The following was purportedly posted on the Craigslist personals:
I am writing to the guy who tried to mug me in downtown Savannah night before last at 1:43 a.m. I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded I hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on me and my girlfriend, threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend’s purse and earrings. I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important message I am sending to you. This is the only way I could think of to transmit such an important communication to someone I don’t otherwise know.
First, I’d like to apologize for your embarrassment, I didn’t expect you to actually soil your pants when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket. The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason. My girlfriend had just bought me that Kimber Model 1911 .45 A CP pistol for my birthday, and we had picked up a shoulder holster for it that very evening. Obviously you agree that it is a very intimidating weapon when pointed at your head... isn’t it! I know it probably wasn’t fun walking back to wherever you’d come from... I’m sure it was even worse walking barefooted since I made you leave your shoes, cell phone and wallet with me. That prevented you from calling or running to your buddies to come help mug us again.
After I called your mother, or “Momma” as you had her listed in your cell, I explained the entire episode to her of what you’d done. Then I went and filled up my gas tank as well as four other people’s in the gas station. Thanks for that. I put my purchase on your credit card. The guy with the big motor home took 150 gallons and was extremely grateful! I gave your shoes to a homeless guy outside Vinnie Van Go Go’s, along with all the cash in your wallet. I have to tell you, that really made his day! I then threw your wallet into the big pink “pimp mobile” that was parked at the curb... after I broke the windshield and side window and keyed the entire driver’s side of the car.
Next, on your cell phone, I managed to get in two threatening phone calls to the DA’s office and one to the FBI, while mentioning President Obama as my possible target. The FBI guy seemed really intense, and we had a nice long chat, my guess is, while he traced your number, etc… I feel this type of retribution is a far more appropriate punishment for your threatened crime. I wish you well as you try to sort through some of these rather immediate pressing issues, and can only hope that you have the opportunity to reflect upon, and perhaps reconsider, the career path you’ve chosen to pursue in life.
Remember, next time you might not be so lucky. I sure do hope you have a great day!
Thoughtfully yours, Alex.
I have no idea how true this story actually is but when I first read it, I spent the next ten minutes laughing. I always enjoy a good funny story. This one was no exception. As I thought about it, most of us would love to be able to put ourselves in the position of the guy from whom the mugger tried to steal. Who among us wouldn’t like to put some bad guy in his place and do so in a way that might not cause physical pain but just might put this so-in-so on a right path, which would make him or her think twice before ever actually mugging someone again? There might not be any physical pain but this guy was certainly looking over his shoulders for a few weeks, watching for the guys in suits with sunglasses over their eyes and ear pieces jammed into their ear canals. The only thing that might be more fun would be watching this guy try to scramble his way out of the mess we created for him.
One day last week, when on my way to the gym I thought I was going to see a war break out in front of my eyes. I was taking the loop east around Lufkin. I had gotten into the right lane, ready to exit when I got to Atkinson. There was one car in front of me and another in the left lane. Suddenly, without signaling, without warning of any kind, the car in the left lane pulls into the path, cutting off the car in front of me, taking the Atkinson exit. Both cars pull up to the light. The guy in the car in front of me jumps out, gun in hand running up to the car. There were a few words said and the guy went back and got back into his car. It made for a tense couple of minutes. I had nothing to do with the whole situation but it was a bit scary being caught in the middle of someone else’s little battle.
I was a first-hand witness to someone else’s anger. It wasn’t a pretty picture, in fact, at that moment it seemed more than just a little bit dangerous. I don’t blame the guy for being upset. Had the other car come as close to me as it did to him, I would have been pretty upset too. Still, upset is one thing, pulling out a gun is another matter entirely.
I have told you before, the favorite current television show at the Broyles house is The Big Bang Theory. Cindy and I both enjoy the show, not everything about it but we enjoy most of it. One of the show’s central characters, Sheldon Cooper, has a list of “mortal enemies.” Many of the people on Sheldon’s list know nothing of Sheldon or their status in his life. The good news of Sheldon’s list is, he never seems to do much about them. The bad news of Sheldon’s list is, he never seems to do much about them.
At best, most of us are a lot like Sheldon. We have our enemies, we may refer to them in other ways, but they are people we want as little to do with as possible and it would bring us great joy to see them have to suffer, even if it isn’t by our own hand. After all, in some way, they made us suffer. That is probably how they got to be enemies to start with. But, we aren’t going to do much about it either.
Some of us may be like Alex in the story I told you a few minutes ago. I hope there are few of us like the guy I saw on my way to the gym.
The thing is, for all of us, there are people in the world around us we just don’t like for any variety of reasons. They may not be people we would call enemies but without question we don’t like these folks and for the most part, however we can, we try to keep our distance from these folks. I am not so sure that is such a bad thing. Jesus didn’t say we had to like our enemies.
