[ Today's Readings ]
Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.
God is calling us to become like him. That he would call us to such a lofty destiny is equal parts amazing and impossible.
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
We are called to have hearts free from hatred for our brothers and sisters even when they do something wrong and deserve reproof. We are called to not only avoid revenge but to offer no resistance at all. We don't even run away. We stay to continue to try to offer the love of a tunic or an extra mile for those who ask.
This is who God is. This is how God loves. We see this in the cross of Jesus Christ. Before the incarnation we have already thoroughly spurned God's grace and mercy. But he sends us Jesus anyway. Jesus does not call on legions of angels to punish those who arrest him. Rather he goes the extra mile for us, bearing the cross on his own back.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
How do we love with a love which is so foreign to our experience? How do we not only not lash back when we are wronged but continue to be present in love? We can't solve this problem just by thinking it through.
If any one among you considers himself wise in this age,
let him become a fool, so as to become wise.
We can't be perfect like our heavenly Father just by willing it or thinking it through. We quickly fall back to insisting on our own way against our enemies when we try to achieve holiness through our own efforts. Instead, we realize that the dignity and worth that we have is a gift.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The Spirit lives in us. He either lives or wants to live in our enemies. This is not something we can earn or ever deserve. It is rather a gift to be celebrated. Holiness is possible because Jesus, in his great love for us, goes to the cross and pours out the Spirit for us.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
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