What Does Forgiveness Look Like?

14 September 2014 – Year A, Lectionary 24

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Grace and peace is yours, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I’m going to start today with a question: What does forgiveness look like?

I’m starting with this question because that’s the question at the heart of Peter’s question to Jesus: “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” In other words, Jesus, what does forgiveness really look like, anyway? How abundant is forgiveness?

Well, Peter should know by now that when you ask Jesus a question like this, you’re typically going to get an answer that’s all about the kingdom of heaven – an answer that makes perfect sense in God’s kingdom, but to us, sounds a bit “out there.”

Jesus answers with what we call the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. I’m going to tweak it a bit to fit it into 2014:

There’s this man who owes a bank a lot of money – about six hundred thousand dollars – an impossible sum of money for him to repay on his salary. Since he cannot pay, the president of the bank orders that he and every family member – even the children - have to work extra jobs in order to earn enough to pay off their debt. One day, the man goes to see the president of the bank and he begs for freedom from the impossible debt. The bank president has pity on the man and his family, and he relents, and forgives the entire debt.

The man leaves the bank and is heading home to give his family the good news. While walking home, he sees a coworker and he remembers, “Wait a minute – he owes me fourteen thousand dollars!” The man proceeds to rough up his coworker in order to collect what’s owed him. The coworker begs for more time to repay his debt; instead of being merciful, the man has his coworker thrown into jail.

So, yes, the man who has just been forgiven this huge, impossible debt - forgiven only because of the mercy of the bank president – he turns the tables of forgiveness over on top of this other guy, and all because of a much smaller amount of money.

But another coworker is also there, and sees everything that happens. He knows the bank president, so he goes and tells the banker what he’s just seen. The bank president, furious, has the forgiven man picked up and thrown into the tiniest jail cell he can find. He’s allowed no visitors, and given one meal a day. And every time the guards walk by his cell, they give him a punch in the gut. His family keeps working all of their extra jobs until they can pay back the impossible debt.

Now, obviously, I changed a few things in this parable – to help us to see that Jesus uses extremes in his parables on purpose: in order to capture the attention of his audience. But there is also in this parable the sense of Jesus wanting to push open our minds, to expand what we think forgiveness looks like, and what unforgiveness looks like. Can forgiveness really look like a king’s or a bank president’s mercy, given to someone who owes an impossible debt? Can unforgiveness really be so harsh – as harsh as torture - for the one who refuses to forgive another?

There are two sides to focus on in this parable: that of the one receiving forgiveness, and that of the one offering forgiveness. On the one hand, the parable reminds us that God forgives us our impossible debt – one which we can never hope to repay. Our sinfulness is ever with us, and we are ever the poor, struggling person, asking for mercy.

On the other hand, the parable reminds us that forgiving others is absolutely vital. When we have been hurt by someone, it is often forgiveness that can move us forward.[1]

Most of us have things we remember our parents (or others) saying over and over again. I remember time and time again, when I’d just related some complaint to my mom about something that someone had done to me, she’d listen, and then simply say, “You sure are letting that person have an awful lot of power over you!”

She was right. I had been wronged, in whatever way, and yet I hadn’t gotten around to forgiving that person yet. I was holding onto the wrong and holding onto the pain or trouble they had caused. As long as I held onto all of that garbage, I wasn’t free to move forward, and so I was, in a way, letting that person hold me back. I was like the tortured servant, doomed to be hurt by my own unforgiveness, again and again.

Like the extreme forgiveness initially offered by the king in the parable told by Jesus – or the bank president in my version - forgiveness may not make a lot of sense to us, or to others, especially when we are looking at someone whom we feel owes us an impossible debt.

And yet this parable has another lesson for us: that our own forgiveness and our ability to forgive others are absolutely bound to one another. What is it that we pray in the Lord’s Prayer? “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” As Luther wrote: “…we ask that God would give us all things by grace, for we sin daily and indeed earn only punishment. So, on the other hand, we, too, truly want to forgive heartily and do good gladly to those who sin against us.”[2]

As we daily receive grace and forgiveness, so we are called to offer grace and forgiveness to others over and over again. I’ve often told people that I don’t think of forgiveness as a once-and-for-all-time thing. Forgiveness is a journey, sometimes made up of a thousand steps – a thousand decisions made weekly, or daily, or hourly to forgive that person who has hurt me or wronged me in some way.

