SAINT S LUKE S THE 15TH AFTER PENTECOST YEAR A GENESIS 50:15 21 PSALM 103:(1 7), 8 13 ROMANS 14:1 12 MATTHEW 18:21 35

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1 SAINT LUKE SAINT S LUKE S THE 15TH AFTER PENTECOST YEAR A GENESIS 50:15 21 PSALM 103:(1 7), 8 13 ROMANS 14:1 12 MATTHEW 18:21 35 A SERMON BY THE REV. WILLIAM OGBURN SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

2 2 In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. As some of you may know, one of my past times is Scottish Country Dancing. In these circles, one naturally encounters many Scottish folk. A few years ago, one of these Scottish friends gave me the definition of what she calls The Phenomenon of Scottish Dementia: You forget everything but the grudges. I think that s also closely related to the adage Nobody forgets where they buried the hatchet. 1 Today s Gospel lesson is a continuation from last week. Jesus is teaching his disciples how to live in community. Peter asks Jesus, Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventyseven times. It would be more realistic, and a closer translation, to hear Peter not say if but when another sins against me. We are fallible humans. It s going to happen. There will be times when we hurt each other as a community. There are times when grudges happen. And the thing that Jesus prays the most is about faithful unity for his followers, the Church. But Jesus knows us all too well -- and gives us reason and courage to practice forgiveness in this community. In the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Jesus tells us about a servant who owes the king a vast sum of money. Many people have tried to sort out just how much ten thousand talents is in today s market with the current inflation rate and all that Roughly, two talents might be the sum of what an average person might make in an entire lifetime. 2 And as interesting as that is, none of that is the point. The point in the parable is that it is such 1 Shanahan, John. The most brilliant thoughts of all time: in two lines or less. New York, NY: Collins, Richard T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2010), 702.

3 3 an astronomical price that no one could ever afford it, let alone a servant. It s not about the quantity of the debt to forgiveness ratio, but rather the quality! The servant pleads with the king for more time and the merciful king forgives the debt. Then the same servant whose debt has been forgiven comes across a fellow servant who owes him money he acts out in violence, grabbing him by the throat and threatening his life for the three months of wages he is owed. The king finds out and orders him to be tortured until his debt is paid in full. It s a quite harrowing. But I think the point Jesus is making in the parable is that we will be forgiven according to the same measure with which we show mercy to others. The unmerciful servant was tortured not because the king was cruel, but because the unmerciful servant treated his fellow servant with violence when he seized him by the throat and threatened him. This is the same forgiveness that Jesus has been preaching about since the Sermon on the Mount. While we should take Jesus words about forgiveness seriously, we also need to remember that the settling of accounts is not a reference to the Last Judgment, but rather forgiveness that has already taken place! 3 Forgiveness is complex. There are some things which are easy to forgive and something that just aren t. There are cases of major and grave concern that affect the whole community and that affect the lives of individuals. Forgiveness is neither tantamount to condoning wrongdoing, nor is it automatic reconciliation. Establishing healthy boundaries is essential for any set of relationships so that no one is exploited or hurt. Sometimes, maybe too often, we stay silent as a means of being nice or keeping the peace. But do you recall in the parable how the king found out about the 3 Richard T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2010), 703.

4 unmerciful servant? Other fellow slaves saw the unmerciful treatment -- and were angered at this injustice and went to tell the king. You see when other people have been hurt in a similar way and know something is wrong, it is important for them to stand together and name the injustice. As the community centered around Jesus, the Church has to be willing to seek out and name injustices that threaten other members of our community. This is part of being together. 4 A community of the forgiven must be a forgiving community. Forgiveness is the reality of Christian living. There is no gimmick; there is no quick fix; and there is no way around it. Daily we learn to live into this way, the way Jesus calls us to live. And the reality is that true forgiveness and reconciliation require contrition and penitence. It also means changing our behavior and keeping God in the center of it all. There is no service in The Episcopal Church or within Anglicanism that does not include the Lord s Prayer. It is the prayer Jesus himself gave us. And if part of your spiritual practice is saying any or all of the Daily Office, you find yourself saying the Lord s Prayer quite a few times a day. There is wisdom and purpose in that repetition. In the Lord s Prayer, we pray Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. We are not praying Forgive us our sins and forgive those who sin against us. This isn t an us versus them. Rather, we are praying for God to forgive us with the same measure of forgiveness with which we are willing to forgive others who have sinned against us. This is what we need to think about every time we pray those words. May we who know God s unfailing and infinite mercy and forgiveness have the grace, the compassion, and the courage to forgive and forgive.not that we may be spared, but rather that God s will be done. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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