18 Pentecost A, Proper 19, Sept. 14, 2008
St. James, Zanesville
Kathryn P. Clausen

Exodus 14:19-31
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35
Psalm 114

“Forgive us our sins”

Jesus is continuing his discourse on church order. He and his disciples are on the road to Jerusalem. He is drawing close now to his inevitable death, the sacrifice he must make on our behalf. His disciples are ordinary men, and perhaps a few women, who have ordinary feelings and emotions. Sometimes they quarrel and squabble among one another. Sometimes they compete for his favor. Sometimes they doubt and fear. Jesus knows what is coming, but when he tries to reveal it to the disciples, they quite naturally recoil in horror and denial. None of them would be regarded as sinful although perhaps they are a little disappointing at times. Jesus has patiently tolerated all of this and has cajoled and instructed his followers in how to follow the better path. But now he is running out of time. He has to make his point forcefully and repeatedly about those matters necessary to keep the church from breaking apart before it even has a chance to develop and grow. Last week he spoke about reconciliation, the rectification of a perceived wrong by working things out and working together as a community of faith. After all, a church is really just a community of believers who agree on matters of the faith and tolerate disagreement about matters not central to their faith. The trick, of course, is knowing the difference.

This week, he cuts right to the chase. The surest way to destroy the church, and with it everything he has been trying to instill in them, is if his followers do not or cannot forgive each other, or anybody else for that matter. Forgiveness is the foundation of the Christian message. It is the reason for the Incarnation and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It is the summation of the gospels in one word, forgive. And it underlies the meaning of God’s unmerited grace. And yet, sometimes forgiveness is the hardest of all the Christian virtues to carry out.

The Jewish society into which Jesus dropped was a society based on Law and not love, and on Justice rather than forgiveness. His message of love and forgiveness was radical to say the least. It was for weaklings and women, not warriors and kings. It was contrary to the Law. I guess all of that was true. And it was so threatening to the social order that Jesus had to be eliminated. He was just too subversive.

But no matter how unwelcome, the message of forgiveness was liberating. Because of all the human emotions, love, hate, fear, sorrow, I believe that anger is the most malignant. Unresolved anger can be life-destroying, and it can take others along with it. You all know what I am talking about. You have all experienced it at one time or another. It is so common as to be considered normal, and perhaps it is. But it is still an emotional cancer that, if unchecked, will grow and spread until it causes the death of the spirit and the soul. And it can destroy families, churches, and even nations. And when it becomes chronic, anger can be turned inward and devolve into depression and self hatred.

There is no end of reasons to be angry, whether it is justified or not. We are angry about 9/11 and need to blame somebody, whether they are responsible or not. We may be angry about social changes, so somebody must be at fault. We may be angry at our leaders, or our church, or our spouse, or our children because they never seem to live up to our expectations, or we simply don’t agree with them so they must obviously be wrong. We may be angry at God for sending a hurricane that causes great suffering, or for taking away a loved one or inflicting a terminal illness. We may be angry because we don’t always get our own way or because people don’t always think the same way we do. I have even had the experience of angry people trying to recruit me into their anger, usually righteous (or self-righteous) indignation over what somebody else may be doing or not doing. It happens during the political campaigns this year. It happens all the time in churches. But I am old enough to be very selective about what I will get truly angry about, the so-called ditch I might choose to die in. When I don’t seem to be as upset about something as they are, they think there must be something wrong with me. Personally, I think there is something wrong with them. Life is too short to get worked up about what other people may be doing. It is a waste of energy and does nobody any good. We have enough to do to see to our own affairs. And it is not our place to judge others in any event. The only judge is God, not us.

Jesus knew what the burden of anger could do to people’s souls. It can get in the way of all other emotions. Angry people cannot love. They totally self-centered and self-absorbed. And anger is an absolute impediment to prayer. More than any other emotion, anger can separate us from God. And anything that separates us from God, my friends, is sin.

There is no limit to forgiveness. Jesus said to do it seventy-seven times over if it were needed. That was his way of saying always and forever. Don’t ever stop forgiving. It is as much for your own good as for the other. After all, we have all been forgiven. And when we pray the prayer that our Lord taught us, we are bold to say “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”. Remember, what goes around, comes around. Amen.