O Lord, we pray, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
One clergy family decided to let their three-year old son record the message for their home answering machine. The rehearsals went smoothly: “Mommy and Daddy cannot come to the phone right now. If you will leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they will get back to you as soon as possible.” Then came the test. The father pressed the record button and their son said sweetly, “Mommy and Daddy cannot come to the phone right now. If you will leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they will get back to you as soon as Jesus comes.”
The three readings of this morning speak to us today of sin and of forgiveness.
Our first reading shows Joseph’s brothers begging him, in the name of the God of their Father, to forgive them. And Joseph does – saying as he does:
“Do not be afraid. Do I act for God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives…”
You may remember, Joseph, was sold into slavery by his brothers, who were envious of the favoritism shown by their father towards him and resentful of the attitude that Joseph seemed to have towards them. They would have murdered him, but for their reluctance to actually have his blood on their hands, but the fate that they condemned him to was little better than murder, for no slave is able to do as they wish, and the life of a slave could be taken at the whim of his master.
It was only due to Joseph having favour in the eyes of God that Joseph was able to prosper even in his slavery and, after many trials and tribulations, including a spell of over two years in prison for an offence that he did not commit, rise to the position of being at the right hand of the Pharaoh, where he was appointed with the task of keeping Egypt safe from seven years of drought and famine.
Certainly his brothers committed a grave sin against Joseph. And yet, many years later, when hunger brought them into Egypt – he fed them; indeed he provided richly for both them and his father, saying even then, that God had a purpose in allowing them to sell him into slavery, for it made it possible for him to save them and all his people in their greatest time of need.
God gave to Joseph the grace to see beyond the pain to the gain. The grace to see what while evil was done to him – God was able to use that evil for good.
Often that is a most difficult thing for us, at least it is for me.
We cannot see anything good coming out of the harm that others have done to us. We cannot see any reason for giving out mercy, we cannot see any reason for giving to them forgiveness, even if, in other areas of our life we may have prosper.
We carry the wounds of the past with us, we remember the hurt done to us.
We tend to think of what might have been, rather than taking a look at our life as it is now, and seeing in it the hand of God to do good for many, and from that point of view, forgiving other people for the harm that they may have done to us in the past, and often in the very distant past.
If the truth ever be told – even in the story of Joseph, sin remains sin, even though God brought good out of it.
That is a simple fact of truth, and we should never lose track of it.
No matter what God does with the sins that have been committed against us, they remain as sins.
The Psalm reading of this morning speaks to us of what God does with our sins. Let me quote from the first eleven verses:
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…the LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens above the earth, so great is this love of those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us…
God does indeed remove our sins from us. Out of love for us, God forgives us our sins. God cancels them out. God makes the debt that in justice we owe to him – of no account. That is the great message of the cross 0 that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life.
As we all know from our experience in life sin is serious. Sin is always wrong, it is always bad. It always hurt someone. However, the incredible news is, that while sin always hurt, its power to hurt ends when forgiveness is applied to it.
We have all been forgiven by God. Sin no longer has the power to harm our relationship with God. It has been washed away; it has been nailed to the cross. It has been buried by God, never to rise again. In the place of sin has new life comes forth, a life that we have but to reach out to receive.
That is what God does for each and every one of us. Instead of punishing us for our sins, instead of keeping us away at arm’s length, instead of turning away his face from us as we so very much deserves, God turns to us.
God turns to us, and in pain, and in tears, and finally in death itself, he forgives us and calls us, as well as empowers us, to live as ones who are able, just like Joseph, to save many lives – as ones, just like Jesus, are able to bring the word of life to those who are living in darkness, the word of love those who are perishing on account of their lack of love.
Max Lucado in his thesis “The Grip of Grace” tells us that “God does not condone our sin, nor does he compromise his standard. He does not ignore our rebellion, nor does he relax his demands. Rather than dismiss our sin, he assumes our sin and, incredibly, incredibly sentences himself. God is still holy. Sin is still sin. And we are redeemed.”
