Today’s gospel lesson, my brothers and sisters, is another powerful message directly into our hearts from God. As you would have others do to you, do those things to them. We call this the Golden Rule. But my brothers and sisters, many of us spend most of our time following the Brass Rule. We do to others what they have already done to us. If they have been nice to us, we are nice to them. If they have helped us, we have helped them. If they say a good thing about us, we say a good thing about them. That is not the message of the gospel.

The message of the gospel, my brothers and sisters, is expecting us to initiate the good behavior, to initiate the good treatment of other people, to initiate kindness and love and goodness. This is what it means to be a Christian.

Christ says,” And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you love those who love you, even sinners love those who love them.” And this is one of my favorites. “And if you lend to those whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you for even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.” You see my brothers and sisters, the world treats everyone like they’ve already been treated. And unfortunately, going all the way back to Adam and Eve, because the world has been cruel to us, we tend to be cruel and short-hearted to other people.

This is just the human condition. It isn’t that we are evil on the inside. I mean, some people might be. But the truth is our entire existence, it has been ingrained in us to give back what we have received. And in the gospel, Christ turns that on its head. He says, “Don’t give them what they’ve already given you. Give to them something greater, expecting nothing in return.”

You see, my brothers and sisters, if God had only done for us what we have done for him, we would still be stuck in the mud. Christ loves us even when we don’t love him back. Christ blesses us even when we do not bless him back. Christ loves us even if we reject him. And this is the call of the Christian. Remember we were talking about discipleship last week, what it means to be a disciple. Well, here is a good example, the lesson we can learn from Christ, the final words from the gospel, “Therefore be merciful just as your father also is merciful.”

Think about how different the world would be if we treated others first as Christ would treat them. Imagine how different our interrelationships would be, how different people would treat us if first we looked at them with the kind of mercy and love and grace that God does.

This is that high calling of the Christian to be like God. That’s why we’re called Christians. We aren’t called Christians because of something in our intellect. We are called Christians because we love and live like Christ. And so in this, a special new season of the church, as we’re getting into the Gospel of Luke and we’re seeing all of these profound life changing challenges, I invite us, my brothers and sisters, to embrace the true Golden Rule, and that is to be like God, to love as he loves, to do good as he does good, to forgive as he forgives, expecting nothing in return. No attaboys, not even a thank you, nothing in return. And that is the way of Christ.

If we are able to embrace that, my brothers and sisters, our lives will change. We truly will become lights of Christ. I often remind people of the ancient church, even before Christianity was legal, when you could be killed just for admitting to be a Christian. What attracted people to the church wasn’t theology, but what attracted people to the church was the Christians were living like Christ and loving like Christ and treating even their enemies as Christ. This is what attracted thousands upon thousands of people into the church. This is the message that conquered the Pagan empire.

I was asked the other night at the young adult gathering what my dreams were for Charleston and Orthodoxy in the area. My brothers and sisters, I believe with all my heart that Orthodox Christianity has the answer to what ails America, but it’s not up here. It’s in here, our hands and our feet and our lips. If we really want to heal our country, we must learn to be merciful as our father in heaven is merciful, to love as God loves, to truly embrace and live the Golden Rule. It’s a great challenge, but it’s one that God has given us the tools and he’s given us his grace and his mercy. All we need now is to put our willingness behind his grace. Glory to God for all things.