Sermon on the Mount

Jesus really was radical and counter-cultural. He said enough stuff that got the establishment mad enough to kill him.

I'm still feeling pretty down emotionally becuase yesterday I saw one of the worst things I've ever seen. Erin's sister and husband have 3 kids and he's just filed for divorce. It hurt so much to see the two of them sitting across the courtroom from each other. The actual distance was about 10 yards but the emotional and legal distance seemed a million miles. I kept thinking of the wedding picture on their dresser.

My brother-in-law was making some legal moves that (to put it midly) didn't seem right to us. The big group of family members starting to get really worked up while sitting in the gallery, eventually the judged told them to be quiet or he'd remove us. I could understand their emotion, I was so mad I wanted to go up and strangle my brother-in-law.

But in the midst of these feelings the thought "sermon on the mount" entered my mind and it wouldn't go away. Jesus was really radical when he told us to "love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you." The normal or socially acceptable way to respond to what was happening was violent anger (and I saw it happening) but the counter-cultural "sermon on the mount" way of responding is with love and compassion. And as "sermon on the mount" continuned in my mind, the hate and anger was replaced with love and compassion. I'm now feeling hurt, rather than anger, for what my brother-in-law is doing. May God get ahold of his heart and change his mind.