Twenty Third Sunday of the Year: Hating Those We Love (Luke 14:25-33)

We know the old commandment, “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). We know the new commandment of Jesus, “Love one another; even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). And we come here today and we hear these words of Jesus: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). How can we reconcile these seemingly contradictory demands? How can we “hate” those we are supposed to love? And, more importantly, why?

The paradox of hating those we love was dramatized in a most fascinating way on Saturday, September 8, 2001 in the women’s finals of the US Open tennis tournament in Flushing, New York. For the first time in the history of the tournament, the world watched a sportive and emotional roller-coaster as two sisters who love themselves so much that they live in the same house and share the same hotel room fought each other. Could you imagine what was going on in the minds of Venus and Serena Williams as they battled and slugged it out against each other, suspending their love for each other and at least temporarily “hating” each other? They had to “hate” each other because the one was standing in the way of the other becoming the world champion. The one was an obstacle to the realization of the other’s dream to wear the world crown. And so they had to hate and fight each other.

Venus won. But she did not do her usual victory leap and celebratory display. Instead she ran to the net, put an arm around her defeated junior sister’s shoulder and said, “I love you.” Why did she say that? Because the game is over now and her sister is no longer an obstacle in the way of her victory. She said, in other words, “I am sorry, but I had to do it: I had to fight you so hard, I had to “hate” you because you were standing in my way. But I still love you.” That was a rare example of hating those we love, and from it we can learn much about the injunction to “hate” our loved ones.

Ordinarily Venus loves Serena, except when Serena becomes an obstacle that could prevent her from realising her ambition to win the crown. Similarly we are lo love our parents and siblings and spouses, and indeed everyone else, except when they become obstacles in our bid to win the crown of eternal life. The crown of heavenly glory that the Father gives us is worth much more than the ephemeral crown that Venus won on that day. So we should be prepared to wage an uncompromising war to see that no person or thing stands in our way to make us lose the crown. Possessions constitute a formidable obstacle in many people’s bid for the crown of salvation. That is why Jesus concludes today’s gospel with these words: “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” (v. 33).

Jesus implies that to be his disciple is to relativize every other thing in life: family or wealth, prosperity or health, pleasure or fame. He means that on the list of our goals and priorities in life, attaining the kingdom of God must come first and then everything else will follow. It is a matter of life and death. And the examples he gives to illustrate the seriousness of his teaching come from the field of war.

The first illustration is that of the man who intends to build a tower. The tower in the ancient world was basically a strategic structure for the defence of the city in time of war. The second illustration is that of the king marching out to war. Notice that the king has only 10,000 troops whereas the enemy has 20,000. Identifying ourselves with the king in the parable, we can see that the enemy outnumbers us two to one. “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). We are bound to fail unless we appeal to a stronger king to come to our assistance. And that powerful king, the King of kings, is none other than God Himself.

Today’s gospel, therefore, shows us how absolute and how radical are the demands of discipleship. Following Jesus is much harder than winning the US Open. The good news is that Jesus recognises our human weaknesses: we are 10,000 strong and the enemy is 20,000. It is, therefore, an invitation for us to have recourse to God, for without God we can do nothing.

Twenty Third Sunday of the Year: No Longer Slave but Brother (Philemon 9-10, 12-17)

In the days of institutionalized slavery in the United States of America, the slaves devised an intricate network of roads, pathways and secret contacts for escaping known as the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was an arduous and very risky venture, but it took successful runaway slaves to freedom in the Free States and Canada. Can you imagine slaves risking their lives in a daring escape to freedom in Canada only to be sent back to their former slave owners from whom they had just escaped? And yet this is apparently what Paul is doing to the runaway slave Onesimus in the second reading. Paul has been criticised for condoning slavery. He teaches that people should remain in the same social condition in which God called them and that slaves should not seek their freedom (1 Corinthians 7:20-21). Yet the same Paul says that “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). What can we make of Paul’s teaching on slavery?

Our first observation is that Paul is not interested in human or social values for their own sake. For him the only thing that matters is to be in Christ. You remember the story of the slaves being loaded off the slave ship, naked and in chains, and a Christian minister sprinkling them with holy water and baptizing them as they disembark. For this minister, being in chains does not really matter, what matters is being baptized and saving one’s soul. We have come a long way from that position. Today we know that freedom and human rights are of value in themselves, whether the people affected are Christians or not. Today we are aware of human rights and values which should be defended for everyone irrespective of their religious affiliation. Today the church has a social gospel in addition to the traditional spiritual gospel.

Paul’s gospel, however, was a spiritual gospel. It is good news addressed not to the whole of humanity but to those who are in Christ Jesus. In Christ, social status does not matter, it does not count. In Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, since in Christ everybody is equal. Those outside of Christ do not share in this equality. Paul appeals to Philemon to receive Onesimus back “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother” (verse 16) not because slavery is morally wrong, not because a Christian should not keep slaves, but because a Christian cannot keep a fellow Christian, a brother or sister of equal standing before God, as a slave. Later, as Christians began to realise that what is good for the goose is good for the gander, that what is good for Christians is also good for non-Christians, they would begin the campaign to abolish slavery from the face of the earth.

As Christians in the 21^st century reading a personal letter that Paul wrote 2,000 years ago, what good news do we find in it? How does it challenge us?

Paul’s Letter to Philemon reminds us that as Christians we need to have higher standards of moral behaviour among us than what obtains in the society at large. If it is true that among us “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28), then we need to have more egalitarian structures in Christian communities and churches than what obtains in the wider society. Our oneness in Christ should come before our differences of age, race, gender, and social status in such a way that non-Christians seeing the way we live can say, “See how much they love one another.

Secondly, Paul’s Letter to Philemon is a sad reminder to us that even Paul did not have all the answers. As a church, Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth (John 16:13). The Spirit has led us to see that the gospel of Christ is for the total liberation of the whole person, body and soul, social and spiritual. Let us pray today that we may be more keenly aware of the abuses of human rights that are going on in our homes, in our communities and in our world.