14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." ²⁰ No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Over the last couple of days, Jen and I have been watching a documentary entitled ’10 Questions for the Dali Lama’, which shockingly enough, features the history and current thought of the Dali Lama (I bet you couldn’t see that one coming!). One of the questions that the filmmaker asked of the spiritual and political leader was in regards to Israel and Palestine and if the Dali Lama thought that peace could ever be reached, especially considering that these people have been fighting for some 3000 years (try and let that sink in for a minute). The filmmaker made sure to tell the audience that the time that he had spent in Israel had led him to believe that religion, especially radically Orthodox religion with a literalist interpretation of scripture, to be the leading cause of violence in the history of the world, and absolutely today.

The Dali Lama paused for a moment and said, "I have been to Jerusalem twice. And during those visits I had the opportunity to meet many good people; many good Jews; many good Muslims. But there is so much hatred, so much distrust. They come to the table of peace and all they can see is that distrust and then peace becomes impossible. They need to know one another. There need to be festivals that bring them together so that they can get to know one another. They need to have picnics. Once they have those picnics and begin to know one another, then peace has a chance. Peace can happen, but only if they know one another."

The filmmaker had no problems expressing his surprise that picnics were the way to peace in the Middle East. I have to say, I was a little bit surprised as well, but as I thought about it over the subsequent days, there is more than a little truth to what this wise man was saying. He comes from a position that is not unlike that of the Palestinians: the Chinese have taken over a land that he and all Tibetans consider theirs. He lives in exile in Northern India because of this occupation.

And yet he does not advocate armed retaliation as the Palestinians have so often resorted to. No, he says that the only way that this can take place is through peaceful dialogue and dialogue means that you have to know who you are talking with. He believes the Chinese government to be oppressive and in the wrong, but he is willing to be a person of peace and love because that is who he feels he is called to be. He is willing to love his enemies. Despite the Chinese attempts to annihilate the Tibetan culture (as well as its people), he has forgiven his country’s oppressors. This is loving to the extreme. Obviously, the Dali Lama is not Christian (no shock there). But his actions, especially in this case, are Christ-like.

What is described in these actions, is a modern day example of the sort of love that Paul articulates in his letter to the Roman Church. Paul is saying to that church and to all of those believers who subsequently read these words, "Heh! Believers in Jesus! We need to be like Jesus! We need to radical alter the way that we live! We need to love to the extreme! Yes, we need to love our families and friends, but even more importantly, we need to love those who hate us. We need to be willing to pray for and even care for those who want us to fall."

We need to do this because it is the only true way to ultimately overcome the evil that we encounter in those who hate us.

So often we get caught up into the mentality of an eye for an eye. Here’s the thing: that isn’t scriptural. What we find in scripture, as articulated in these words by Paul is that only a radical love, the radically extreme love that was exhibited through the actions of Jesus Christ, this is the only thing that will cause the cycle of violence, of hatred, of sinfulness to come to an end. Violence in response to violence will not end it. Anger in response to anger only engenders …more anger.

Look at the history of the world and what you see are people who are not only fighting because they felt they were wronged, but because their parents, grandparents, follow it as far down the lineage chain as you would like, but it is in response to some previous wrong. The culture that we have perpetuated here in the United States makes this sort of "punch back or be punched out" mentality almost a requirement. When I watch the local news at night (which for me is out of New York), what I hear are stories of people who are stealing, killing, retaliating, because they feel like they have been wronged, and that they don’t have a choice. A young child is gunned down by a ‘stray’ bullet that was fired in the direction of a group of teenagers who showed up another group of teenagers at a local club. A teacher for a catholic school is mugged and the guy who did it tells cops that ‘the man didn’t leave me no other choice’. A husband hits his wife and says that he did it, "because she was mouthing off at me." Violence at the drop of a hat. Violence as a first response. It doesn’t work. Big situations, little situations, it doesn’t matter what kind of situations, the only thing that can break the cycle of sinful anger, violence, and even hatred that we have created is when people decide to love to the extreme, and that means stepping out and risking to even love those who come against you.

You may think that it is way too oversimplified but why do we think that? I think at least part of the reason is that our society has conditioned us to think that those who love are weak. But I’m sorry as I look through the pages of scriptures, and as I have allowed this passage to dwell with me the last two weeks, what I see is that the only chance that we have of breaking the cycle of sinful retribution, and sin-filled anger is by loving to the extreme. Jesus was hanging on the cross, being derided by both his Roman captors and his fellow Israelites and he looks up to the sky and says, "forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." He didn’t look down at them and say, "my day is coming, and when it does, your day is done." That is a radical example of what it means to love.

Now obviously, when that sort of an example gets rolled out there many of us begin to ask the question, "Yeah, but what can I do? That was the Son of God hanging on that cross. I could never do that. What could I do to exemplify this radical sort extreme love?"

Well, for one, you’ve got to work at it. You can’t think that you can love to the extreme right out of the gate every single time. That would be like watching Michael Phelps at the Olympics and say, "I can do that" and then be disappointed when your times in the pool aren’t quite up to the world records that he was able to set swim after swim after swim. He had to work at! So do we!

So here are so examples that may make sense to you or someone you know as to how to love to the extreme. How many of you when you’re out driving on the road, have ever had someone cut you off? What’s your reaction? I have to admit that there have been too many times when I have responded to that action by acting like a NASCAR driver and getting so close to that person’s back bumper that it feels like I’m in their back seat. I’ve heard others blow horns or some other variation of road rage. What if, instead, we take a breath and display a radical form of love and instead of tailgating, we give the person the space they did not give us? Loving to the extreme is not easy but when it is practiced it can become who we are.

Have you ever had someone use language toward you that was disrespectful? How have you responded? Many of us go right back at them, unloading a verbal barrage that only ups the ante. What if, instead, we respond to that person with the respect they did not show us? Stand up for yourself but do it in a way that love is displayed instead of anger being returned. Loving to the extreme is not easy but when it is practiced it can become who we are.

Finally, to show you that loving to the extreme is something that is hard to implement but it vitally important that we put into practice, this past Friday we had a couple stop in to utilize the food pantry. Not an unusual situation considering it’s the end of the month. However, this was not a normal circumstance. This was a couple who had abused the privilege of the food panty. They had shown up at least four times over a three-week period back in late April, early May, always at different times so as to make sure that they didn’t bump into the same person. Putting it very simply, they single handedly wiped out the food pantry. They knew the rules of the food panty and they abused them. They were told that they could not come back until August. On Friday, they came back.

Now, it would have been real easy to say, "I’m sorry, but we can’t help you." After all, they had taken advantage of our generosity. The whole ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’ statement comes to mind.

But to do that would be contrary to the radical sort of love that we are called to live out. We are called to love those who hurt us. Not to spurn them but to embrace them with the love of Jesus Christ. It is this sort of love that will break the cycle of sinfulness that we too often perpetuate. Jesus showed us the way to live. Paul spoke about it in his passage to the Roman church. This is the sort of love that the Dalai Lama is trying to live out. This is the sort of love that we tried to show to the couple who abused the privilege of the food pantry. This is the sort of love that each of us needs to work at on a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute basis. If we do, if we allow this sort of loving to the extreme to exist in who we are, the world will begin to change and change in such a way that the kingdom of God is championed. Loving to the extreme: let us begin to live it out in the here and now!

Holy and gracious God, we have been taught in so many ways that the best and even only response to hurt is by striking back. God, help us to come to understand that this is not Your way, that Your way calls us to love the world in a radical way, to the point that we love those who hurt us. God, help us to live this sort of life. Let it be so. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.