We are indeed redeemed. We have been bought out of slavery to sin and death. God is good to us – even though some of our brothers and sisters have not been good to us – even though we ourselves have not been good to God.
And so, we finally arrive at the Gospel lesson of today as well as at the title of our Sermon “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
After listening to Jesus speak to him and the other disciples about how to treat a brother or a sister who has sinned against them, Peter comes up to Jesus and asks him:
“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” And then Jesus gave his famous answer - “I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven times”.
And then Jesus tells them an alarming parable about how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and how one of these servants, even he is forgiven a massive debt by his master, fails to be equally forgiving of a fellow servant who owes him but a very small debt.
“You wicked servant” says the master to the one he had forgiven so much. “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” And in anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
This is alarming, is it not? And how much more so when you remember the punch line of Jesus. “This”, says Jesus “is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
This parable is alarming because a lot of people find it difficult to forgive. And because, in some way or other, from the parable, it seems like that the forgiveness that we will finally receive from God depends on the forgiveness we give….
“This”, says Jesus, “is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” And again, from earlier in the Gospel according to Matthew, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. This, says Jesus, is how you should pray, “forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”
God loves and forgives us – even before we even ask. His forgiveness is total and unconditional, and he calls on us to open our live to him and to accept that love and forgiveness.
If you are worrying about not being able to forgive someone one time, let alone seventy times seven times, there is something you can do about it. Or if you are worrying that your perhaps your prayer to God might be fulfilled before you are ready for it, and that God will end up in forgiving you in the same way that you forgive others, there is something you can do about it.
That something is this:
Surrender your judgment to God, surrender your judgment to God and keep on praying the prayer that Jesus taught us, and pray this prayer with deep earnestness. From time to time try changing the words. Change them from “And Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” to “And, as You have forgiven us our trespasses, help us to forgive those who trespass against us”, and change the words back again.
Pray the prayer of Christ and taste the grace of God of which our Psalm reading sings of today.
Remember that sin is sin –and that it all hurts – and yet God removes it from us as far as the east is from the west. He forgives us, he has compassion for us, like a father has for his children, like a mother has for her child.
Taste what that means for you. Think of how God has shown love for you, forgiveness to you, even before you even asked for it, even before you thought to ask.
Then you will be, as the Psalm puts it, “Like a tree planted by streams of water”. You will be drawing upon the love of God – the story of God’s wonder and grace – the word of God. You will be able to yield your fruit in season, and your leaves will not wither, your actions, and later even your feelings, will be good.
Yes, sin is sin, and we have every right to be angry about it. We should be angry about it. But work to let go of your anger to those who have sinned against you. Work on it by not only remembering what God has done for you, but also by remembering who is in the end, the only one who has the right to render judgment.
Forgiveness means that we must forever give up the idea that we are the judge.
I, personally, am so happy about that, because I know that I will make a lousy judge. Because I know also how my judgments of other people have in times past proven wrong, and I know how even when they have been “right”, they have done nothing to improve the situation for me. For those I am worried about. For the one that has done wrong.
Think on all these things. Think about how God’s ways are greater than ours, and how God cares for us, and wants us to care for other people.
Then pray again. “Lord, forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me” and again, “Lord, as you have forgiven my trespasses, help me to forgive those who have trespass against me.”
God will certainly help you, as he has helped me, as you remember what is near to God’s own heart – and ask his help with it. God will help you even as you continue the prayer as Jesus taught us to pray.
Fear not that you have already lost – or will loose your salvation – your joy or peace. Rather keep trying to forgive – for in trying to forgive, forgiveness comes.
Do not fear your failures to forgive despite your resolve to forgive. The Lord who calls us to forgive seventy times seven times has himself done the same – and indeed even more.
Your salvation is not lost by one act of malice, or even by a series of such acts. It can only be lost if you commit what the Scriptures call the unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the sin which we understand to be the denial of God and of God’s power; the denial of the Truth of God that seeks to leaven your life.
The truth of God is that God is forgiving.
The power of God is the power to help you to stand firm and to show that truth to others, through the love that we give.
Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my innermost being, praise his holy name. Amen.
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