So, to celebrate this auspicious moment (and because I actually had to write out a full script for this sermon, which I don't usually do, as Brunswick UC like to circulate the sermons as part of the weekly email newsletter) I thought I would put it up here for posterity.
Focus on Matthew 18:21-35
On Thursday last week, the world marked the 7th anniversary of the terrorist events that have come to be known collectively as “9/11”. On September 11th, 2001, approximately 3000 people were killed as a result of coordinated terrorist activities in the United States on that day.
I’m sure that we can all remember where we were on that day, when the news of the attack first reached us. I was in Sydney, visiting my parents, and have vivid memories of sitting with my mother in the lounge room, glued to the TV as amateur video footage showed first one plane, and then a second, flying into the Twin Towers, and bringing the World Trade Centre crashing to the ground.
As the Australian TV channels took copious hours of live feed from American TV news services, I remember also being somewhat amused (in a black and macabre kind of way- or perhaps a very Australian and cynical way) as all of the American news readers and commentators expressed such astonishment and disbelief that anyone could possibly want to do this heinous thing to America- because, “doesn’t the whole world LOVE the United States?”
As more detail of the attacks gradually came to light, and it became evident that it was indeed a coordinated campaign of terrorism, the world waited with bated breath for an official response from the US President.
At that time, I remember thinking (in one of my more prophetic moments), wouldn’t it be a powerful statement if the President could come out and say something along the lines of:
This terrible act has caused significant pain and grief to our country, and the world is shocked and saddened by this senseless loss of life.
But I say to the perpetrators of this deed, we will not sink to your level, and will not retaliate in acts of violence, or by seeking retribution for this bloodshed. Instead I say to you that we forgive you, and may God have mercy on your souls.
Of course, this didn’t happen, and for the 7 years since then, we have been living with the consequences of the so-called ‘War on Terror’. I knew it wouldn’t happen, but can you imagine what world politics would look like today if it had? What a potent and remarkable gesture it would have been for the nation whose currency bears the words, “In God we trust” to publicly forgive its enemy.
Our Gospel reading today talks about forgiveness. It opens with a 2-verse vignette of a dialogue between Peter and Jesus, as Peter asks, “Lord, how often should I forgive? Seven times?” Jesus’ response (depending on which translation we read) is that Peter should forgive 77 times, or 70 x 7 times. Whichever way we look at it, this is quite extravagant, and could even be seen as somewhat hyperbolic.
It is no accident that this follows straight on from the passage listed in last week’s revised common lectionary, about pointing out the faults, and correcting those in the church who sin against us.
It seems to me, that this 2-verse vignette that begins today’s reading is deliberately placed after last week’s section, in order to remind the community that when they do point out the faults of brothers and sisters who have sinned against them, they should do so in a spirit of compassion and mercy, being gentle and ready to forgive.
As we move on to consider the parable in today’s Gospel, we can see that the analogy of the forgiveness of debt in the parable is a good one for considering forgiveness generally. When someone is owed a debt, that gives them power over the debtor. If someone is in debt to me, there is a sense that they owe me something, which sets up a power dynamic in that relationship, and so the act of forgiving a debt means relinquishing that power.
Bill Loader refers to forgiving as a form of giving, because in forgiving someone (whether of a monetary debt, or some other kind of debt) we are in fact giving something of ourselves, and not holding back in that relationship. There is no longer a power dynamic. We all know that it’s not healthy to hold onto things like grudges or bad feelings towards someone who has hurt us, either for us, or for the other person, so to forgive is ultimately good for all concerned. Of course, the ultimate role model of forgiveness is God’s self-giving through the gift of the Son.
In our parable the extravagance of God’s forgiveness is indicated by the ridiculously huge debt owed by the first slave to the king- 10,000 talents!
When we consider that a labourer in those days would have to work more than 15 years to earn talent, it is obvious that for a slave to rack up a debt of 10,000 talents would have been a sheer impossibility. The reason why the Gospel writer uses this over-the-top figure is to distract the reader from the content of the story, to consider the meaning behind the story: God’s generous and extravagant forgiveness, freely given, so no sin is too big, nor is there any upper limit on the number of times God will forgive- as shown by the equally extravagant “77 times” (or “70 x 7 times”) in verse 2; and also emphasising the spirit of generosity that should characterise our forgiveness to others.
This is certainly good news for us all… but the story does have a sting in the tail. Whilst it is certainly true that God’s forgiveness towards us is a pure act of God’s love and generosity - nothing we can do can earn that gift- it is also true that God expects us to ‘pay it forward’- in response to the good things that we have received from God, as an outflowing of our own joy and gratitude, we in turn initiate random acts of kindness to others, so they can also benefit. So, after experiencing the freedom and grace of God’s forgiveness to us, an appropriate response would be to also forgive others, out of a sense of joy and gratitude, not of compulsion.
There is something relational about forgiveness, because God’s forgiveness of sin is not just about saying “sorry” for our sins, as this misses the whole point of the Gospel. Just as the Hebrew concept of “shalom”, peace, is not just about the absence of conflict, but rather is about the positive and palpable presence of wholeness and wellbeing, in the same way, the concept of forgiveness is not just about the absence or removal of sin, but about a positive presence of restoration and wholeness. God forgives us so we can be restored into full relationship with him, and in that relational process, we become whole.
For this to happen, we need to be aware that forgiveness is also costly, both for the person who forgives (because they have to give something up) and also for the one who is forgiven (who has to first of all acknowledge that there is something that needs to be forgiven, and thus put aside the lies, delusions and masks to allow forgiveness to happen).
It is also tempting for us to focus only on God’s generosity, grace and the free gift of forgiveness, but in doing this we fail to recognise the value, and indeed, the costly nature of forgiveness and grace. This is why the apostle Paul made the comment in Romans 6:1, after a lengthy discussion about God’s grace being manifest in forgiveness, he asks, “so what shall we do then? Continue sinning so that grace may abound? BY NO MEANS!”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes this attitude, where we fail to fully appreciate the cost of God’s grace as ‘cheap grace’, and points out that we need to recognise that even though we don’t need to do anything to deserve God’s grace, it is not cheap, but is, in fact, quite costly. Costly to God… costly to God’s Son.
As we learn to appreciate that cost of God’s generous grace and forgiveness, how could we NOT want to respond, and emulate the example set for us by our loving, self-giving God?
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