Live out your God-created identity

Matthew 5:48 In a word what I'm saying is "Grow up!" You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your god-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others the way God lives toward you.

In the familiar verses of the Sermon on the Mount, Eugene Peterson's The Message paraphrase just pops with freshness and vitality. This whole verse shows up in the NRSV as "Be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect" and look at the way Peterson connects the dots for us. Who on earth is "perfect" and what does that even mean? But if we look at God, and how God is, in particular how God deals with us, we get some idea: God treats us with kindness and mercy, and that is how he expects us to deal with our fellows.

This verse is the culmination and summary of the command to love your enemy. Peterson shows us how this call to love one's enemy takes us out of the usual tit for tat way of doing things, the usual way of trying to get back at those who harm or try to harm us. Jesus here calls us to a higher purpose -- to love as God has loved us, in the face of and in spite of all the unloving things that we have done, and that others have done to us. We are to act as if we were perfect in that way, even though we will never be. We are to take that generous gift of mercy and grace and pass it on to others regardless of their worth or lack thereof. We are to pour out the overflowing cup of God's love and compassion to all of this broken world mired in hate, hurt, fear and pain. That is both God's call and God's promise. That is how the world is transformed; that is the Kingdom of God on earth.

We have been reading Jesus Freak at my church. In it, the author Sara Miles describes a food pantry that has no lists or criteria, no requirements, but that people show up and ask. They rain food on the just and the unjust alike and don't question whether the people showing up are "really" poor or "deserve" to get free food or not. When it's a gift, no one can take advantage of you! This is the kind of free giving Jesus talks about. People cheat because they haven't experienced generosity of spirit, because they live in a world of scarcity rather than God's world of abundance. Experiencing that kind of giving can really call people into a new life. It's infectious, a virtuous cycle that begets more giving, more love, more generosity of spirit. And that's something I want to be part of!

Prayer: Dear God, You have shown me a vision of your Kingdom through Jesus's words. Help me to give generously to all, and to live in the freedom of abundance which is your Kingdom on earth. Amen.