TORTURING OURSELVES PENTECOST 14 - PROPER 19 - YEAR A SEPTEMBER 14, 2014 BECKY ROBBINS-PENNIMAN CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, DUNEDIN, FLORIDA Collect of the Day: O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Genesis 50:15-21 Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, "What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?" So they approached Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this instruction before he died, `Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.' Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves." But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones." In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them. Psalm 103:8-13 The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. He will not always accuse us, nor will he keep his anger for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is his mercy great upon those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. As a father cares for his children, so does the Lord care for those who fear him. Romans 14:1-12 Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 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. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 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. For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
2 Matthew 18:21-35 Peter came and said to 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. "For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 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. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, `Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 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.' Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, `Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 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. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, `You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart." Sermon Song: Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive Torture? God is going to torture us if we don t straighten up and fly right? Is that what holy Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is saying! Goody! I get to give a fire and brimstone sermon I ve always wanted to. So, how should the logic of the sermon go? Hmmmm. What do you think of when you think of torture? Pain, obviously. Suffering. Captivity. What else? [from congregation: whips, chains, ISIL, beheadings, fire...] So, if you don t forgive others from your heart, You will be in pain! You will be whipped and thrown into the fire! So what if you ve been treated you like dirt! So what if you ve been abused! So what if someone has humiliated, ignored or rejected you! Forgive now them from the heart NOW, or you will ROT in HELL. Hey, that s not bad for a fire and brimstone sermon. If any of you here hadn t yet decided to follow Jesus, I ll bet that got you ready. Shall we have an altar call and see who wants to sign up? You all don t look too excited. Maybe there s another way to look at all this; maybe it s this: maybe when we refuse to forgive, we re already in hell. And, as CS Lewis wrote, the doors of hell are locked on the inside. 1 To get out of hell, we are to forgive others really and truly and completely. And Lewis says that God s command that we really and truly and completely forgive each other, is the single most difficult command God gives us. 1 C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, HarperCollins, 2009. p. 130.
Where was Lewis when he wrote about all this? In post-war London, looking at bombed out streets and buildings. What the Germans had done was inexcusable. Forgiving them, he knew, not only seemed an impossible thing to ask, many of his countrymen would think it to be weak, hateful, contemptible and wrong to do so. 2 Yet, Lewis says, God has already forgiven the inexcusable in each one of us - we are to do the same for each other. 3 Some of you may be connecting the dots and thinking, If Lewis said England had to forgive what happened to them in WWII, you re saying what we have to do is forgive what happened to us on 9/11. I'll bet you forced the point by choosing that gospel for this day?! You are insane, preacher lady. But I didn t choose it; for over 30 years, this gospel story on forgiveness has been assigned for the Sunday closest to Sept. 14 th. I still may be insane to preach on it today, but here s the thing: Jesus talked about forgiveness a LOT and at very the same time he talked about generosity, healing, and loving our neighbors. The centerpiece of the prayer he taught his disciples is about forgiveness by God and by us. I don t need to tell you that the prayer does NOT go give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses. Lead us not into temptation... Nope. We are to pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Remember last week, when I said the word trespass is a relational sin; it means a violation of one person s rights by another. We violate God s rights and God forgives; someone violates ours, and we are to forgive. We, however, want to carefully control just how much forgiveness we give. I m betting that most of us here are like Peter. We think of forgiveness as something we do for someone else, something we do because we want to be successful at being good. The implication behind Peter s question to Jesus about how many times is that Peter doesn t really want to actually forgive the other person, he wants to keep score and see who wins the game of being the better person. As with so much of religious behavior, even forgiveness can become a competitive sport. In volleyball, you win when you get 25 points. In tennis you win when you win the best out of 6 sets, or 7 depending. In religious observance, Peter thinks 7 forgivings is enough to win. After he wins, though, he won t be forced to do it any more. Then, he ll be able to do what he really WANTS to do, which is judge the person who has given him pain, who has abused him, or whatever the other has done to hurt him. 3 2 C.S. Lewis, Forgiveness, Book 3, Chapter 7 in Mere Christianity. 3 C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, HarperCollins
