Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on September 14, 2008
(Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. MannTexts: Ecclesiasticus 27:30-28:7
Romans 14:5-12
Matthew 18:21-35
Psalm 103:8-13I don’t know about you but to me this parable always makes God sound like what we used to nonpolitically correct call an “Indian Giver;” someone who gives you something only to demand it or take it back. Even though the first slave acted like a total jerk, the end result seems a bit harsh, adding ammunition to the arsenal of those who want to promote God as an angry God just waiting to punish us. I always thought that when God forgave us that His forgiveness was unconditional and that our transgressions were forgotten. But that is an incorrect thought!
First of all, it is God’s love for each of us that is unconditional. No matter how badly we screw up, He never stops loving us. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to be responsible for our actions; what we do will have consequences but God will continue to love us whether we acknowledge it or not.
On the flip side, God does forgive our transgressions but there are certain conditions for us to meet which we will discover shortly.
Remember last week? Jesus was describing to his disciples about relationships between members within the same community. He proceeded to instruct them in the proper way to reconcile with each other when one had sinned against the other. Well, in today’s Gospel, having recently been praised and condemned, good old Peter, the self-appointed mouthpiece for the common man, decides to test the waters once again.
“How often should I forgive the sins of someone who has sinned against me; seven times? Seven is a good and holy number. I know it signifies completeness. Seven times would be enough, wouldn’t it? Surely after seven times I could retaliate, couldn’t I?”
And Jesus replies, “Not seven times but seventy-seven times.” Or as one text says, “Seventy times seven,” which doesn’t mean 490 times but rather that for Christians there is no limit to forgiveness.
Now, does that mean we are to be a perpetual doormat for Christianity, always taking one for the team? No, that’s not what Jesus is saying.
Just as last week we learned that there are limits to reconciliation, there are also limitations to forgiveness. Not in the granting part but in the receiving part! The key to total forgiveness is repentance on the part of the transgressor. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.” It is our moral obligation as Christians to forgive someone who sins against us if they truly repent. It is not optional!
In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, previously known as Confession, in order to receive God’s absolution for our sins we, the penitents, have to do three things: repent, which means to turn around and face God; confess our sins against God and our neighbor; and finally promise to amend our lives accordingly, which means that it is our sincere intention not to commit the same offense again. We have to own up to what we have done, and left undone in thought word, and deed, and then intend to never to them again. When we have completed these three things, God absolves us and total forgiveness is obtained. Then and only then will we be assured that God will forget and has already forgotten our transgressions, which is the point of the parable.
The first slave’s debt was excused by the king. As a result of the king’s mercy, it was expected that the slave would become a changed person. He had just been forgiven an amount of money equivalent to over ten times the gross national product of all Israel at that time. What a huge relief! What a huge gift!
But instead of sharing from the abundance of which he had received, with a tightness that would make a Scotsman blush, he demanded full payment of a debt from a fellow slave that was proportionately insignificant.
And when the king found out about this travesty of compassion he handed the first slave over to those who would extract from him every last penny that he owed, which begs the question; how was he going to pay his debt if he was locked away, and unable to work his way out of debt. And the answer is he couldn’t. There was absolutely nothing in his power that he could do to work off what he owed the king. The king wasn’t an “Indian Giver!” He didn’t renege on his gift because the slave never really received it in the first place. If he had, then he would have shown the same mercy on his fellow slave.
You see, it’s still about relationships. We are responsible for how we treat others. Whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, we will be judged by God based on our relationship with others. Not just with those whom we get along but especially with those whom we don’t. If we expect to be shown God’s mercy for our transgressions against Him and our neighbors, then we had better show mercy to those who have transgressed against us.
Does that sound familiar? Every single liturgical service in the Church includes the Lord’s Prayer in which we pray to God that He forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us! Lord, treat us just as we have treated others. If we want or expect or hope that God will be merciful and gracious with us it is imperative that we be merciful and gracious with each other!
It has been said that Grace isn’t cheap. There is a cost to discipleship and at the same time there is nothing in our power, no amount of work that we can do to earn it. But we don’t have to because it’s already been paid for and is offered to us as a gift. Jesus Christ has paid the price with his own blood for each and every one of us. All we have to do is choose to believe in him. Believe that he is who he says he is. Believe that he can do what says he can do. Believe that he will deliver us from the bondage of whatever it is that we have done or will do which separates us from God’s love because God’s love for us is never-ending. It’s His eternal gift to us. All we have to do is turn around and receive this unmerited gift. God has reached out his arms to us from the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ longing to be in relationship with us. And wrapped in the warmth of the Father’s loving embrace and strengthened by the power of His Holy Spirit, we are able to intentionally lead a new and transformed life in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
But the residual question is still lingering out there; what if the person who has sinned against us does not repent? How many times do I forgive him? How am I to forgive him if he doesn’t amend his life? The answer is that it doesn’t matter. Forgiveness comes from God not from us. We are just a channel through which God’s grace is delivered. It’s relational. God loves and forgives us through the eternal relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and in turn, through us who are in relationship with him. We are called and commanded to forgive even if forgiveness is not accepted in order for the channel to remain open. By consistently forgiving the other, especially the one who lacks repentance, we are not condoning or forgetting the sin but rather choosing not to remember it so that their obstacle does not become an obstruction in our own relationship with God.
You see, God isn’t an angry God waiting to punish us but rather a merciful God who loves us dearly, and is waiting for us to love him in return. But once again there is a paradox! Only by sharing God’s love and mercy do we have an opportunity to receive God’s love and mercy which will culminate in the healing and wholeness of all of our relationships with God and our neighbor. That is how God’s kingdom will come to earth as it is in heaven. It is God’s love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s kingdom. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the Glory, for ever and ever. Amen.