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Sermon - The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (A) - 14th September 2008
St Aidan’s West Epping 8.30 am
Readings: Exodus 14:19-31, Psalm 114, Romans 14:1-14, Matthew 18:21-35
Paul writes, “Welcome those who are weak in faith but not for the sake of quarrelling over opinions”. This speaks to all of us. We love to quarrel with others over attitudes, opinions, and customs, over petty things that ultimately have very little to do with who God is and God’s desire for us to live in communion and peace.
The behaviour of the Gentile converts to Christianity scandalized the Jewish converts. Paul’s reaction is founded on tolerance of differences and respect. This is an excellent lesson for us in this age of multicultural encounters and global concerns. Two thousand years ago, when people prided themselves on not being tolerant of strangers, comes this early Christian who urged us to respect and tolerate what today we would call cultural differences.
The passage in Matthew delves much, much deeper into the realm of forgiveness, which is profoundly more serious than tolerance. Jesus makes it clear that God’s forgiveness is unlimited; that’s what he means by seventy times seven. The king in the parable acts with fairness and compassion. The problem comes when the man who is forgiven does not have the same grace and compassion toward those who are indebted to him. This parable makes tangible the meaning of the pleading in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
We need to understand that God cannot forgive us until we forgive others. Instead of the Creator initiating the act, it is the creature that must make the first move in forgiveness. This is the only obstacle to God’s forgiveness: our own refusal to forgive.
Forgiveness is much more beneficial to the one who forgives than to the one who is forgiven. Centuries after Jesus, human understanding of emotions would assert this in psychology: forgiving, letting go of feelings of revenge and retribution, is a potent healing act. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is one way to settle arguments”. However if it is put into practice we will all be blind and toothless!
As individuals, most of us have experienced the great release of being able to forgive. It has nothing to do with sentiment; it is a powerful act of will. As nations, we have failed miserably. As communities, we have not learned to forgive.
The last verse, with its harshness, is appropriate for all those who seek war instead of peace and who hold on to revenge and meanness instead of practicing forgiveness. “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” We need to take this very seriously indeed. “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”
In recent years, the world has been faced with great outbursts of hatred, bitterness and anger; and with the desire, of various groups and individuals, to cause harm to others. Often these actions are done “in the name of God”. However, our God is not a God of hatred. Our God is a God of unquenchable love.
Bishop Desmond Tutu says to forgive goes beyond the unselfish devotion to the cause of others. He adds, “to forgive is a process that does not exclude hate and anger. These emotions are all part of being human”. Tutu continues, “You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things; the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger”. This great Anglican humanitarian and spiritual pioneer reminds us of our responsibilities. Tutu stresses that, “When I talk of forgiveness, I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred”. Until we find in ourselves the capacity to forgive, we continue to be linked to the cause of our anger and our unforgiving emotions. Only as we forgive are we able to move on and become the more Christ-like person that God has called us to be.
A young woman was interviewed after having been on a bombed London underground train, escaping with bruises and shattered nerves, she was asked by a reporter could she forgive those who caused the bombing? She responded, “I would hope that I could, but I don’t know whom to forgive. Until I am able to see the face of such hatred, I do not know how deep I must dig in my spirit to find forgiveness”. Hatred comes in many forms. We must not take these actions of hatred lightly for they affect the health of the world.
Yet acts requiring forgiveness are much more personal to most of us than those cited. Incidents of simple human frailties challenge each of us to a personal level.
- The need to find forgiveness in painful family relations.
- The need to find forgiveness with an employer.
- The need to find forgiveness with a friend who has deserted us.
- The need to find forgiveness for the teacher who may have judged us wrongly.
- The need to find forgiveness when in conflict with the one you most trusted.
- The need to find forgiveness when “the church” turns against our beliefs.
Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned!
God is in the forgiveness business! God sent God’s only Son to be the Saviour of a fallen and sinful world. Paul reminded the Christians at Ephesus, “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.”
When we withhold forgiveness, we remain the victim. When we offer forgiveness, we are doing it for our own well-being as well. Forgiveness allows us to move beyond the pain, the resentment and the anger. We always have a choice; to forgive or not to forgive. When we forgive we make the choice that heals.
We may never forget the hurt we have experienced, but we can choose to forgive. As life goes on and we remember an incident that was hurtful and caused great anger, we need to remind ourselves that with God’s grace we have already forgiven the one that hurt us. Time does heal memories. Time can dull the vividness of the hurt and thus the memory will fade. We must never let the person who hurt us own us. Forgiveness finally changes us from prisoners of our past to being liberated and at peace with our memories.
We need to reach out to a loving God and ask God to walk with us as we struggle with the need to forgive. God is good. He will not fail! Are we up to the task? Can we forgive as Christ forgave those who crucified him?
This sermon composed using the resources of www.dfms.org/worship-that-works/ and in particular material written by Katerina Whitely and Harry Denman