt, Muslims surrounded the Coptic Christian minority, making a human shield so that the Christians could worship on Christmas.
And Muslims and Christians became friends.
In tumultuous Egypt, Christians surround Muslims who are bowed down in prayer in the streets, making a human shield so that Muslims can pray to the one God.
And Christians and Muslims became friends.

And in our tumultuous daily lives, who are our enemies?
In our tumultuous lives, who are we to love, wo persecutes us, who are we to pray for, so that they might become our friend?

The most famous Psalm in the whole Bible is Psalm 23.
This is the psalm that begins, in the famous King James Version:
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
And in this same King James Version, the psalm also speaks about our enemies as it says:
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”

Yet when I try to figure out who in my everyday life is my enemy, it helps me to read Psalm 23 in a more modern translation, a translation such as the one that is in our Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.
In that translation, the psalm prays:
“You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me.”
Ah-ha, now I can figure out more clearly who my enemies are!

My enemies, my adversaries, are those who trouble me.
And when I take an inventory of my own everyday life, there are plenty of people who trouble me.
Why just in this last week alone, there have been several people who have troubled me.

This last week Wednesday, I had a brief email exchange with a good friend.
He and I were trying to work out some plans for an upcoming event.
He suggested one plan, then I suggested another plan, then he emailed this brief message back:
“Nope. No way. Your plan won’t work.”
His short and curt response troubled me.
And I was very tempted to fire back a nasty email in response, but I wisely decided not to escalate the violence.

He later picked up the phone and called me, saying that he realized that conversations via an iPhone keypad are sometimes not the best way to communicate.
This friend was someone who had troubled me.
And for about an hour in my day last Wednesday, he was my enemy, my adversary - and I was mad at him.
Yet now, because of our encounter over the phone, we are now friends again.
For God has not called us to love our enemies… that they should remain our enemies,
But that they should become our friends.

Who is troubling you?
Maybe the person who is troubling you is your ex-wife or your ex-husband,
Maybe they are your enemy because of things that were done years and years ago.
Yet Jesus says to love our enemy - and reach out our hand of friendship to make a human shield of forgiveness for the other person.

Maybe the person who is troubling you is your boss or a co-worker,
Maybe they are your enemy because you feel that they do not value your work.
Yet Jesus says to love our enemy - and reach out our hand of friendship to make a human shield of understanding for the position of the other person.

Maybe the person who is troubling you is a long-estranged friend, maybe they are your enemy because of harsh words of misunderstanding that were once spoken.
Yet Jesus says to love our enemy - and reach out our hand of friendship to make a human shield of a clean slate for the other person.

For God has not called us to love our enemies so that they should remain our enemies,
But that they should become our friends.

And if Coptic Christians and Muslims in tumultuous Egypt can reach out a hand of friendship and protect each other in a ring of solidarity,
Certainly we can reach out our hand in friendship to those who trouble us in our tumultuous daily lives.

So love those who trouble you.
Reach out your hand in friendship.
Love your enemies - until they become your friends.

AMEN.