Thomas J Parlette
“By D Grace of God”
Luke 6: 27-38
2/20/22
I have a pop quiz for you this morning. How much money would you say Ameri8cans lost to internet scams and online crime in 2020? Would you believe 4.2 billion dollars! I know, hard to believe. And that’s in just 1 year. Internet scams are an increasing problem all over the world.(1)
If I were to ask for a quick show of hands, how many of you have gotten an email or a message on social media that you suspected was a scam? Probably all of us – it’s a pretty common occurrence.
I read an excellent story on the blog Now I Know! by Dan Lewis about a potential internet scammer. A few years ago, a man from Utah named Ben Taylor got a Facebook message from a man named Joel Willie. Joel Willie was from Liberia, and was trying to run a type of scam called an “advance-fee scam” – you’ve probably seen examples of this. He was trying to convince Ben Taylor, this stranger from Utah, that he was in line to collect a large sum of money, but first he had to pay some small fees up-front to claim the money. If Ben Taylor would help him pay the up-front costs, Joel Willie promised he would split the large sum of money with him.
Ben recognized this as a scam right away, but he decided to play along just for fun. Ben has his own You Tube channel, and he thought it would be instructive to record his interactions with Joel so he could show his viewers how to spot scams.
And this is where the story gets good. Ben decided to turn the scam around. He claimed that he ran a photography business and would pay Joel to take some photos of African sunsets. To his surprise, Joel came through with some pretty decent photos. So Ben did a strange thing – the bought Joel Willie, the scammer from Liberia, a new camera. He sent him the camera and asked for more photos. And the pictures Joel sent were definitely better quality this time around. Joel also sent an enthusiastic message saying that he was committing himself to their new photography partnership.
Now Ben had a situation on his hands. He had told Joel he would pay him for good photos. And Joel trusted him. So if Ben didn’t come through, he would be guilty of running a scam as well. What should he do? Ben decided to print Joel’s photos in a small booklet and advertise it for sale on his YouTube channel. He titled the booklet after a phrase Joel used in his emails: By D Grace of God. He only charged $8.00 per booklet. Within a short time, he had sold $1,000.00 worth of booklets.
And this is where the story gets even better. Ben sent all the money to Joel on one condition – that he donate half of it to a local Liberian charity. Joel gladly did exactly that.
And now for the best part of the story. In 2018, Ben Taylor traveled to Liberia to meet his new business partner, Joel Willie. The two men took more photos and published a second book detailing the strange and wonderful story of their business partnership. Their two books have raised $90,000. Some of the money has gone to Joel Willie for all his hard work. But most of it has gone to do good works in Liberia. It has been used to buy food for the hungry, to purchase Christmas care packages for children, and to save a local school.(2)
I love a story with a happy ending – especially one with a happy ending for everyone involved. So I think the title of their first book is so appropriate – By D Grace of God – because this story could’ve ending so differently. The story of a scammer, became a story of generosity, hope and even new beginnings – by D grace of God.
This morning we hear some familiar words from Jesus. They are part of what Matthew presents as the Sermon on the Mount. But in Luke, Jesus teaches the crowd on a level place, so scholars call this series of teachings the Sermon on the Plain. Which fits nicely, because Jesus’ words here are plain and simple. straight-forward advice: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Plain words – but certainly no easy task.
Pastor David Lose has a great perspective on this teaching. He writes, “Jesus isn’t offering a set of simple rules by which to get by or get ahead in this world but is inviting us into a whole other world. A world that is not about measuring and counting and weighing and competing and judging and paying back and hating and all the rest. But instead, is about love. Love for those who have loved you. Love for those who haven’t. Love even for those who have hated you.”(3)
I think we can understand all of Jesus’ teachings better when we view them as an invitation into a whole other world. Because our world is all about measuring, counting competing, judging, paying back and all the rest. And we see the results of that way of life. Jesus wants to set us free from that way of thinking, that way of life.
I know many people who resist any religion because they think it will put too many restrictions on their life. But sometimes restrictions are a gift. Maybe you’ve had the experience of walking through a mega superstore and being unable to choose a brand of soap because they are too many options. Once I went to Fleet Farm to get some oil for our snow blower, and I left baffled because I didn’t know what kind I needed – too many choices. Having too many options can actually short circuit your capacity for making wise decisions. Instead, Jesus makes things simple for us. Jesus whittles down our options. Hate, judgment, retaliation, revenge – those are no longer on the table. Jesus leaves us with only one option – love.
So, what would this kind of love look like in real life? What we see here is that Jesus calls us to a courageous love. In May 2021, a sixth grade girl walked into her middle school in Rigby, Idaho, pulled a handgun out of her backpack and began shooting into the school hallway. A nightmare come true.
