The Best Way to Destroy Your Enemies

Author: Pastor Heidi Eickstadt (from sermon on 3/21/21)

I really get into studying history and one of my favorite historical figures is Abraham Lincoln. I admire Lincoln because of all the usual reasons: his steady leadership during the Civil War, his humble beginnings, the Emancipation Proclamation, to name a few. But I’ve also been inspired by Lincoln because he rejected bitterness and revenge against his enemies.

In her book, “Team of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin shares how Lincoln actually invited his opponents and detractors to become part of his cabinet, including a man named Edwin Stanton. Stanton and Lincoln had a contentious past and on top of that, Stanton was also a Democrat who had served as Attorney General in the previous administration. So he and Lincoln, a Republican, did not see eye to eye on many things.

Yet, Lincoln did not let that blind him to Stanton’s good qualities: his dedication, his honesty and his loyalty to country over political party. So, Lincoln invited him to be his Secretary of War, even though Stanton’s private secretary said that “No two men were ever more utterly and irreconcilably unlike.” Yet, once they were no longer enemies, Stanton and Lincoln became extremely close in their work together and they built a deep friendship.

Lincoln had many enemies besides Stanton but he rejected bitterness and hatred towards them too. In his second inaugural address, many wanted him to demonize the South and take a harsher line against it. Instead, he referred to Southerners as fellow human beings who were in error. When an elderly woman berated him and said that Southerners were irreconcilable enemies who must be destroyed,” Lincoln responded, “do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was also inspired by this story about Lincoln and Stanton, as well as Lincoln’s mercy towards his southern enemies. Dr. King preached that these are examples of the power of redemptive love, the redemptive love that transforms the oppressor and the oppressed, the redemptive love that makes the scales fall from our eyes to see ourselves and one another as we truly are, a beloved child of God.

How often do we fight to keep those scales on our eyes though? I know I struggle to forgive those who’ve slighted me or whom I feel have done me wrong. I preach and teach about God’s transformational love and pray for it to manifest in our world but I have to admit, it’s hard to put into practice that love with those I’ve been hurt by or those who hurt others. I want to see the face of Jesus in others, to see God’s love for them, but it so much harder to do that with someone we dislike or despise.

As we see in our Gospel story for today, it’s a human thing to struggle with love for those we do not know or like. Jesus does not extend love to this woman when she asks for his help, at this point it seems that he sees her as outside his mission, perhaps even an enemy, since her people are the enemies of his people. This may seem strange, not at all like the Jesus we know and love but we often lose sight of the fact that we believe Jesus is not only fully divine, he is also fully human. And as fully human, He would have had the human proclivity to see the world in terms of insiders and outsiders, friends and enemies.

But the Syrophoenician woman refuses to be excluded and let Jesus put up a barrier between them. Instead, she insists that no matter what her place, she is part of the household of God. Now when someone argues with me, I usually get defensive and immediately start to think of a way to refute their point, but not Jesus. Howard Thurman says that “her voice struck like a bolt of lightning.” Jesus hears God’s call to love all people speaking through this outsider. Pastor Amy Howe writes that “Jesus’ earlier prejudice was very human and his insight now perhaps divine. He instantly understands her challenge. His mission is not restricted to the Jews. God’s love expands beyond all barriers.” Jesus’ understanding of his mission and of his neighbor is changed, no longer does he see there are any barriers to God’s love. Howard Thurman writes that now, “Jesus teaches and demonstrates that man must love his neighbor directly, clearly, permitting no barriers between.”

But Jesus doesn’t just teach this love of neighbor, he lives it, concretely, healing and breaking bread with those he meets, even those considered outsiders and enemies. For, as Thurman writes, “The religion of Jesus makes the love-ethic central.” Thurman says love-ethic, not just love because he notes that the way of God’s love is more than a feeling or goodwill, it is concrete, it is an ethic that orients our conduct and our way of life. Love has to be rooted in concrete experience. “No amount of good feeling for people in general, no amount of simple desiring, is an adequate substitute.”

No one would have thought that Stanton and Lincoln would have been good co-workers, let alone friends. But Lincoln’s ability to resist hate and bitterness, his ability to see the humanity of his enemies, opened the way for them to work together and concretely experience one another so that fellowship was possible and a real relationship could grow between these two people from very different backgrounds and perspectives.

God’s love has that power to break down barriers in us too, like he broke down the barriers in Jesus in our Gospel story today. Will we like Jesus listen? Will we let ourselves be transformed, in act and being?

In addition to being a bit of a Lincoln fanatic, I also really get into the music of the rock band U2. Writing this sermon, I kept hearing the lyrics from the end of their song, “One” run through my head. “One” is a song about the difficulty of love but it ends talking about how, despite the pain and heartbreak of relationships, we are one and we are a gift to one another.

Bono sings:

“One love, one blood,

one life you got to do what you should,

one life, with each other, sisters, brothers,

one life but we’re not the same,

we get to carry each other, carry each other,

one, one.”

It’s not quite as powerful without the guitar riffs of the Edge but you get the idea. We do get this one life, freed for one another. We get to carry each other. May we do so with, in the words of Dr. King, the strength to love. Amen.