Love Your Enemies

Genesis 45:3-11, 15    Luke 6:27-38

I am going to take a leap of faith here, and assume that all of you have heard of Anne Frank, the young Jewish woman who died of typhus in 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp not long before it was liberated by the Allies.

Anne was an amazing person. The daughter of a successful German businessman, she enjoyed a carefree childhood before Hitler came to power, but even during the time she and her family hid out from the Gestapo, even after her capture and incarceration, Anne was a positive person.  I remember reading how she once produced a cup of coffee, for a fellow inmate who desperately needed it, and she worked other little “miracles” for her fellow prisoners.  Despite deplorable conditions, she clung to life – and then came the typhus epidemic. 

It would seem that she succumbed to that illness, but there is another piece of information that is perhaps less known.  Otto Frank, her father, was in the hospital at Auschwitz, where the Allies found and rescued him when they liberated that camp.  But, unfortunately, someone told Anne that her father had died.  After that, it is said, she seemed to give up.  The typhus she had contracted worsened, and, it is believed she died only two months before the Allies arrived and liberated Bergen-Belsen.  For the record, Anne died of typhus, but perhaps it is more accurate to say she also died of a broken heart.

Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?"

Today’s first reading tells the end of a very familiar story.  All of us know about Joseph, his technicolor dreamcoat, his betrayal by his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt, and his subsequent rise to power there.  But what do we actually hear when we hear this story?  What goes through our minds as the emotional conclusion unfolds?  What did we hear this morning?

We can start with, “I am Jospeh”.  Who was he, and, more to the point, what was his family like?  We are often so enchanted with the story of his colourful coat, his bothers’ cruelty, and the divine plan that turns things around for him, we forget just how dysfunctional his family really was.

“Is my father still alive?”

Joseph is Jacob’s son.  We tend to remember Jacob for the dream where angels ascend and descend what we refer to as Jacob’s Ladder, but there is much more to him than that.  Let’s up the story where Jacob first met Joseph’s mother. Jacob fell in love with Rachel, when drawing water from a well – and watering a herd of sheep belonging to Rachel’s father.  He loved Rachel  so much, he worked for her father for seven years in order to have permission to marry her.

The wedding took place, but when Jacob lifted the veils covering his bride’s face, he found he had been tricked, and he had married the older sister, Leah, instead.  Quite a double-cross, but his new father-in-law explained the older daughter must marry before the younger one can, and so Jacob worked another seven years and then, finally, in a time and culture where polygamy was legal, he married his beloved Rachel.

For those seven years, we have no details as to how he treated Leah, but we know he did not love her, though he did his duty by her, and they had six sons.  His marriage to Rachel, when it finally takes place, is a love match, and she produces one son, Joseph, whom, because he is the son of the woman he loves, Jacob spoils terribly.  No wonder Leah’s sons are so angry and jealous toward Joseph.  They must see how differently Joseph is treated from the way their father treats and has treated them.  It also makes clear why the first thing Jospeh asks upon seeing his brothers is, “Is my father still alive?”.

My husband comes from a family of rather intense and complicated sibling relationships.  Recently, his brother has put him in another uncomfortable situation that has brought up a lot of memories about in-family rivalries. When my husband heard today’s first reading about Jospeh’s brothers, he commented that it was a good thing the men’s father was still alive, because otherwise Joseph would have killed them.

Would Joseph have done this?  Certainly, many a good man in his position in that day and age would have taken their revenge on brothers wicked enough to have sold them into slavery when they were only a boy.  Jospeh had all the power he needed to do what would seem to be the logical thing, considering the time in which he lived, and no one would have questioned him or, if they knew the story, faulted him for his decision – but Joseph does not act as one would expect.

Instead, in a time of terrible famine, and because he can, Jospeh comes to the rescue of his family, and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

What killed Anne Frank and what saved Joseph’s brothers?  It all had and has something to do with the mystery we call “love” - love that keeps us alive in the face of evil, love that does not seek justice despite terrible crime.  We like the idea of romantic love, of chocolates and roses, but there is a deeper love.  And this love knows no restrictions or conditions – but instead it pours freely from the heart and the soul.

Jesus tells us, "I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”  And He doesn’t stop there, but continues to list things that could easily send any of us over the edge, make us angry, make us vengeful.

What is there to keep us from our basic human nature?  What power is there that will sustain us in the face of situations and evils that disturb, provoke, and challenge us to get even, to set things right, to do anything but love?  If you are searching for the answer, you are already getting in God’s way.  There is nothing we can think through that will strengthen us, and fill us with the love that can defeat anger and evil and even death – but there are actions we can take. Actions that require of us the desire to love, the desire to be the people Jesus is calling us to be. Actions that, instead of producing action, produce surrender to God.

Know Yourself: We need to understand how important we are in God's eyes, and realize we are nothing without Him.  We need to pray regularly, opening ourselves to God's voice and guidance. Submitting to God’s will, is very important, but we need to be prayerfully asking always for Jesus to guide us, lest in pride we confuse our stubborn will with His. We must serve others.  Our mission is one of love, which we manifest through acts of love and humility towards others. And we must trust like a child: Cultivate a child-like trust in God, letting go of worldly concerns and allowing Him to guide us.

Each of us is one person, precious in the eyes of God, loved unconditionally by God, and saved by Jesus Christ our Lord.  We need to recognize the power of that Love – so great that it raised Jesus from the dead and promises us peace and joy in this life, not in worldly terms, but in our hearts and souls.  Surrender to this Love and the peace of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are yours.

Anne Frank lived until someone, either by accident or out of cruelty, took from her heart her hope in reuniting with her beloved father.  Love saved Joseph and his brothers from despair, anger, and revenge.

Love has the power of life and death, in this world and the next.  May we all, through the power of the Holy Spirit, choose Love.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.