God Can Change Things

Sermon-Proper 19A/ Pentecost +13
September 11, 2011

I’m going to talk about 9-11 in a moment, but first let me give you some background on today’s gospel-or as I like to say, show you that I actually do look some things up before I preach. This gospel parable is pretty straightforward. Peter wants to know how many times he has to forgive someone. Remember 2 chapters earlier Jesus said that Peter was the rock, on whom he would build his church. And believe it or not, Peter is trying to impress Jesus by asking this technical question. Jewish religion was very specific about this. Rabbinic teaching (according to Clayton Schmit) said this:: “to forgive, yes, but prudently. To forgive once is generous. To be let down by the same person and forgive a second time would be exemplary. To be fool enough to get hurt by the same individual a third time and to forgive even then: this is bordering on the obsessive.”
So Peter was trying to say to Jesus when does forgiveness stop and foolishness begin? Jesus then tells a story that we will be forgiven only as much as we forgive.
Jesus loves to use exaggeration, hyperbole is the technical term, in his parables. His story says that the king forgives the loan to his head slave of 1000 talents. A talent is 130 pounds of silver That is the equivalent of, and again, this is the technical amount, a GAZILLION dollars. The head slave turns around, and then punishes a lesser slave for not paying him a debt of a hundred denarii. 100 denarii is worth a days of work-or, a very little. The king hears about this gross injustice and takes the head slave, throws him in the dungeon and tortures him for being an unforgiving jerk. Jesus uses this parable to teach about understanding the connection between being forgiven, and forgiving.
Professor Alyce MacKenzie writes: “This parable is unique to Matthew. It is about forgiveness, but with a typical Matthew ending in which someone has to pay......All of the parables unique to Matthew, except for (a few brief) analogies ... end with someone's downfall... So the unforgiving servant in this parable ends up being tortured in a dungeon (18:34)....we have a picture here of a terribly harsh king who, inexplicably, takes pity on a servant who owes him a tremendous debt. And we have a picture of a person who has been shown tremendous mercy, inexplicably unwilling to extend it to someone else.”
In the gospel of Matthew forgiveness is a key ingredient to Jesus’ good news. It’s the fifth petition in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” Forgiveness, Karl Jacobson writes, is “extravagant and precious” in the gospel of Matthew. “Forgiveness lies at the heart of our faith in God and our love of one another. Forgiveness, which we receive from God our King in the person of Jesus is what our King expects from his subjects in their dealings with each other.”
But you already know that, right? You know that the reason we have the confession in our liturgy every week is because we need to recognize that we have separated ourselves from God and from others, and we cannot be reconciled until we acknowledge and admit it. You all know that, right? We hear this parable and we’re supposed to see ourselves in the slave who owed much, and forgave little. We’re supposed to see that forgiveness changes us, it makes others lives AND our lives, better. But forgiveness is hard. You all know that already, too. We are familiar with Christian teaching about forgiveness. Forgiveness is about release of another’s sins, and the release of the person who is pardoning. But forgiveness is just one example of the Christian message. The important thing to remember is that no matter how bad, how terrible, how unforgiving, we are, life is-God can change things. The world was forlorn, God brought his son. The crucifixion led to the resurrection. God changes things. He redeems even the worst, even the saddest, even the most hopeless events in ways we cannot imagine. But he needs us to be willing to participate-and to see the possibility of this truth.
In each bulletin is a 4x6 card with a biography from the New York Times of someone who died on the planes or in the towers 10 years ago. These are heart wrenching snippets. Deb came home one day and here I am with this book open, crying. And she said, “you’ll never get all these biographies done, you’re a mess.” These are powerful and sad and sweet. Some are heroic. Some are tragic. Most of the people are incredibly average, normal folks. A high percentage of them were immigrants from other countries. And about one out of every nine of those who died were first responders-police, firefighters, emts.
They didn’t deserve to die like this. This was just sad, and evil. But we have an opportunity to help redeem their memory. We have an opening to be God’s agents today and bring healing into their loss. Redemption is offered in forgiveness, redemption is offered in healing. We can help their lives, their deaths become holy. This week, say a prayer for the person whose bio you hold in your hands. Pray that their family finds forgiveness and release from this trauma. Do an act of kindness in memory of this person this week-an act of charity or love. Read to a child, take a meal to someone who is shut in, call someone you have forgotten, and tell them how precious they are. Do these things not because you need to feel better-but in memory of the person whose name you are holding. Write what you do on the back of this card and bring it with you next week to church and put it up on the bulletin board. We will leave them up for a couple of weeks, so we can all be healed and inspired by these acts of remembrance.
How many times must we forgive someone who has sinned against us? Until we both the forgiver-and the forgiven-are set free. How long do we honor the people who died so savagely 10 years ago? Until we can look at these names, these bios with hope and thanksgiving. Today, again, we tell the Christian story-that no evil, no pain is ever final. Every sin, every shame can be pardoned. Today we don’t just remember pain and sorrow-we work with God to tell the Christian truth, every memory can be healed, forgiveness never ends, that hope never dies, and, that every life can be redeemed. Amen.