September 17, 2023
St. Andrew Church
Rev. Anne McAnelly
First Lesson: Romans 14:7-12
7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” 12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
Second Lesson: Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. 23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 31 When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
In my divorce agreement, in addition to child support, we were to share the expenses of the boys’ activities. Since they were living with me, I kept a tally of what my ex owed me and sent him that information each month. The child support faithfully came, but those added expenses just kept accumulating, and my anger right along with the unpaid debt. As an under-employed single mother trying to make ends meet, I was angry about not being paid. It felt like it was hurting the boys. I thought about taking him back to court but decided against it. Finally, I just had to let go of the money when it reached the tens of thousands and forgave the debt. More for my own peace of mind than out of any religious teaching. I stopped tallying the costs and focused on becoming more fully employed and later moved here. I could have focused on the injustice, held onto my anger, played the victim, but that was not good for my emotional well being and spiritual health. In our parable today a king forgives an extravagant amount of debt. A talent was worth a year’s wage, so a slave could never pay off 10,000 years of wages. So, let’s think about this an absurd amount, a crazy amount of debt. Remember the Master or King in this story represents God and the abundant and absurd amount of times God forgives us.
Think of a time you have felt God’s forgiveness. Maybe after a confession, maybe sitting at the beach after praying to God, maybe when a family member forgave you a longstanding situation. As I write that I realize we have to be open to receiving God’s forgiveness. We can’t hold onto our biggest mistakes a really know what forgiveness feels like. The mercy, peace and grace that comes from being truly forgiven. We have to let go of the pain and allow God to fully love us even when we don’t feel like we deserve that love.
My story and parable both focus on money and the forgiveness of financial debt, but Jesus is teaching us about interpersonal forgiveness and divine forgiveness. The King showed extravagant compassion to the slave, by cancelling his enormous debt. He spares the slave, his family and sets him free. But then that slave turns the tables on a fellow slave who owes him about I 00 days wages. After receiving extravagant compassion, the forgiven slave denies compassion to another. There is an expectation that we will pay forgiveness forward. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” This parable helps explain why we say debt and debtors in the Lord’s prayer when we are really talking about forgiveness. Jesus also takes a harsher stand on forgiveness. “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6:14-15). Ouch! I want to continue having God be like the King who forgives extravagantly! I want a God who in an outrageous act of generosity and mercy, graciously forgives my unforgivable debt.
Love and forgiveness are much the same. The more we experience God’s love and forgiveness the more we want to show love and forgiveness to others. The more we want to pay them forward. Yet we can also relate to Peter who asks how many times must I forgive? Seven seems like a good number. Seven is measurable; seven seas, seven colors of the rainbow, seven days of the week. However, Jesus says forgive 70 times 7! Jesus’ response to Peter’s takes forgiveness out of the countable category and places it into the realm of the incalculable. Jesus is pointing us to forgiveness beyond our capacity to keep tabs, beyond our capacity to offer on our own strength or ability. It is God’s compassion and abundant mercy that make forgiveness possible. (Working Preacher, Audrey West).
“Forgiveness and true happiness go hand-in-hand. There was an article in USA Today. It was titled ‘Psychologists Now Know What Makes People Happy.’ The article reported the findings of University of Michigan professor Christopher Peterson. Peterson discovered that forgiveness is the single behavior most strongly linked to happiness. Did you hear that? Forgiveness is the behavior most strongly linked to happiness. You can never be truly happy if part of your heart harbors resentment toward someone else” (Sermons.com, King Duncan).
Kent Crockett, in the The 911 Handbook, puts it this way, “Unforgiveness will keep us chained to whomever we don’t forgive. When we go to bed at night, the unforgiven person is there to keep us awake. When we go on vacation, the unforgiven person travels with us to our destination. The only way to get unchained is to forgive and release the person who has offended us” (1997, p. 46). “Author Jamie Quatro tells about a gift she received from her father for her 16th birthday. It was a refurbished ’69 Chevy Malibu convertible. It was cherry red with chrome accents and a V8 engine. It was a true classic, the perfect car for Jamie and her best friend Hannah to go cruising around their hometown of Tucson, Arizona with the top down.
Jamie’s friend Hannah was a very attractive young lady. She was a year younger than Jamie, but Hannah had already signed with a modeling agency and was already doing some catalogue work. A month after Jamie’s birthday, she and Hannah were out for a drive. Taking a curve too fast, they hit a patch of dirt and fishtailed. Plowing through a neighbor’s wall, they drove into a full-grown palm tree. The front wheels of the car came to rest halfway up the tree trunk.
Damage to the car was the least of their troubles. Jamie and Hannah were both wearing seat belts, but in the classic Malibu, there were no shoulder harnesses. As a result, Jamie cracked her cheekbone on the steering wheel; Hannah’s forehead had split wide open on the dash. Both girls survived but both would need the services of a plastic surgeon. Particularly Hannah.
When Hannah’s mother, Sharon, came into Jamie’s room at the hospital, Jamie began to cry as she braced herself for Sharon’s anger. Instead, Sharon took Jamie’s hand. “I rear-ended my best friend when I was your age,” Sharon said. “I totaled her car and mine.”
“I’m so sorry,” Jamie blurted out.
“You’re both alive,” Sharon said. “The rest is window dressing.”
Jamie started to protest. Sharon stopped her. “I forgive you,” Sharon said to her. Then she added, “Hannah will, too.” And she did.
Even though the finest plastic surgeon in Tucson operated on Hannah’s forehead, she never modeled again. Yet Sharon’s forgiveness allowed Hannah and Jamie to continue their close friendship throughout high school and college, and to be in each other’s weddings.
Jamie says this about this episode in her life: ‘I think of [Sharon’s] gift of forgiveness every time I’m tempted to resent someone for a perceived wrong. And [also] whenever I see Hannah. The scars are so faded, no one else would notice, but in the sun light I can still see the faint shimmer just below her hairline-for me, after all these years, an imprint of grace.’
Jamie enjoyed the beautiful convertible she received on her 16th birthday, but she will be the first to tell you that the greatest gift she ever received was the gift of Sharon’s forgiveness. Forgiveness is a gift. It is a gift God has given us; it is a gift that we are to pass on to others. Is there resentment in your heart toward someone you were once close to–perhaps someone in your own family? Or a close friend? Why not free yourself from that anger, that bitterness, with God’s help today? Take the weight off of your shoulders and be set free” (Sermons.com, King Duncan). Leave that hurt in the pew as you walk forward to receive communion. Soon you will taste forgiveness at Christ’s table,.the gift God repeatedly and extravagantly gives. Gift someone with the taste of forgiveness, just as Christ has forgiven you. Amen.
