Sermon 19a 2017: Forgiven, Forgiving through the Power of the Holy Spirit Introduction: The Spirit at Work in our Lives and Church

Transcription

1 Sermon 19a 2017: Forgiven, Forgiving through the Power of the Holy Spirit Introduction: The Spirit at Work in our Lives and Church Last Sunday, we began our focus as a community on being Empowered by the Holy Spirit; It s a theme that we hope will draw us deeper into the Christian life and into our mission As individuals and as a community with a presence and grace and power; That goes far beyond our natural abilities and human inclinations; In other words, we re not living this Christian life Or being St. David s Church on our own might or power; But by the Spirit of God. For the Holy Spirit is beckoning us to open our lives to God s power and grace and presence; And promises that we will be changed from the inside out, enlivened and redirected To become more and more the persons and the community God created us to be. I m excited that this is our theme for the year because it not only reminds us that God is with us And that God will empower us to live more fully and more connected to God; But also that the power of the Holy Spirit is already at work in us this morning; You may have come in a car, but the Spirit brought you here; And that s because God wants us to be here. God wants us to be in church on Sundays because it s a very important part of the Christian life; Because it allows us to experience and practice living our lives with God in mind; To live even for an hour or so with the primary thought of knowing God; And of being empowered to take that experience of God out into the world. In a sense Church on the best Sundays, when the Spirit stirs our hearts, is where we come to God And where God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, comes to us; Where God comes to re-form and re-create us to become more and more like Him; At St. David s and in all areas of our lives. 1

2 Counting, Counting, Counting And nowhere is this truth about our need for God s Spirit to touch our hearts and change us More important than when it comes to forgiveness; And God s call for us to receive God s forgiveness and to forgive others; Not once, but continually; We who have been and will be forgiven are called to forgive as God forgives. Now receiving forgiveness from God is a welcome reality for most of us; God forgives us when we ask for it and are willing to bow our hearts and receive it; But forgiving others and being generally forgiving goes against our natures; I don t know about all of you, but I have this problem of memory; I remember when someone has done something against me or the family; And I m not always willing and ready to let it go; You may have the same challenge in your life someone you re not sure you want to forgive. Maybe we re this way because we re not sure what would happen if we forgave others first And then dealt openly with whatever the issue is to make it right; Maybe forgiveness feels like letting down our guard on protecting ourselves And the way we want the world to be; Maybe it simply goes against our tendency as human beings to want to simply count things So we can keep a certain order and understanding of our lives and the world we live in. It may sound a little off to some of you, but counting is an important part of being a human being And for some of us it may be keeping us from being forgiving. We count our money, of course; how little our how much; Farmers talk about bushels per acre as a way for measuring how they re doing; We watch the Dow Jones and other indices to see if things are up or down; We have a major bureau in our government that does nothing But count people as a way to describe who we are becoming as a nation; 2

3 And some of us are counting the minutes right now to see when this sermon will wind up. But sometimes counting can interfere with what we re about as followers of Christ; Instead of being an idle interest or some partial indication of how life is going; We make counting the business of our days And forget to enjoy the life and people around us and we miss the movement of the Spirit. We may even count how many times someone hurts us or sins against us; As a way of measuring who s right and who s wrong; And whether someone is worth our time, our friendship, our love. And that s a place that the Spirit is interested in re-creating and re-forming us; So that instead of counting up all the times someone hurts us or hurts others or themselves; Instead of counting up others sins; God wants us to forgive them and ourselves and get on with life; Leaving our counting aside So that we can focus on God and God s intentions for our lives instead. The Gospel of Forgiveness The Gospel for this morning seems to address the connection between counting And God s call for us to be people of forgiveness here, in church, and out there, in the world. So tell me, Lord, St. Peter asks Jesus, How many times should I forgive a sister or brother who sins against me? And before you answer, Lord, Let me just say that I m prepared To go as high as seven times. What do you think? And I like to imagine Jesus getting that slightly mischievous look in his eye, The one who often got when He was about to teach something profound In a down to earth way and thinks to Himself, Peter I m so glad I chose you as one of my first followers Because you give me so many teachable moments. 3

4 In modern language, I imagine Jesus turning to Peter and saying to him, Peter, here s what I want you to do. Go to the store And buy one of those large spiral notebooks Still on the back-to-school racks and pick out a brightly colored one; Bright so you ll know where it is at all times; and better buy a bunch of pens. Then I want you to write down the names of all the people in the church; And any other Christians you can think of and anyone else you know or meet; And put their names at the top of the pages, leaving lots of pages in between. Then, every time someone sins against you, open up the notebook to their page And make a mark beside their name; when you get to 77 marks beside their name; You don t have to forgive that person ever again, for anything. Peter probably thought for a minute or two in this modern adaptation and said, But Lord, if I do that, I ll be spending all my time writing in that stupid spiral notebook; And at the rate we re meeting new people in church; Pretty soon I ll need another notebook and then another; Until I have a whole set of notebooks to carry around. I think you re getting the picture about counting, Jesus says; And then goes on to tell the story we just heard as a way to make it even clearer; That we who have been forgiven so much can forgive others The little or the much they do to us and that keeping count is really no help at all. The Call to Forgive When you and I fail to forgive others, when we choose to keep count; We can never really truly take hold of the depth to which we ve been forgiven; Or be open to the Spirit softening our hearts to God s forgiveness And to a power that enables us to forgive others. 4

5 As we become open to a spirit of forgiveness, we become more and more like our God; The God who forgives first; Remember this is the same God who hung on the cross After being rejected, beaten, crucified and tormented as He died And utters the words, Forgive them, for they know not what they do. And the point of todays stories of Peter with Jesus and of the wicked servant who is forgiven, But won t forgive a fellow servant is that if we want to start keeping notebooks on sins; We ll need to keep one on ourselves and how we sin against God and others; I expect that that s a notebook that will get filled up pretty fast. If God were a God who were keeping book on us, we d find that we re like the wicked servant; Who owes the master millions of dollars, by the way; That the debt that we ve been forgiven by God is beyond measure; And I, for one, used up my 77 times long ago. What we have to forgive each other for can never compare With what God has already forgiven us; And we can give thanks that God sets them aside out of His great love for us; And His desire for us to get on with life in Him and for Him. And please understand, I m not saying that forgiveness means we ignore sin Or let evil go unchallenged; That is our responsibility as God s children in the world; But to forgive one another the way God has forgiven us; Allows us to deal with the sinner or the evil together, in a loving, gracious manner. Forgiveness generates a spirit of forgiveness; Just as unforgiveness generates a spirit of unforgiveness and a kind of spiritual death; That s what Jesus warning at the end of the stories is about; 5

6 That if we will not forgive others ten God will not forgive us; And that sounds pretty deadly to me. But if we will allow the Spirit to change our hearts; Then we will be empowered to forgive and find new life time and again. Today, I invite you to allow the Holy Spirit to change your hearts for a life of forgiveness; To remember all that God has forgiven you, to remember for a fleeting moment All of our incredible debts to God that we pile up over the course of life; To accept God s forgiveness and then to take on the mind and heart of God And forgive first, not counting the cost. New Testament math is hard for those of us who like to count things; But if we will allow the Spirit to come in, God will teach us how; God will empower us to be persons and a community of forgiveness; And who we are in church will become who we are in the world; And that life of forgiveness will change everything. Amen. 6