C, Independence Day                                                            “300+ Days of Sunshine”

July 4, 2010                                                                            By the Rev. Blake Hutson

Mt. 5:43-48   

 

Prayer: Lord to see you is the end and the beginning.  You carry us and you go before us.  You are the journey and the journeys end.

 

“…for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous…”

 

In this morning’s Gospel Jesus talked about something familiar to us.  Jesus talked about the weather…he talked about sunshine and rain.  As residents of Southern Arizona we know a thing or two about sunshine.  Though we average only about 12 inches of rain per year, with the Monsoon season upon us, we know a thing or two about rain. 

 

Ask anyone why they retired to southern Arizona—or about the general benefits of living in this part of the country; and at the top of the list is the weather we get to enjoy in the Southwestern desert.  How many days of sunshine do we have every year?  After moving out here I was astounded to learn that we average about 325 days of sunshine every year.[1]  Having lived in other parts of the country, I don‘t miss gray overcast skies.  I don’t miss dark, cold winters.  I don’t miss rainy spring days.  I like 325 days of sunshine.

 

Of course, this time of year in the summer season, the weather can be both beautiful and a bit extreme. Monsoon activity is just getting started, most of it occurs in August.  We watch as dark clouds form over the mountains; the breeze stirs through the trees.  The clouds pour over the mountains and bring hard sheets of rain to us in the Valley below.  Summer monsoon rains are short in duration, but they bring us spectacular displays of thunder and lightning.  Washes can quickly fill and sometimes over flow.  Streets flood as summer thunderstorms erupt.

 

In addition to extreme rain, this time of year, we also have extreme sunshine.   There is a reason that Arizona has the highest occurrence of skin cancer in the nation and the second highest occurrence in the world.[2]  This time of year we experience the intensity of the suns rays.  This time of year the sun can be a bit much for us.  When we go outside, we have to take precautions.  This time of year, we have to wear a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.  We get up early to avoid the heat of the day; when we are outside we seek the shade.  Maybe like me you’ve been to the plant nursery at Lowe’s or Home Depot to buy flowers.  There is a tag in the plant that indicates that the plants you’re purchasing likes ‘full sun.’ Some of us have found out the hard way, there is almost no plant at Lowe’s or Home Depot that likes full Arizona sun in the summer.  The people who make those tags didn’t have our climate, our extreme sunshine in mind.

 

The reality is all living things are dependent upon both sunshine and rain.  We need both of them to survive.  In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus compares God’s love to both…sunshine and rain…something that we need…but also something that at times can be extreme. 

 

Jesus compares God’s care and love to the sun that rises on all of us and to the rain, which falls on all of us. Jesus points out that the sun shines and the rain falls equally on the righteous and the unrighteous.  Jesus was trying to say that when it comes to providing love, and life giving care and nourishment; when it comes to providing refreshment and even growth in someone’s life that God does these things indiscriminately like the sun shines and the rain falls. 

 

Loving both righteous and unrighteous people…that is extreme love. God loving us at our best might be expected. But God loving us at our very worst, our most horrible moments, that is extreme love.  And, God sending God’s Son, allowing him to die on the Cross for us, that is passionate, intense, extreme love.

 

This analogy where Jesus compares God’ love to sunshine and rain, comes in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount in the context of Jesus’ challenge for us to imitate God and for us to also love in the extreme. Specifically, Jesus calls us to love rather than hate, our enemies.  The sun shines and the rain falls on whom it will.  So, part of Jesus’ message is if God doesn't distinguish between who deserves the life-giving gifts of sun and of rain, maybe we should not distinguish between who deserves our acts and attitude of love.  We are to love like the sun shines and like the rain falls, because that is what love does.  

 

Now interestingly, this is the Gospel passage selected for Independence Day.  As we know Independence Day is a day that we celebrate the freedom that we have in this country.  July 4th is also a day in which we celebrate those who serve and honor those who have sacrificed so that we have freedom to enjoy.  On this Independence Day celebration in the midst of Jesus’ call for us to ‘love our enemies,’ we cannot help but be reminded that our country has had “enemies” in the past, that our troops are fighting this very day over seas and we know that our country will have “enemies” again in the future.

 

We don’t celebrate violence, the fact that we have had conflicts and war.  We celebrate our freedom that has been preserved and secured.  Today we celebrate the commitment, the dedication and the example of sacrifice our military personnel and their families set for us. 

 

On this Independence Day when we celebrate our freedoms, our Independence and those that have sacrificed so that we have them, as Christians I think we are reminded of one particular freedom that we have—the freedom to love like God loves, freedom to love like the sun shines and like the rain falls.  We have the freedom and the ability to love deeply, passionately and indiscriminately.

 

Like the God we serve, we have the freedom and the ability to love in the extreme. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus went on to describe extreme love as turning the other cheek (5:39); extreme love as selling all we have and giving to the poor.  If anyone wants to sue you and take something from you, Jesus said, give them more than they want to take.  If anyone forces you to do something you don’t want to do, he says show them love by doing more than they ask.  (Instead of one mile, he said go with them two miles (5:41).  Give to everyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you (5:42), Jesus said.

 

Practicing extreme love can be hard enough, but living into and accepting the deep love that God has for us can be just as challenging.  The challenge is trusting in God’s providence, God’s care, God’s deep love for us and, as Jesus said, not worrying about tomorrow.  As he said, If we know that God provides for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, how can we be anxious about anything (Mt. 6:25-34)?  If we know that God has sent his Son for us and that God has forgiven us, how can we not forgive ourselves?  The challenge for us is to live into and to accept the intense, the transforming, extreme love that God has for us. 

 

So during these summer months when you feel the intense summer sun and you see the hard Monsoon rains, think of this passage.  Think of how God loves you like the sun shines and like the rain falls.  May the intense summer sun remind you of the intense love that God has for you.  May the summer sun and the monsoon rains remind us that in turn we are called to love those whom God has put in our lives, that we are called to love indiscriminately, called to love in the extreme, like the Monsoon rains falling and like the intense summer sun, shining from the sky. 

 

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


[1] Chuck George, Chief Meteorologist KOLD Tucson