Thursday, September 14, 2023

Question, Answer, Church

 


God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … The title of my sermon is Question, Answer and Church. My focus is on Matthew 18:21-35. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Did you know that there are more than three dozen songs by popular singers with the word ‘forgive’ in the title? There is an online list of these songs, and I have never heard any of them. In fact, I have never even heard of most of the artists on that list except for Pat Boone, Donna Summer, Paul Simon and Carly Simon. When it comes to movies, one person posted a question on an internet chat board asking for suggestions for movies about forgiveness because the best he could come up with is Angels with Dirty Faces starring Jimmy Cagney. Finally, when I looked at Goodreads for books on forgiveness, the only ones I recognized were East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. My point is that as a culture, we rarely sing about or write about forgiveness. We lack forgiveness.

That said, the best teaching on forgiveness is our passage today. First, we have Peter’s question, followed by Jesus’ answer. Finally, we need to place that within the context of Church and focus on how we practice forgiveness.

First, Peter’s question. Matthew wrote that Peter came up and said to Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (18:21). Now, there is nothing particularly Christian about the practice of forgiveness. Whatever one’s religion or nonreligion, people request and grant forgiveness almost every day.[1] A personal example. When we take Travis outside and he’s off leash, we always make him wear an electronic recall collar. The vibration of the collar’s prongs when pressed on the remote gets his attention faster than cooked bacon. So, while our house was being built, we took Travis to the groomer for his regular appointment. He looked picture perfect and smelled clean. The next day, after the builders left the site of our new home construction, Cindy and I went out to look at the progress and take some pictures. Because it had rained for several days earlier that week, we were careful to watch our footing amidst the muddy clay puddles. Of course, we let Travis come with us. I put his recall collar on his neck and put the remote in my pocket. We had finished our inspection and photographs and started to walk away from the site. My back was turned and Cindy started yelling ‘No!’ and ‘Hit the remote!’ Freshly bathed and groomed Travis found the muddiest puddle on our property and was not going to be denied some fun. He took a mud bath.

Later, after we hosed the mud and stink off Travis, Cindy apologized to me for yelling, explaining that she wasn’t mad at me but at Travis. This had to be at least the seventh time he had done something like this. This type of forgiveness involved a trivial and unintentional matter – a Golden Retriever doing what he loves. Forgiveness, however, becomes problematic only when the trespasses are more serious, when they are intentional, and especially when they are repeated.[2]

So, why did Peter ask his question and why did Matthew record it? Well, within the greater context of last week’s passage, we see that Jesus called his disciples to be different than the rest of the world and in particular to be gracious and humble. Here, the question of forgiveness raised by Peter – as a spokesperson for all disciples – shows the smallness of his faith and understanding. The topic of a Christian brother or sister forgiving another disciple of Jesus who has sinned against him or her applies generally to all who follow Christ. Although it is clear that Peter’s understanding of the scope of forgiveness is inadequate, note that by normal human standards, his offer to forgive a brother who sins against him up to seven times is not a trivial one.[3] Peter is willing to forgive up to seven times. Seven is the traditional number of perfection. Nevertheless, he is acting like a rabbi. While acknowledging Jesus’ ‘law’ of forgiveness, he wants that law, like every human law, to have clearly delineated limits.[4] Whatever normal standard is guiding Peter’s question is dwarfed and then swallowed up by Jesus’ response.

Second, Jesus’ answer. Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (18:22). Jesus declares that forgiveness has nothing to do with moral arithmetic or record keeping. By playing with the number seven and turning it into a symbolic number, Jesus emphasized that true Christian forgiveness knows no limits.[5] As in the case of the Sermon on the Mount (5:21-48), here too does Jesus impart sweeping divine revelation: be ever and always willing to forgive! The specifics remain to be worked out in the tug and pull of Christian existence.

Jesus then spoke the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (18:23-35) which contains three scenes: the master’s compassion for the hopelessly indebted slave (24-27); that forgiven slave’s refusal to show mercy to his fellow slave who had far less debt (28-30); and the master’s angry retraction of his forgiveness and the subsequent punishment of the unforgiving slave (31-34).

There are parallels between the first two scenes.[6] Both begin by presenting the figure of one who is indebted to another. The first slave is indebted to his master, and the fellow slave owes the first slave. Both are initially treated mercilessly. Both are ordered to be sold along with family to repay the debt. Each falls to the ground begging for mercy.

To highlight the contrasts, we see in the first scene that the relationship is between the master and the slave, and in the second, between two slaves. The more obvious contrast is the amount owed. The first slave owed so much money that it would have taken him 60 million days to repay the full amount or 1,000 years imprisonment. The ratio of his debt to that of his fellow slave was 600,000 to one, for the latter owed 100 denarii.[7] Some have surmised that the former must have been a provincial governor for no one else could have access to so much money except a government official.

