It is only natural that we become our parents. When God calls us to become children of God, it isn’t so natural. In the Gospel of Luke we hear, “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” The human way is to love those who love us back. To become children of God means that we love even when we are hated in return.
My brothers and sisters, this morning’s gospel is a great challenge for us. It is a challenge not only on how to behave toward others, but it is a challenge on how we can become the children of God. In our baptism, we are made and united to God and we become his children, but our behavior doesn’t always follow the reality. I remember when I was younger and there were many things, now I know my father never watches these videos, so there were many things about the way my father acted that drove me crazy and I thought when I got older I wasn’t going to do what he did.
Well, if you know my father, if you’ve ever met my father, I have become my father. And I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it took a big pill to swallow to realize that all the things that used to bother me about my father, because I was young and immature, now as an adult, I appreciate. Now as an adult I realize that what my father was teaching me was how to be a good man. And so now, now Presvytera, don’t tell him I said any of this. And now when people call my father and me on the phone, they don’t know who they’re talking to. I was sharing in Greek that one time his own sister called and insisted that I was her brother because our voices are exactly the same on the phone. But now at 55, I can appreciate that I have become my father and now it is a good thing.
And so how do we become our parents? And more importantly, how do we become like our Father in heaven, God himself? That is what this morning’s gospel is here to teach us. We know about the golden rule as you would have others do to you, so do to them, but there’s a message deeper than that, my brothers and sisters, and this is how we become children of God. The gospel ends, “But you love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return.”
You see, that’s not the golden rule. The golden rule is to do as you want them to do. But for us as children of God, ours is to love and do good expecting nothing in return because that’s what God has done for us. God has loved us knowing that we were going to turn our back on Him. God has loved us knowing that we’re going to go through life ignoring Him. God loves us each and every moment, even when we’re running away and He chases after us like a loving father chases after his children. But until we grow to realize that being like God is a good thing, it’s a good thing to love expecting hatred in return. It sounds strange. That’s how we become children of God. To love even though we are hated. To give, not just monetarily, but to give support, to give love, to give encouragement, expecting not a single kind word in return. This is what it means when the gospel says, and you will be children of God. And then the closing words, “Therefore, be merciful, just as your father also is merciful.”
My brothers and sisters, if my father held everything against me that I ever did as a child, I would not be standing here in front of you today. Every time I went to my father, he forgave me and he was merciful to me. And this is how God treats us. Every time we return to Him. He forgives us. He doesn’t hold it against us. He’s waiting for us to return. Be merciful, my brothers and sisters, as our father is merciful, start to show mercy to others. If you’re confused what that means in 2025, I’m going to say it a different way. Cut some people some slack. It’s okay that other people are not perfect. It’s okay that other people don’t understand the fullness of God’s love. We don’t understand it. Why do we hold others to a standard that we ourselves cannot meet?
This is what it means to love as God loves and to be children of God. So I’ve given us a great challenge from the gospel. Don’t just love expecting to be loved, that’s the golden rule. From today, love expecting not to be loved and you will be children of God, and we will inherit the Kingdom of our Father. It’s on our shoulders to be merciful, to love, to do good. Maybe one day we’ll grow up. Maybe one day we won’t be little children in the way we behave, in the way we talk. Maybe one day we will live up to the title of children of God.
By God’s grace and by God’s mercy. Glory to God for all things.
