A, Independence Day   (Observed)                               “Freedom to Love Indiscriminately”

July 5, 2009                                                                 By the Rev. Blake Hutson

Mt. 5:43-48    

 

Prayer: O’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.

                                               

About two and a half weeks ago Monsoon Season began here in southern Arizona.  So far, the early part of the season has been quiet, but this past week, as you may remember, we had a few monsoons in our area.  Christina and I are in our second year here and I don’t know about you, but we have looked forward to this time of year.

 

In addition to being dependent upon rain, we appreciate their cooling effect on a hot summer day.  We enjoy hearing the thunder and watching the lightning off in the distance.  Last year on the evening of July 4th my wife and I went to high point in town to watch the fireworks.  As you may remember, that evening rain showers were developing different places around the city.  I must admit for us, the thunder and the lightning from the monsoons were more spectacular and more beautiful than any fireworks that we could see. 

 

For us here in Tucson, part of the monsoon event is the distinct smell of rain.  When we smell the rain we get excited.  We watch the breeze stirring through the trees.  We watch as dark clouds gather over the mountains, and then pour over them into the Valley below.  We appreciate the growth, the cleansing that rain brings. We get excited about the rain!  As one writer observed, ‘In a fit of childlike spontaneity, we might go outside and run around in it, even as adults.’

 

Since moving here to the desert, I have learned that water is a precious resource—something we don’t take for granted.  We depend upon rain for our food and our livelihood.  If there was no rain, there would be no water.  If there was no water, there would be no life. 

 

Of course too much of it or too little of it can cause big problems.  We all remember the flooded images of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina a few years ago.  Every spring we hear about flooded streams and rivers back East that people have to deal with when Spring storms develop.  Here in Tucson, when washes fill and roads get flooded we have to be careful.  We don’t want to cross a wash with running water in it and get our car stuck in the flooded wash and have to be rescued because we might fall under the “Stupid Motorist law.”

 

Rain. We have parkas and umbrellas to keep it off of us. Maybe you carry an umbrella with you this time of year in the car.  We rain-proof our homes. We have gutters and ditches and washes to move rain where we want it to go.  We depend upon rain.  Rain cleanses and refreshes.  We don’t see it very often, but here in the desert we’re glad to see it when it finally comes.

 

It is appropriate that this mornings Gospel comes at the beginning of our monsoon season, because in this mornings Gospel, Jesus talks about the rain.  Jesus compares God’s care and love to a rain shower. Jesus points out that it rains 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 cleansing and even new growth in someone’s life that God does these things indiscriminately—like a rain shower.

 

As one writer points out, hypothetically, if WE were god, we would probably set things up in the natural world differently.  Instead of sending rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, we might have it rain too-much-or-too-little on the unrighteous, and we’d have it rain just enough, just the right amount on the righteous.  We would have ‘localized proportionate rain’ on the righteous and the unrighteous well they would be out of luck. 

 

One thing about the monsoons, they seem to develop out of nowhere.  The rain that is released, falls wherever it will.  Rain doesn’t care or take note of where or on what or on whom it falls.  The sun and rain do not stop to decide if certain people deserve what they provide.  Rain doesn’t hesitate for a moment to decide if certain people are worthy of cleansing, if certain people are worthy of life giving sustenance.  In a similar way, God does not stop to decide if certain people deserve God’s love.  God does not hesitate to decide if certain people are worthy of loving.

 

Jesus' point here in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount comes in the context of his challenge for us to love, rather than hate, our enemies. Part of Jesus’ message could be that if God doesn't distinguish between who deserves the life-giving gift 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 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.  Among other things—freedom to speak our minds (free speech); freedom to participate in a democratic government and one particular freedom we are enjoying this morning, freedom of religion—freedom to worship in the manner that we think best.

 

Jesus calls us in this morning’s Gospel to love like God loves—to love like the rain falls—indiscriminately.  Jesus even includes the explicit call to ‘love our enemies.’  Ironically, on this Independence Day celebration 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.

 

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

 

Now the challenge is putting this into practice, but we can choose how we love.  We can choose to love our enemies—put another way, we can choose to show love to those in our lives who have been hard for us to love.’ Who has that been for you?  Who has been hard for you to love?  A family member, a coworker—for each of us it would be someone different.  But we have the freedom; we have the ability to choose how we will respond and we can choose to love that person. 

 

We have the freedom and can choose to provide life giving care and compassion to those who need it.  We can choose to offer forgiveness to someone that has offended or hurt us.  We have the freedom in our lives to love like God loves and that is worth celebrating not only this day, but every day. 

 

This monsoon season when you see the rain falling from the sky, remember this passage and remember that we are called to love like the rain that we see falling to the earth.  On this day we give thanks for the many blessings and freedoms we have.  One of those freedoms is that we choose how and whom we will love. 

 

We are reminded that we are called to love those whom God has put in our lives, whoever they may be—that we are called to love indiscriminately—just like the monsoon rains falling from the sky.

 

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are called to offer refreshment, cleansing and life giving care and compassion to those we come across whoever they may be. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hesitate, we can choose to love or not to love.  We have the freedom to follow God’s call in our lives or not to follow God’s prompting or God’s call

 

We do not have to earn God’s love.  God gives care and love, God provides for needs indiscriminately.  God sees all of us as worthy of care and worthy of love. 

 

God does not provide, localized, proportionate love and care to those who merit or deserve it.  Unfortunately, you and I are not the judge as to whom God should love and care for.  Just as we do not direct the weather (the rain) and where it falls, so we do not have charge over or direct God’s love. 

 

Now, God knows how we feel about someone—if we have an enemy or someone that has wounded us, or someone that we dislike.  God knows that and God knows that situation.  As hard as it may be to hear, God loves that group of people or that individual that has offended us.  God loves and cares for those we haven’t forgiven, the person who stabbed us in the back, the one person we are jealous of even that neighbor that reported us to the HOA that we haven’t gotten over. 

 

We do reap what we sow.  There are consequences to our behavior.  There is justice with love.  But at the end of the day, God does not withhold love and care and God asks us to do the same. 

 

Loving our enemies is another way of saying, ‘love those who are hard for you to love.’ 

 

In this passage Jesus was calling us to be different and not do what might come natural to us.  Jesus was calling us to be different from other folks and let go of our hate, our hurt, our disappointment, our anger and love those who haven’t earned it or don’t deserve it.

 

Now, loving our enemies or those people that are hard to love, or those that we don’t like, would make us different from other people. 

 

We cannot limit this passage to our enemies or those people that we don’t like for whatever reason that we don’t like them.  In effect Jesus was asking us, Jesus was calling us to be different. 

 

we are called to love everyone God puts in our path, and even to go out of the way to love others, friend or foe, not on the basis of deserving.

 

 

As we think about rain and its recipients, think about Jesus’ challenge to us today. 

 

 

loves us and provides for our needs regardless of the category we think someone might fall into.