Peter wants a number when he asks Jesus his question: is it seven times I should forgive, Jesus? Jesus’ answer, seventy-seven times[3], shouldn’t be taken literally and we shouldn’t create a tally sheet. Rather, that number is meant to be representative of an overall huge number of times that we are willing to forgive – or something closer to what Martin Luther King, Jr. called a “constant attitude” of forgiveness.

We are closing the sermon time today with a rite that we use almost every Sunday here at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church – the rite of Confession and Forgiveness. On Sundays that we use this rite, we stand and face the baptismal font, as a reminder of our own baptismal identity: that we are washed in these waters and marked as Christ’s own forever. But may we also remember that, in our baptisms, we are called to live as forgiven ones, and as forgiven ones, we are called to forgive.

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[1] I will note here that this parable has been wrongly used at times to justify someone staying in an abusive situation. Telling someone who is being abused to “forgive and forget” their abuse is neither helpful, nor the point of Jesus’ teaching here.

[2] Luther’s Small Catechism, explanation to the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer.

[3] OK, or seventy times seven. Not the point!

In Christ, Freed to Love Others

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

C Lectionary 13 – 30 June 2013

Text: Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.[1]

Last week, because of VBS, we took a week off from Galatians so that we could hear the stories about Paul as told in the book of Acts. Today, we pick Galatians back up again.

When we last met our letter-writer, Paul – that is, before Vacation Bible School – he was writing to the Galatians in chapter 2 about God justifying us through his grace. In the lesson from Galatians 3 appointed for last Sunday (the one we didn’t hear), Paul says the following (in summary):

•         We are baptized into Christ.
•         We are clothed with Christ.
•         We are one in Christ.

In today’s lesson from Galatians chapter 5, Paul keeps going – talking about freedom – specifically, our freedom as Christians.

In today’s reading from Galatians, Paul shows us two opposing forces: the flesh and the Spirit. What he calls “the flesh” is not simply our flesh-and-bone bodies – what he’s referring to is our sinful selves: self-serving, discontent, divisive. An example: what’s best for you might not be best for me, and if all I’m worried about is me, then I’m not worried about you one little bit. That kind of attitude is what Paul means when he talks about “the flesh.”

Here are what he includes as the works of the flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. And so while I certainly don’t recommend it, these are all things that we can participate in because of our freedom.

What Paul is trying to express is this: if in exercising our freedom, these are the behaviors that we choose to exhibit – how are we helping others? How are we building others up?

And so, Paul gives another list – a list of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. He then adds, “There is no law against such things.” And why is there no law against the fruit of the Spirit? Because the entire list is nothing but a demonstration of the love that we have for others. Freedom in Christ, then, has less to do with always focusing on ourselves and more to do with loving others.

Paul goes on to say, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” Another translation is this: “If we live by the Spirit, then let us keep in step with the Spirit.” That image is from the military: soldiers, keeping in step with one another, showing that they are organized and that they know what they are doing. Paul uses this image of a military formation because it was something quite familiar in the ancient Roman territories. And it describes how our own formation with the Spirit should be. In step with the Spirit, we are unified with the Spirit and also with each other.

As we are called to walk with the Spirit, we are also called to look outside of ourselves – to love others. Paul reminds the Galatians – and us – that one of God’s greatest commandments is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” A colleague, Dr. Bruce Epperly, puts it this way: “Grace enables us to become large-souled persons who see our own well-being and the well-being of others as intimately connected.”[2]

Our Redeemer has the opportunity today to take some bold steps in learning and growing as individual Christians. But also, these steps will enable us to learn and grow as a Christian community – to learn about and grow into what it is that God is calling us to here in Grand Prairie and also beyond. We are called to look forward. Jesus uses the image of plowing a field in today’s gospel lesson – and so, if we are plowing, we are focused on what is ahead.

We are also called to live our lives in freedom. In that freedom, we are certainly called to love others. Let us, then, my brothers and sisters, keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us pray:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.[3]

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

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[1] Galatians 1:3, 5

[2] UCC Pastor, this quote from www.patheos.com

[3] Prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.

Grace be with you, Part 1: Galatians 1:1-12

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Lectionary 9 – 2 June 2013

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.[1]

This morning begins a sermon series that will continue throughout the summer. I’m calling it “Grace be with you” because that phrase and similar ones are commonly used in some of the books of the New Testament, specifically in the epistles – or letters – of the New Testament. Because so much of the New Testament is made up of these letters, I thought it would be good to spend some focused time looking at them together.

