turning the other cheek

Good morning friends,
Our passage from Luke today is certainly one of the most familiar. Even people who have never set foot in a church know that Christians talk about turning the other cheek. This is a challenging passage. As many times as I've read it, I still don't think turning the other cheek when someone hits me would come easily. It's pretty clear that Jesus expects a different, and difficult kind of life from us than what we see around us. At the same time, Jesus reminds us that we do these things (or try to do them) because we're God's children, and God persistently shows mercy to us no matter how many times we turn away.

Our passage from Proverbs is quite poetic. Proverbs may not be too familiar to you since we don't read it that often. This passage isn't representative stylistically since most of Proverbs is in the form of advice rather than lyric poetry. At the same time, the point of the passage, and of Proverbs more generally, is to encourage and teach wisdom. Wisdom here is shown as God's helper in creation. Biblical wisdom is not mostly a brain thing, but more a matter of a heart tuned to God's truth and seeking responsible action in the world. I wonder how it would change our week if we tried to think about what wisdom calls us to do each day.

God bless,
Sam

Luke 6:27-36
27“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.


Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
1Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? 2On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 4"To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.

22The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. 23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth-26when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil. 27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.