He did say we have to love them. “Keith, aren’t you splitting hairs there?” I don’t think so.
In our lesson this morning Jesus gives us another of those radical sayings we have talked about since the first of the year. During the course of this series we have talked about things like selling all our stuff and giving to the poor. Another week we talked about being a servant. Still another week we talked about denying ourselves and last week we talked about Jesus’ instruction to forgive.
This week we are turning to what may be the most difficult of all these sayings, “Love your enemies.” Really? Who wants to do that? Most of us, perhaps not in what we say but somewhere in the deepest recesses of our minds don’t want to love these folks. What we really want comes a whole lot closer to wanting to hurt these folks. We may not follow through on the feelings. Most of us don’t follow through on the feelings but that doesn’t mean those feelings are not there. Most of the time, our enemies did something to us or to those we love to become an enemy to start with. But, at least the threat of some kind of legal punishment keeps most of our more aggressive emotions in check. Instead of hurting this person we consider an enemy, we settle for pretty well ignoring their existence, at least to the degree such ignoring is possible. If your boss is one of your enemies, ignoring probably isn’t such a good idea.
Then we read this lesson from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and read this statement about loving our enemies. I would say, at best, for many of us, we want to treat these words from Jesus about the way we tend to treat our enemies, we want to ignore them. We want to ignore them and hope they go away, far away, never to bother us again.
Jesus saying to love our neighbor, isn’t that hard enough? I mean after all, that guy down the street that is playing his music at four in the morning, loud enough I could dance to it in my bedroom, if I got out of bed, well he isn’t my enemy but by any definition he is my neighbor. In spite of the bass beat at an hour any civilized human being is sleeping, well there are a few who are probably working, I still try to be nice to the guy. I try to show love. But my enemy? Come on Jesus. Now you’ve gone too far. This is just too much to ask. Isn’t it?
Well, not if we take the Bible seriously. Remember that story of Jacob and Esau back in Genesis. Family or not, I think Esau would have considered Jacob an enemy. And, while he may not have been able to show love to Jacob when it first happened, when Jacob made his way home Esau was able to love again.
In Romans 12, Paul says something pretty radical on this score too. “If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people. Don’t try to get revenge for yourselves, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. It is written, Revenge belongs to me; I will pay it back, says the Lord. Instead, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. By doing this, you will pile burning coals of fire upon his head. Don’t be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good.”
In many ways, Paul’s words even seem to contradict themselves. “If your enemy is hungry feed him. By doing this you will pile burning coals on his head?” If I am hungry I get the feeding part but I don’t care the circumstances, I am not really very interested in having burning coals piled on my head. It sounds pretty radical to me and I don’t really think it sounds much like a way of showing love to an enemy. Someone piles burning coals on my head is going to stay on my mortal enemies list for a very long time.
But, think about this a different way. Of course Paul is not speaking literally here. One of the first aid lessons I learned early in my Boy Scout career was, if you needed to sterilize a piece of cloth to use as a bandage, applying heat to it would sterilize it, making what otherwise be dirty and unfit to use as a bandage an acceptable alternative.
What I believe Paul is trying to say is, when you provide your enemy with food and water you are sterilizing the unacceptable relationship and making it new.
When someone asked Abraham Lincoln, after he was elected president, what he was going to do about his enemies, he replied, "I am going to destroy them. I am going to make them my friends.” And truly, that is what he went about doing.
There were four major contenders for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, New York Senator William Seward, Ohio Governor Salmon P. Chase, and Missouri attorney Edward Bates. None of these men like each other. Lincoln was probably the least respected of the four. Still, as we all know from our history lessons, Lincoln won the election. As he went about building his cabinet Lincoln was determined to hold the Republican Party together. In an effort to do just that, Lincoln recruited who he thought were the best men, all were men in those days, to be a part of the cabinet. Seward became Secretary of State, Chase Secretary of the Treasury, Bates Attorney General, and another political enemy Edwin Stanton became Secretary of War. All but Chase came to love and respect Lincoln over the years that followed. Yet even with Chase, Lincoln’s biggest enemy, Lincoln nominated him, and he received confirmation, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Lincoln believed Chase to be the best man for the job.
What a man Lincoln was. For most of us, it would be difficult at best to treat one enemy with the kind of respect Lincoln showed to these four. Yet because of Lincoln’s actions he did destroy his enemies. He made them his friends.
So I leave you with this question to ponder today. Of the two Alex, we talked about at the beginning of the message, or Lincoln, which of the two could be upheld as one who loves his enemies. Without question, most of us would love to treat our enemies as Alex did with his mugger. But, in the end, it could be argued Alex still had an enemy.
Did Lincoln? Do we?
