Pr. Ben Adams
Lectionary 24a
September 12, 2020
Forgiven People Forgive People
Today is a special day, an HTLoop reunion service, and even though we can’t gather physically together, it is a homecoming of sorts. We are back broadcasting our worship from the sanctuary of our beloved Grace Place, and we are gathered here virtually, but together, still uncertain about where we are collectively headed, but together.
I can’t help but feel a certain kinship with the Israelites who in our text today are being led forward out of Egypt by a mysterious cloud, uncertain if they will actually reach a promised land, yet trusting God with each step forward into the unknown. We too, like the Israelites must continue forward, led by God’s mystery, not knowing where the path is taking us, but trusting that God’s hand is leading us and God’s love is supporting us.
But man it is frustrating to live in these times! It is impossible to not feel frustrated about the future we are moving forward into when it seems like others are not doing their part to move us forward, but, in fact, seem to be holding us back. We have racism and police brutality holding us back, we have an election in 51 days and each side is pointing at each other claiming that the other candidate will start or continue a downward spiral for our country's future, meanwhile people on the West Coast are experiencing setbacks from losing everything due to wildfires, all the while the Gulf coast is recovering from their setback of losing everything after Hurricane Laura, and as we try to return to healing and wholeness from this pandemic, there is a solid contingent of people who outright refuse to wear masks and we have schools reopening despite knowing that this decision cause an increase in COVID cases.
There have been moments y’all of frustration that I have experienced personally since March that I am not proud of, maybe you have too, but the good news of today’s Gospel is that even in our most frustrated of moments where we might lose our cool or we might snap, there is forgiveness for us. And what our Gospel lesson teaches us is that forgiven people forgive people.
Today’s Gospel starts with a question for Jesus from Peter who says, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus says to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”
This then leads Jesus into a parable of a king who forgives his servant’s debt, but then after being forgiven of his debt, the forgiven servant comes upon a fellow servant who owes him money, but instead of forgiving his fellow servant, the forgiven servant has his fellow servant locked up in prison until the debt is paid.
The word of this gets back to the king who responds by saying, "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?' So the king in his anger hands the once forgiven servant over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. Jesus then goes on to summarize this parable by saying, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."
Oof… that sounds pretty threatening to me, and I’m not sure if we can soften that message to be more palatable, but the message is clear, forgiveness is paramount to God. Because God has shown us such forgiveness in Christ, the expectation is that we then go and do likewise. Remember folks, forgiven people forgive people.
Recently I heard a couple of stories that capture what this means to me. The first came from the Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. They were in worship together shortly after students returned to campus and during the prayers of intercession, one of their students prays for the students on campus who choose to go to parties. The health and safety of everyone is threatened by large, un-masked, not socially distant parties, and yet, this student, rooted in her own forgiveness, prays for those who are quite literally holding back healing from this virus to occur. That is a forgiven person forgiving people.
With yesterday being the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, I heard yet another story of forgiveness. Rais Bhuiyan was working as a convenience store clerk when he was fired upon by a revenge-killer following the 9/11 attacks. Bhuiyan, a practicing Muslim, survived, and after religious reflection forgave his assailant and, with the families of his other victims, sought to prevent his execution. Although they were unsuccessful, their actions caused the shooter to renounce violence and his white supremacist beliefs. Wow… that, dear people, is forgiven people forgiving people.
And this act of forgiving people is simple, but it might be the single hardest thing for us to do. But, when we can somehow with the grace of God forgive others, the result is miraculous transformation. Just think about the shooter in the 9/11 story, the forgiveness extended to him by Bhuiyan and the Muslim community allowed him to be released from the violence and idol of white supremacy.
Ultimately, the act of forgiveness is the key that unlocks us from the jail cell of debt and retribution we are trapped in. And once released, we can then be reunited in right relationship with one another and made whole. Once our relationships are transformed in this way, we can then begin to have hope once again that the cloudy mystery before us will someday give way to a promised land. Activist Duncan Morrow puts it this way: Forgiveness means relating to one another as "broken people who have done terrible things to each other, and who now know they have to find a future together"
Dear People, you are forgiven, and forgiven people forgive people. And if that act of forgiveness feels like an impossible task before you with all the frustration we feel with one another, trust that renewed in our baptisms, God will make all of us, signs of reconciliation in the world, and together we will move forward and find a future together. A future transformed, healed, and whole. Amen