The third contrast is the response after the appeal for patience to repay the debt. Unexpectedly the master feels compassion for his slave and releases him, forgiving the catastrophically enormous debt. Shockingly, that slave released from the unthinkable burden, imprisons his fellow man until the debt is repaid.

Unaffected by his master’s generosity, the first slave is now summoned to him. The master’s speech reminds us that he was originally motivated because he felt compassion. Now, he is motivated to enact justice because he feels anger, and the once-forgiven slave will be imprisoned until all is repaid.

The parable strikes home because it pins the hearers to the wall with the truth of Jesus’ words. Yet, this is not a new teaching. He had already taught his disciples his own prayer adding this: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (6:14-15).

The wicked slave should forgive because it is the right thing to do, and there is no wiggle room in Jesus’ words. But, how is it possible to act with necessary justice? That, folks, brings me to my third point, Church. How and why do we live as people who can and will forgive one another?

To help answer that we look at the framework of the parable.[8] In the framework of the mind of the wicked slave, he did not see himself as someone who internalized his master’s generosity and forgiveness. Instead, he saw himself as someone who was experiencing a loss and saw his fellow slave as a man who owed him a lot of money: in today’s world, five months wages. Framed that way, it seems logical that one who owed us five months wages should be punished. In our world, it is logical, rational and understandable. But in the framework of a man who had just been pardoned for crime greater than that of someone like Bernie Madoff, does it?

What other way could the wicked slave have viewed these matters? What framework should he have had – and to a greater degree – should members of the Church have? Obviously, he could have seen himself as someone who had just been rescued and released from an unfathomable, crushing debt that would have condemned him and his entire family to spend ten lifetimes in prison. He could have seen himself as someone to whom a stunning grace and generosity had come by way of his master’s compassion. He could have viewed his fellow slave’s debt as trivial in comparison to his own forgiven debt.

To adopt such a framework occurs only through faith. To view Jesus’ call to forgive begins by standing in the flow of forgiveness that begins with God in Christ and comes to me. Then, the second step, only through the power of the Gospel, is to allow that same forgiveness to flow from me to another who needs my mercy. The sequence of events in this parable corresponds to how the reign of God comes into the world through Jesus (4:17) and brings blessings to those who are poor in spirit and those weary for rest.[9] The gift of understanding and faith in Jesus opens up those needy ones to desire and receive the flow of forgiveness. With forgiveness received and standing in the flow of that forgiveness, disciples are able to give one another a similar gift. However, forgiveness that does not flow out from God through Christ to me and then to another is forgiveness that God has offered to me but that I have despised. Forgiveness that has been despised is forgiveness that will be withdrawn.[10]

So, how does this forgiveness work its way out in our relationships with God and one another in Christ? First, God takes the initiative in Christ. Forgiveness is never earned, elicited or merited. Second, we should distinguish between the decision to forgive another and the internal emotions that one may or may not experience in relation to another.

To forgive is to release someone else from the retribution and retaliation that they may deserve to receive. Forgiveness is a Spirit-led choice. The emotions may follow slowly or may need to be dragged out kicking and screaming into the new situation. In some situations, we may distress because of the anger or hurt that lasts for a long time. Emotions sometimes last longer than we might expect. But we should not doubt the fact of God’s unlimited forgiveness for us in Christ Jesus, nor the effectiveness of the past act of declaring the other person forgiven. Emotions may cloud the mind and heart, but they cannot trump the promises of God.

We may need to forgive others more than once for the same sin. Healing may involve repeated mutual confessions and absolutions because there is a struggle within Jesus’ disciples between the ways of the old age or the ways of the modern world and the new time of salvation into which we have been called and baptized.

And so, my friends, I ask you, is there room in your lives, hearts and minds for forgiveness? While some in our world value revenge and ruin, we make room for reconciliation and respect in and through Christ. While some raise their fists and evoke fear through lawlessness, we raise our hearts and call for forgiveness and faithfulness to Law and Gospel.

Friends, beginning today, as Christians, make room for the mercy God pours into your hearts in Christ through Word and Sacrament. As faithful spouses, loving parents and disciplined children, make room for forgiveness. When you do that, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.



[1] Hare, 216.

[2] Hare, 216.

[3] Gibbs, 933.

[4] Meier, 133.

[5] Meier, 133.

[6] Gibbs, 935.

[7] Gibbs, 930.

[8] Gibbs, 938.

[9] See Matthew 4:17; 11:25; 11:28-30.

[10] Gibbs, 939.

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