And the Lord has today declared you
to be his people, a treasured possession, as he promised you, and you should
keep all his commandments.
Deuteronomy 26: 18
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be children of your
Father who is in heaven; for he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous...
Therefore you are to be perfect, as
your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5
Abba Poemen said, "A monk does
not complain of his lot, a monk does not return evil for evil, a monk is not
angry."
* *
*
The Jerusalem Bible refers to Israel,
at the making of the covenant, as a people "peculiarly" God's own.
Such ambiguity in the options for translation is astounding: "treasured
possession" or "peculiarly [God's own]"?
I think each possible rendering
offers us some insight into the relationship between God and God's people. The
idea of a treasured possession points to God's unfailing love for God's people.
As the reading from yesterday so clearly testified, God's extravagant
forgiveness meets each of us on the road home from the far country. As the
people grafted not Abraham's family tree, we are God's "treasured
possession." the idea of a people "peculiarly [God's] own"
points to the identity of the people of God in the world. Israel follows a
different set of customs and obeys different laws from those of the Gentiles. So also, Jesus suggests, Christians operate differently in the world.
Doing good to those who do good to you is the norm; doing good to those who do
you harm or seek to do you harm runs counter to all expectation. But being
God's peculiar people involves practices of humility and love that mirror God
rather than copying the world.
To be perfect is to love as God
loves, to allow God's way of seeing "enemies" and God's way of
responding to evil to become our own.
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