After he s made the winning score, Peter will be free to judge the other as being a horrible, damnable person, and treat him accordingly in return. That s only fair. But, in his parable about the unforgiving servant, Jesus wants Peter to understand that the game is never over as long as we are keeping score. When we keep score, the pain and anger in our hearts locks our prison doors tight. The point Jesus is making ties right back into that whole love your neighbor as you love yourself thing. Forgiveness is not only how we love our neighbor, it s how we love ourselves, too. Until we want the same level of forgiveness for our enemies as we want for ourselves, we are still miserly, sick, and cold-hearted. We are in hell. When our hearts are in hell, we can t leave it; we take our hell with us wherever we go. A true story: A competent, professional woman became incredibly fatigued, her joints were sore, she was always sick colds, flu, whatever came around. After many, many tests, they discovered she had Lyme Disease. What a relief to have a diagnosis! She started on the antibiotics, and almost everything improved immediately. But she kept getting sick; finally, they did an air analysis on her home. The house had some black mold spores. That was the culprit. In her compromised immune state, even a little mold was toxic. Her family got a new house, packed up their stuff, moved, and voila! She immediately got better but after just a couple of weeks, she got sick. They tested the air in her house... black mold. Obviously, she had brought something with her when she moved. They tested this and that and found that there were some rugs, old rugs, precious rugs, that belonged to her grandmother. They were full of mold. They could be cleaned, but they were quite fragile. The cleaners said that they couldn t guarantee the rugs would ever be 100% free of toxic black mold without wrecking the rugs. Our hearts are like those moldy rugs. Until the health, wholeness and holiness of the kingdom of heaven are more desirable to us than our moldy rugs, wherever we go, we ll take our pain, our anger, our hell, with us. We will torture ourselves. Forgiveness is the only way out. Forgiveness does not deny our pain and anger are real and horrible. Forgiveness does not deny the heartbreaking reality of the past. Forgiveness promises only that the pain and anger we experienced in the past will no longer control our hopes, our decisions and our lives. The healing and wholeness and holiness that come with forgiving release us for a new, free life: the pain and anger no longer imprison us. A story I ve told time and again, from Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Three veterans were standing before the Viet Nam Memorial in DC. One asks, "Have you forgiven those who held you prisoner of war?" "I will never forgive them," replies the other. His mate says: "Then it seems they still have you in prison, don't they?" 4
5 Jesus not only teaches that forgiveness is our key out of hell and into the Kingdom of heaven, Jesus lives forgiveness at a radical, mind-boggling level. When Jesus tells Peter to forgive from the heart, he s not mouthing abstract platitudes about the nature of God. However bad any of us have had it, Jesus suffered the worst humanity can dish out. Jesus knew a life of hardship that few Americans can imagine. An impoverished peasant in a country occupied by a ruthless army, he had no rights, no status, and no money, no power. Jesus faced horrific torture at the hands of religious and civic leaders. Those whippings you mentioned? He got them. Captivity? Yes. He was betrayed and denied and abandoned by his closest friends. Truly, what humanity did to God was inexcusable. When Jesus appeared to his disciples at Easter, what did he say? NOW you will ROT in HELL for what you did to me! No, that s not right. After Easter, Jesus burst his three-day prison of death, appeared to the very people who had denied and abandoned him, told them not to be afraid, and gave them his peace. The Son of God showed how God extends radical, total, unmitigated, from-the-heart forgiveness to those who have done the inexcusable. With the anniversary of 9/11 once again here, we have seen the inexcusable; we ve seen our own pain and anger and abuse and humiliation once more splashed across TV screens and newspapers. At the same time, those same screens and pages give today s news. We can see the pain and anger and abuse and humiliation of people in countless nations, near and far, both friend and foe. It seems humanity can t imagine any other way of managing its affairs than dragging its moldy rugs around year after bloody, hellish year. Well, I can t change anyone else not in the White House, or Congress, or any of the halls of power or dens of terror around the world, or even right here in this church this morning. The only person I can change is me, the only person you can change is you If we want to stop torturing ourselves, that s where it has to start. Jesus wants you and me to wreck our moldy rugs, because we can t love our neighbor until we love ourselves enough to stop letting our pain and hurt and anger both control and torture us. I already promised you that unlocking our doors to our own hell is the hardest, most difficult work a disciple of Jesus is asked to do, but Jesus promises: the life of the Kingdom of heaven is near when we forgive from the heart. Now, shall we have that altar call and see who wants to sign up? In the Episcopal Church, we have another name for an altar call : We call it the Eucharist, Holy Communion, the Lord s Supper. Week after week, we tell the story of humanity s betrayal of God, and we tell the story of God s forgiveness of all people. Each time, we rejoice that God s forgiveness is given to us again today, until we can t count the number of times God has done it. It s way more than seventy-seven. After we tell the story of God s forgiveness, we ll pray for it, for ourselves, and for others. Today, let that prayer be so heartfelt that it wrecks your moldy rugs, opens your prison doors, and begins to change the world, one heart at a time, one neighbor at a time, until we all lose count.