September 14, 2008

Forgiveness Multiplied

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Matthew 18: 21-35

Opening Illustration: Arguments – historical or hysterical?

What do we mean when we say we should be forgiving? Are there limits? If not, why not? Are Christians supposed to let people walk all over them?

Question raised by Peter – but answered in the context of the church. Jesus is telling later generations how to deal with others in the church when they keep wronging you.

Peter asks if he should forgive the same person seven times. Forgiveness is really internal (In the heart) for Matthew.

Jesus tells him he should forgive seventy times seven. Seven means complete – Math is not the point here. You should never stop forgiving people who wrong you. Slide.

May be a reference to Song of Lamech in Gen. 4:24

Jesus’ teaching contrasts Jewish teaching at the time which limited forgiveness to three times.

Talmud and Job/Amos references.

Why should Christians be so eternally forgiving? Because God is.

Matthew reflects idea that everyone owes a debt of sin to God. Can only be paid off by forgiving others for what they have done to you. Slide.

Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Parable of the unforgiving servant reflects vast difference between the sins an individual forgives and the individual’s sin which God forgives.

King/Master – demands an accounting of funds owed. Probably taxes which were to be collected.

One servant had bid a tremendous sum – couldn’t pay it.

Master orders his wife and kids thrown into jail. (Against Jewish law to throw wife and children into jail). Probable a gentile king.

Servant begs for mercy – king forgives huge debt.

Same servant runs into someone who owes him a little money. Demands payment.

Debtor asks for more time, not forgiveness. Servant refuses, puts him into jail (probably forced labor), until he can pay it back.

Other servants saw what happened and were offended by the hypocrisy.

They told the king, who called this servants back in and threw him in jail.

Debt owed by the servant is an analogy to debt of sin everyone owes to God. Debt owed by the other guy is the debts others owe to us. Big difference

The point is that if God has forgiven us all the things we do wrong, we should forgive those who wrong us. It’s only fair.

Sounds very straightforward. How do we apply this to our lives these days?

We have to strike a balance in the way we think about ourselves. We have to see ourselves as people who are loved and forgiven by God for our sin.

Churches often talk about our past sins as a way of making people feel horrible about themselves.

Guilt from that kind of self-understanding is destructive and unhealthy. We should not go around feeling like we’re worthless failures who have been inexplicably forgiven by God.

God forgave us because God loves us. God loves us because we’re good. Sermons where people were made to feel disgusted with themselves.

At the same time, we have to have a sense of our own imperfection and brokenness. That sense of brokenness allows us to approach the brokenness of others with compassion and forgiveness.

Unforgiving servant missed the connection between his own debt and the miniscule debt owed to him.

We do not forgive someone because we are greater than him or her. We forgive them because God has forgiven and affirmed our goodness in our brokenness.

We forgive without limits because God forgives us without limits.

Finally: The community will hold us accountable for forgiveness.

Servants who saw this servant’s unforgiving attitude sought justice on behalf of the person who was wronged.

We in the church must always encourage forgiveness, especially among our fellowship. When forgiveness is not taking place, we must confront it.

When we are holding a grudge against someone in this church, it is my hope that our sense of individualism will not trump our call to be people who foster forgiveness.

Do you recall one of the most famous photos to come out of the Vietnam War--a small girl running naked down the road with an expression of unimaginable terror, her clothes burned off, and her body scorched by napalm?

The man who coordinated the raid on this child's village in June 1971 was a 24-year old U.S. Army helicopter pilot and operations officer name John Plummer.

The day after the raid conducted by South Vietnamese airplanes, Plummer saw the photo in the military newspaper "Stars and Stripes" and was devastated. "It just knocked me to my knees and that was when I knew I could never talk about this."

The guilt over the raid had become a lonely torment. He suffered periodic nightmares that included the scene from the photo, accompanied by the sounds of children screaming.

(Slide) The girl in the photo, Pham Thi Kim Phuc, survived 17 operations, eventually relocated to Toronto and became an occasional goodwill ambassador for UNESCO. In 1996 Plummer heard that Kim would be speaking at a Veterans' Day observance in Washington, not far from his home.

"If I could talk face-to-face with the pilot who dropped the bombs, I would tell him we could not change history, but we should try to do good things for the present." Plummer, in the audience, wrote her a note, "I am that man," and asked an officer to take it to her.

At the end of the speech, he pushed through the crowd to reach her and soon they were face-to-face. "She just opened her arms to me," Plummer recounted. "I fell into her arms sobbing." All I could say is, "I'm so sorry, I'm just so sorry."

"It's all right," Kim responded. "I forgive. I forgive."