Our lectionary helps us with this. In our assigned readings this summer, we have over a month of Galatians, then several weeks of Colossians, then several weeks of the book of Hebrews. These are the three books, then, upon which we will focus this summer.

In looking at these letters, it is important to remember that we are, essentially, reading someone else’s mail. Just like if we are to read a letter actually written to someone else, there are things in the New Testament letters that don’t necessarily make sense to us right away because they aren’t addressed to us individually or to our church community.

An illustration of what I mean is found in one of my commentaries on Galatians. The author tells the story of some “poor friars who planned to raise money for a new bell tower by selling flowers from the friary garden. Their business became so popular that it adversely affected the trade of the local florist, who tried by various means to get the friars to sell honey or bread instead. Finally, he hired the local thug, Hugh McNails, who beat up the friars and persuaded them to close their flower shop. The moral of the story is: Only Hugh can prevent florist friars.”[2]

If this wordplay seems familiar to you, it’s because it’s reminiscent of a popular public service announcement which many of us in the United States have heard over and over: “Only you can prevent forest fires,” says Smokey the Bear. However, it is important to note that, outside the United States, this slogan is virtually unknown. A European hearing the same story about Hugh and the florist friars would probably not groan or laugh the way some of us did.[3]

So it is when we open the mail of the Christians of the First Century. There will be parts that make perfect sense to us – ideas that need little explanation. But other parts will need more work for us because we live at a much different time and in a much different culture than the ancients did.

For starters, their letters begin differently than ours do. Verses 1-5 are Paul’s salutation. Where we might start off with “Dear brothers and sisters,” and then jump right in to the rest of the letter, Paul begins by identifying himself. And not only identifying himself as the author of the letter, but as one who can speak authoritatively about Jesus Christ because he has been sent by God. This is Paul’s mini-resumé.

Now, normally, in his letters, Paul would include next some words of thanksgiving for the readers. But not in Galatians! He launches, instead: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”[4] What’s going on here?

This is a baby church – one started by Paul very early in the years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. One of the biggest issues facing these earliest Christ-followers was the issue of inclusion. Remember that the first followers of Jesus were largely Jews – people of faith who had a whole system of religious beliefs and practices already well established. Problem is, that Holy Spirit fell out upon a bunch of non-Jews (aka Gentiles), and so one of the biggest questions of the day was: do non-Jewish Christians have to follow the same religious practices as Jewish Christians in order to be Christian?

Apparently after Paul had left Galatia, some other Christian teachers came and said that the gospel Paul preached wasn’t quite enough – that there would be more required of them, as it turned out, in order for them to be true followers of Jesus. These other teachers were trying to impose some of these Jewish practices onto their non-Jewish brothers and sisters, and they were calling it the true gospel. These other teachers, then, were causing great confusion among the Christians in Galatia.

Paul, meanwhile, is so strongly opposed to what these other teachers are saying that he actually says they should be “accursed!”[5] This is strong language from Paul, and to our ears, it sounds like he’s being a bit of a jerk. But his strong language is meant to convey his point strongly – that the gospel of Jesus is a gospel of freedom. A gospel of grace. A gospel of peace. And much of this letter, we’ll find out, reinforces these ideas of freedom, grace, and peace.

We may be reading mail that is addressed to someone else, but the message is here for us, also – the message of freedom, grace, and peace. How often do we wonder if we’re doing all the right things so that God will love us? How often do we hear blame assigned – that these bad things happen because of someone not following God strictly enough? How often do we question if God’s love really is big enough, or strong enough, or deep enough to reach to wherever we are and to lift us up?

The message is here for us, also, and we need it as much as those “foolish Galatians”[6] did almost two thousand years ago. We need God’s words of freedom and grace and peace, and not only for ourselves, but also to proclaim this message the world – a world that may not know about God or care about God but that desperately needs to hear words of freedom and grace and peace. Let us, then, be the messengers of this gospel – this good news.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.[7]

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[1] Galatians 1:3-5

[2] Karris, Robert J. New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Galatians and Romans. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2005.

[3] Ideas, ibid.

[4] Galatians 1:6-7

[5] Galatians 1:8 and 9

[6] Galatians 3:1

[7] Galatians 6:18