Matthew 18                                               Ordinary Time

  Are you a scorekeeper? I am. We keep score about how indebted others are to us and how indebted we are to them. We want life to be fair. One of the most frequent laments of children and youth is “It’s not fair.” Adults say it too, just with more sophisticated language. You know the difference between those who hold on to anger and those who forgive is nothing other than a refusal to count, and to demand fair treatment. Our country was founded on principles of individual rights and sometimes our focus on individual rights leads to very bad attitudes regarding forgiveness. Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me. And some hurts are very deep and painful. Those are the ones hard to let go.

 C.S. Lewis, author of Mere Christianity and the Chronicles of Narnia once said,
“To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

 Because of the tremendous forgiveness of the Lord, we are called to forgive, to pardon, to release from debt, those who owe us. Hear now the words of Jesus about how often and how deeply we the forgiven should sacrifice in forgiving others, especially those in the family of faith.

(Read Matthew 18:21-35)

 The Lord’s Prayer that Presbyterians have traditionally said, comes from
Matthew 6:15. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Other Christians say,
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
At Peace we’ve been using the ecumenical version of the prayer: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Oh, but we really want the Lord to forgive us our sins, to forgive us our trespasses, to forgive us our debts, even more than we forgive others. If the Lord’s forgiveness were like ours, we’d be in trouble. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. What it really means is that,
“if we don’t believe in the principle of unconditional forgiveness for our brother/sister, then we obviously don’t believe in such unconditional forgiveness for ourselves.” (Morgan Roberts)

 Henri Nouwen said, “Maybe the reason it seems hard for me to forgive others is that I do not fully believe that I am a forgiven person. If I could fully accept the truth that I am forgiven and do not have to live in guilt or shame, I would really be free. My freedom would allow me to forgive others seventy times seven times. By not forgiving, I chain myself to a desire to get even, thereby losing my freedom."

 As Dwight L. Moody once said, “God has cast our confessed sins into the depths of the sea, and He's even put a 'No Fishing' sign over the spot.” If only we could leave them there. We are so eager to fish out both our own and others sins....in the name of fairness, in deference to our rights.

 The parable we just read is so ridiculous with its extreme amounts of money that makes the point well. The first slave owed the king the amount of 15,000 years of wages. The king had the power to throw that servant and his family into prison, but when the servant pleaded, he decided instead to be merciful. The slave is off the hook and what does he do, but go demand that his fellow slave pay him back the 100 days of wages he owes. So let’s think about this comparison. 100 days – a third of a year of income with a 6 day work week. 15,000 years of income. Working 6 days/week, 15,000 years would be almost 55 million days. So you see, the math is outrageous. The amazing grace of God in forgiving us is like 55 million days against the 100 days that we need to forgive. Just help conceptually, a stack of 100 dollar bills is about half an inch tall. A stack of 55 million dollar bills would be 3 and a half miles high, about half as high as jets fly. God has forgiven us three and half miles worth, can we not forgive half an inch? Whether we are to forgive 77 times or 70 times 7 times = 490 times doesn’t really matter. The point is, our Sovereign, our Lord has forgiven us 55 million times. That’s a pile of forgiveness reaching up into the skies.

 Theologian Karl Barth said, “It is always the case that when the Christian looks back, he is looking at the forgiveness of sins.” If we could simply live out of that view. My brother, asked me recently why Presbyterians are always confessing sin together at the beginning of every service. He said he did not find it helpful to dwell on his inability to love as he should. I told him Presbyterians believe we should always be operating out of a deep sense of gratitude for the unmerited favor, the grace, the forgiveness of the Lord. Only when we see ourselves as those who have fallen far short of perfection, do we also see the glory of God’s forgiving love and find the heart to forgive others.

 Sister Joan Chittister.said “Once we know who we are – with all our weaknesses and all our own mistakes – it become eminently clear that we can afford to be patient with others.” Everyone is bearing their own burdens. That person who does not treat you as kindly as you would like to be treated probably has a burden you don’t know. In that unkind moment, they must be out of touch with the great love that is theirs in Christ Jesus. They are not full of gratitude for the gift of grace, so they lash out in frustration.

 We forgive when we sacrifice our rights, when we say to ourselves that God has given us everything we need, and nothing will we ever really lack. If God is for us, who can be against. (Romans 8)

 I love the way Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who protected and hid Jews from the Nazis and went with her family to a concentration camp tells it.
Forgiveness to letting go of a bell rope. If you have ever seen a country church with a bell in the steeple, you will remember that to get the bell ringing you have to tug awhile. Once it has begun to ring, you merely maintain the momentum. As long as you keep pulling, the bell keeps ringing. Forgiveness is letting go of the rope. It is just that simple. But when you do so, the bell keeps ringing. Momentum is still at work. However, if you keep your hands off the rope, the bell will begin to slow and eventually stop.

 Jacques Derrida says that forgiveness is only really meaningful when we forgive what is unforgivable. He was speaking, as a Jew, of the Nazis.

 Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.”

 “Forgiveness brings freedom - freedom from being controlled by the past, freedom from the emotional ties to the offender, freedom from the continual inner conflicts of bitterness and hate, freedom to become whole and enjoy the fullness of life.”
Jeanette Vought

 “Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.” Frederick Buechner

 A couple whose seven year old daughter was murdered by a relative said, “If you want to live happily and at ease in this life you have to learn to forgive. It shouldn’t matter if the person is unable to ask for forgiveness or even acknowledge that they’ve done wrong, because forgiveness cannot be based on conditions.”

 “Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because Christ who forgives you -- out of love--takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always involves sacrifice.” Dag Hammarskjold

 Will you be more like Christ in making the sacrifice to forgive? Find freedom in forgiveness. God’s forgiveness of you. Your forgiveness of others. A Christian forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives...

 If you are seeking deeper awareness of God’s forgiveness in your life or if you need help in finding a forgiving spirit within you toward someone who has hurt you, please consider coming to Tricia or to me for healing prayers, after receiving communion. You do not have to name the person you need to forgive, but can simply say, “I’m having trouble forgiving someone. God knows. Or you might say, “I’m having trouble believing that God really forgives me.”

 Let us pray: God, you have searched us and known us. You know the depths of our souls and the pain we feel. Do your work of healing there. Restore to us the fullness of gratitude for your loving mercy so that we can forgive ourselves and others. Through Christ, who took on our sin and redeemed it by his sacrifice.