Math teacher Krista Gneiting rushed her class to safety, then went out into the hallway to help a wounded student. That’s when she saw the shooter. In an interview with ABC News, Gneiting said, “It was a little girl, and my brain couldn’t quite grasp that. I just knew when I saw that gun, I had to get that gun.”
So she approached the girl and began talking to her. She slowly removed the gun from the girl’s hands. And then she wrapped her arms around the shooter and hugged her until the police came. As Gneiting said, “I just kept hugging her, loving her and letting her know that we were going to get through this together.”(4)
Krista Gneiting’s courageous love changed the ending to that story. Instead of more students getting shot and possibly dying, she turned a moment of violence into an opportunity for radical and courageous love. For followers of Jesus, hate, judgment, retaliation, revenge – all those options are off the table. Instead, Jesus calls us to respond to our enemies with a courageous love.
Another thing we see in this passage is that Jesus calls us to a generous love. Phil Robertson, the star of the reality show Duck Dynasty, says that he once had a problem with people stealing fish from the nets he had placed along the river. At first, he patrolled the river in an attempt to stop them. But then he read the passage from Romans 12 that says to give your enemy food and drink, and to overcome evil with good – a passage clearly inspired by Jesus’ teachings here. So Robertson decided he would no longer protect his nets.
Instead, the next time he caught someone trying to steal fish, he pulled up the net and poured the fish into the man’s boat. Then he told the man to invite his family over for a fish fry. And he told him he would gladly give him more fish whenever he needed it. After a few more times of giving away fish to would-be thieves, Robertson discovered something – he was losing fewer and fewer fish. The more he offered to give away free fish, the less anyone wanted to steal from him.(5)
Love is the engine that drives generosity. Generosity is risky. There is no guarantee that your giving will result in any benefit to you. But Jesus didn’t give to get anything in return. He gave because his love for us compelled him to.
Of course, the opposite is true as well. Fear is the engine that drives stinginess, selfishness and greed. Chuck Collins is the great-grandson of Oscar Mayer, the German immigrant who founded a meat company worth millions of dollars.
Chuck Collins was set to inherit a fortune when he became an adult, but instead, he did something shocking. He gave it all away. All of it. Collins was inspired to give away his fortune by the tenants of a mobile home park. Yes, a mobile home park.
The owner of the land on which the park sat was going to sell it. So all the tenants would have to move. The only way they could keep their community was to raise 35,000 to buy the land themselves. Collins considered just giving them the money for the land. But before he could do that, the tenants banded together and raised the money themselves. Those who couldn’t afford to pay anything didn’t have to worry. Their neighbors who could afford it covered the cost for them. All the tenants got to remain.
The tenants’ generosity changed the course of Chuck Collins life. As he said, “It made me think, ‘I want some of what they have. What they have is a community that stands up for each other and that’s all in for each other. That’s the kind of world I want to live in.’”(6)
That’s the kind of world I want to live in. That’s what the Kingdom of God looks like. Hate divides; generosity unifies. Hate creates division; generosity creates community. Hate oppresses; generosity overcomes. Jesus calls us to a courageous love. Jesus calls us to a generous love.
Jesus also calls us to an unconditional love. His plain words to us are – “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you. Even sinners do that.” Love unconditionally, and be merciful, just as God is merciful.”
George Wallace served as Governor of Alabama from 1962-1987. In that time, he was known for his support of racist “Jim Crow” laws and his opposition to integration and equality for Black citizens. In 1972, George Wallace was shot and paralyzed in a failed assassination attempt. He was taken by surprise when he received a visit in the hospital from Shirley Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman. Wallace was a staunch opponent of Chisholm’s. He asked her what “her people” would say about her visiting him in the hospital.
Chisholm replied, “I know what they’re going to say. But I wouldn’t want what happened to you to happen to anyone.” Her words brought George Wallace to tears.
A couple years later, Shirley Chisholm was fighting for minimum wage for domestic workers, and George Wallace approached his colleagues and advocated for her legislation. With his support, the legislation passed.(7)
We all like stories with happy endings. But look through the history of humanity and you see a story filled with hatred, violence, suffering and injustice. It didn’t start that way. And it doesn’t have to end that way. In Jesus, God invites us into a whole new world – the Kingdom of God. We contribute to that Kingdom by following Jesus example and living with a courageous, generous, and unconditional love. In this way, we can change the ending to the story – by D grace of God.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1, p35.
2. Ibid… p35.
3. Ibid… p36.
4. Ibid… p36.
5. Ibid… p36-37
6. Ibid… p37.
7. Ibid… p37-38.
