18^th Sunday after Pentecost - September 14, 2008

Kingswood UMC - Buffalo Grove IL

Seven years ago this week the world was shocked into the realization that the bonds of our common humanity are broken. On September 11, 2001, people whose view of the world seems completely alien to ours suddenly emerged from the shadows of our minds and appeared on our radar screen. We watched as significant icons of progress and hope for us - the World Trade Center in New York and the people who worked and did business there - were destroyed by persons who see Western culture and specifically the United States as the evil empire. We were astounded to discover that they have vowed to stop at nothing to destroy all we hold dear. It is already seven years but it seems like only yesterday that we were glued to our television sets as we watched and waited to see if loved ones were safe and tried to understand who or why someone would do this unimaginable thing.

Why? we ask. Who? What? How? When? Where? The questions are endless but the biggest one is the "why" question. We look for someone to blame, some reason it happened, some way to make the world right again. If we can just explain it, we believe we can fix it. And better yet, if we can find someone to blame we have a place to focus our anger and despair and be relieved of the anxiety and panic that wells up when we feel out of control or overwhelmed.

Forgiveness is at the core of our Christian life together. It is a spiritual practice or discipline to which we are called. It is an experience for which we pray but which is often more of a struggle than a reality. It is a call ... maybe even a command ... but not something that can be demanded ... because it is also a gift. And it is one of the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Forgiveness happens when are ready to let go of blaming the other or others for what has happened and can stand in our own center reality, our own experience, and know ourselves as forgiven and freed, released of the bitterness and resentment, even hatred, that binds us.

The experience of bonds of love being torn isn’t a new one. Paul’s letters to the early church supposes disputes among the new community of Jesus that was emerging after his resurrection. And Matthew is addressing this reality specifically in the part of the Gospel from which today’s reading comes. Where two or three are gathered together in my name ... there I am in the midst of them, Jesus says. And where two or three are gathered there will be difference. But Paul reminds us that our judgment is not appropriate, and that despising our brothers and sisters who are different or who differ with us ... who may have hurt us, even ... only binds us and leaves us dead in our spirit and faith.

And then Matthew tells the story of Peter ... trying to doing it right ... coming to Jesus with the extravagant sounding proposition that maybe the one who follows Jesus should forgive as many as 7 times. In a time when forgiving a debt 2 or 3 times was all that was expected, to suggest a 7-fold practice – and with no understanding that the offender had repented - was extravagant indeed. It is a reversal of the sevenfold pronouncement of vengeance in Genesis. So Peter is beginning to get a glimpse of the generosity of grace that God is offering in Jesus Christ. But as usual, Peter is still off of the mark. The presupposition of his question is all wrong. You can almost hear Jesus respond, It isn’t about counting!!! Not seven times...but seventy-seven times ... an infinite number of times .... just keep on forgiving.

Jesus knows something about our human experience. There will always be bonds of love that break and tear ... wounds we carry, betrayal, wounds we inflict. And sometimes the same old thing will happen over and over again. Some of you are married ... or have children ... or have or had parents or friends, co-workers or classmates. We all have relationships. And so you know that as hard as you try, you sometimes keep doing exactly the thing that irritates and hurts others, or they keep doing something that hurts or irritates you. Again and again ... into infinity, forgiveness releases us from the pain so we can live freely with love and hope.

Now, forgiveness doesn’t mean that we forget, or don’t address behavior that is offensive or hurtful ... and making a change in behavior may be imperative for the relationship to survive. Naming and calling to account persons who hurt or abuse us are essential steps to take. Responding to the attacks of 9-11, understanding and engaging the problems of terrorism and the nuclear threat in our world, addressing the inequities in our nation, seeking understanding of one another in the midst of conflict, are also imperatives. And sometimes relationships need to end for the well-being of everyone involved. But even then, finally, to be freed for love and life, there must be a letting go, a giving over of the anger and hurt we are carrying so that new love and life can emerge. Forgiveness doesn’t happen at the beginning of a process ... but is a process itself. Or maybe, even more of a by-product of working through the hurts that bind us. Forgiveness is for our own benefit, and for the community as a whole, at least as much as for the one who has committed the offense.

In response to Peter’s question, Jesus tells a parable .. a story that points to the kingdom of God. It seems that a king calls his most trusted servant in to make an accounting of things. The servant had not personally stolen from the king’s resources but, rather, had mismanaged them. The amount of the debt is an astronomical amount ... a talent being the largest monetary unit, equal to the wages of a manual laborer for fifteen years. 10,000 is the largest possible numerical unit. (Remember when you thought a million was the most of anything there could ever be?) The combination of 10,000 and talents is the largest figure that can be given. So it isn’t a real number ... it is intended to be fantastic, beyond all calculation. And unpayable. Punishing the servant would serve no end ... the servant can’t possible pay back what he has mismanaged. It is a hopeless situation. And so the servant throws himself on the mercy of the king and the king responds with compassion.

If the story ended there, we could answer one of our questions about forgiveness with the simple instruction to "throw yourselves on the mercy of the Lord." And that is a piece of the answer. But the rest of the story shows that even more is required of us.

It seems that the servant left the presence of the king and came upon one of his colleagues, a fellow servant who had an outstanding debt with him. The servant whose enormous debt was forgiven now demands repayment of the significant but infinitely smaller amount owed him. The fellow servant pleads, promising repayment - which was actually possible in this case - but the one who was forgiven has no forgiveness in his heart for this other and throws him into prison.

And when the king heard of what had happened he called in the first servant, revoked the forgiveness that had been given, and sent him off to be punished...until his entire debt was repaid ... or for a very long time.

If this is about the kingdom of God ... then we see that throwing yourself on the mercy of the Lord is only the first movement. To live in community as God’s people, we must also be willing to be changed. The first servant received forgiveness of his debt but was not changed by the experience. He stayed in the old accounting mentality that had probably led to the mismanagement of the king’s assets to begin with. But God invites us to live into a new economy, the economy of the kingdom. Forgiveness is not about keeping accounts. It is about release into new life and love, to a new beginning, to be changed and to experience ourselves and the world in a new way. We can’t live into the kingdom of God unless we have thrown ourselves on God’s mercy and been baptized in the ocean depth of grace that we then pour out on all we meet.

The bonds of common humanity are broken all around us ... between our nation and the world, within our nation as the barriers of race and class and partisan politics are revealed and even exploited , in our families, in our work places, even in our church. And so, we pray today that we can throw ourselves on God’s mercy and grace ... swimming freely in the ocean depth of grace God is and offers us ... and that we can be changed into the forgiving people of God we are called to be.

As you, O God, forgive our sin, may we forgive.