Loving Your Enemy
Luke 6:27-36
27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
This Sunday’s service can be viewed on our Facebook page @ Sunday, February 23, 2025
Hello NewDay!
I hope you have had a good week. It's going to be getting warmer, so we have 40 degrees to look forward to this weekend. :) It's all perspective, right?
This Sunday, our Scripture texts for this Sunday are: Genesis 45:3-11, 15 - Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40 - 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50 - Luke 6:27-38.
As I read through Luke and the Beatitudes, Jesus shares hard truths with us, and the portion we are reading and exploring this week is his ask of us for the people in our lives that are our 'enemies.' This passage of Scripture is challenging to say the least.
What is an enemy? The dictionary defines enemy in some various ways:
a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.
"the traditional enemies of his tribe, foe, adversary, opponent, rival, nemesis,
antagonist, combatant, challenger, competitor, opposer, hostile party."
*the opposition the competition the other side the opposing side
*a hostile nation or its armed forces or citizens, especially in time of war.
I wonder- do you have any 'enemies?' And, if you have or had an enemy, what feelings and memories come up for you? We all could probably share some stories about past bullies, or people in our life, either growing up, or currently that are difficult to love, or make life hard for us, and are not the people we would choose to love or be good to in return- and then we hear really tough and counterintuitive marching orders from Jesus. Do good to, pray for, turn the other cheek. Not the easiest advice for us to receive, and requires something of us that goes against our human reactions.
At the end of the day, we all have a common enemy: sin. We are told in Scripture that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost- all of us! And, that he conquered sin, death and the devil through His death and resurrection. We are freed from our common enemy of sin, death and the devil through Jesus! And, that helps us see the enemies we have in this world very differently- through Jesus. And, empowered through His love to do these hard things: loving people who are not loving, responding to unloving actions with Jesus powered love, praying for people that have hurt us or are not acting in loving ways- through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I am praying that as we read God's Word together this Sunday, and consider Jesus' Words with our contexts, relationships and pan (past and present) we will be challenged and filled with more love, power and grace to love those who we may count as enemies, see them through the eyes of Jesus, and know more of how to treat them/interact with them moving forwards.
See you Sunday.
Pastor Kari
GATHERING FOR SUNDAY
CAN BE FOUND AT:
https://www.facebook.com/NewDayCovenantChurch/
Following the worship gathering, worship services will be uploaded to our website and will be available at www.newdaycov.org/listen.
NewDay Online Giving: https://newday.churchcenter.com/giving
Search Committee Update 2/21/25
What's happened:
The search committee met Wednesday - We:
finalized updates to our CovConnect profile where candidates can learn more about NewDay
started to identify other referral sources, connections, and seminaries to expand our reach
reviewed the Lead Pastor job description and requested the Leadership Team to create a part-time job description to have available
identified areas on the website that need to be updated and sent to Jennie (Steve and Judy Eng's daughter) to update.
What's next:
The search committee will meet again in a couple of weeks to work towards next steps:
create an external job posting and share to church job sites and seminaries
start to review some candidate profiles that we have received!
decide whether and how to gather additional information from the congregation on priorities and hopes for a new pastor
continue to explore ways to recruit candidates from inside and outside the Covenant denomination
What you can do:
Connect us! If you would like to suggest any candidates to connect with the search committee, please contact one of us. We are happy to take name suggestions and connect with them through the official NW Conference channels. We are unable to share follow-up information about their potential candidacies.
Please pray for wisdom, patience, and creativity for the search committee and for the congregation.
Please contact any of us with questions or concerns at any time.
Pastoral Search Committee email address: newdaysearchcommittee@gmail.com
Members and roles:
Kristi Florek: chair
Charlotte Florek: secretary
Cindi Halleen: leadership team liaison
Curt Harlow: member
Jeff Hester: prayer committee coordinator
Natalie Woodberry: congregational communications liaison
