Sermons for the Month

No Future Without Forgiveness
DATE: September 15th, 2002
SERVICE: 17th Sunday After Pentecost
TEXT: Matthew 18:21-35
“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

On Wednesday when I was the guest speaker at the prayer services at St. Hilary Catholic Church in remembrance of September 11 I quoted Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa using the phrase, "There is no future without forgiveness." During that gathering I expressed my sadness about interviews I had heard with those who continue to ask, "Where is God?"
I was particularly moved by the comments of a woman whose husband had died. She said that the events of September 11 were the best possible reason not to believe in God. "I can't bring myself to speak to God," she said, because I feel so abandoned." Then she added, "I have to bring myself to forgive."
Indeed, forgiveness is the key, for all of us, if we want to find peace in our lives and in our world. If there is anything that is clear in scripture it is the absolute necessity of forgiving, and of being forgiven.
Today's Gospel lesson is a continuation of last week's message that no effort is too great when trying to restore peace in the church. And, in order for that to happen, there must be forgiveness. While this particular text focuses on forgiveness within the body of believers, elsewhere in scripture Jesus requires forgiveness in relationships beyond the church. The focus always is on not justice but on reconciliation.
As the Gospel lesson begins Peter wants to know just how often he must forgive someone who has sinned against him. He wants some rule, some limit. It was a reasonable question from Peter's point of view because the Jewish faith offered a teaching that was like the three-strike rule of baseball. If people offended or wronged you in some way you had to forgive them three times. But that was all, after the third strike they were out in terms of receiving forgiveness.
Given that it is easy to see that Peter thought he was being generous when he suggested that forgiveness be offered seven times. Afterall, that was more than double the accepted number of three. Jesus' answer to Peter's inquiry is astounding, "Not seven times, but 77 times," which was a way of saying that there is no limit on forgiveness. The hope is, of course, that anyone who forgives over and over again because they are compelled to do so will become a forgiving person.
Then Jesus tells a parable, which I won't go through verse by verse. Its about a man who is forgiven a fortune by the king - the point being that the debt cannot be counted it is so huge. That same man turns around and condemns his brother to debtor's prison for the pittance he owes. As we read this we may be thinking, "How can he do this? How can he be so small?" Yet, Jesus is saying that from God's point of view we constantly do the same thing. God has forgiven us even though we have done nothing to earn or deserve it. Yet, we refuse to forgive others offenses that are miniscule when compared to the ways we have offended God.
The final verse of the text is particularly disturbing, since it says that there are negative consequences for refusing to forgive. There is no way of knowing exactly what that means; obviously God knows that we mere human beings cannot forgive perfectly. What is clear, though, is that when we harbor a defiant, nasty attitude in our hearts that proclaims, "I will not forgive", and we refuse to ask for God's help in doing so, that is what gets us in trouble with our Creator. Such an attitude indicates that we have not grasped the overwhelming grace of God that is ours'.
As I began my sermon I mentioned Bishop Tutu and the title of his book, No Future Without Forgiveness. Bishop Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, was the Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa. He also was the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in that country.
This commission heard the confessions of those who had committed politically motivated atrocities against people of color and were seeking amnesty. This occurred during the era of apartheid (1960-1994) in South Africa. (For those confirmation students who are listening carefully - apartheid is government sanctioned segregation of and discrimination against a particular group of people.)
The goal of these hearings was to achieve unity and reconciliation in that nation. Bishop Tutu firmly believes that healing cannot be achieved by denying the past. It must be brought out, and but then there must be forgiveness. And, the only way that's possible is if we grasp the forgiveness God offers us.
He writes in his book that the Commission was able to do its work only because of these principles of Christian theology:

That ultimately no one, and no situation, is an irredeemable cause devoid of all hope.

That God does not give up on anyone. "God loves for us, all of us, good and bad is unchanging, is unchangeable. Someone has said there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, for God loves me perfectly already. And wonderfully, there is nothing I can do to make God love me less."

That all of us have the capacity for good, and evil. To quote Bishop Tutu, "As I listened in the TRC to the stories of perpetrators of human right violations, I realized how each one of us has this capacity for the most awful evil - every one of us. None of us can predict that if we had been subjected to the same influences, the same conditioning, we would not have turned out like these perpetrators."

And all are desperately in need of God's forgiving love. If we recognize - even to a small degree - the miracle of being forgiven, then we will be more and more willing to forgive.
So, the question we face today is, how are we doing with forgiveness? Recognizing the challenges we face, are we seeking God's help? Are we asking help not to seek revenge? Are we seeking assistance to be freed from bitterness? Are we praying to make room in hearts for forgiveness - not three times, or seven times, but over and over and over again? Are we, like Bishop Tutu, willing to forgive the past so that a future is possible?
I did not tell you yet that I met Bishop Tutu in 1984, the year that he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was a guest at the seminary. I had the privilege of hearing him preach. I also spoke with him personally and looked into the wisest and most determined eyes I have yet encountered.
Peace flowed from him in spite of the violence he had faced in his own country. There was no hint of bitterness, just resolve to bring about change. This was a man who carried in his heart what he later put into the written word; his reflections grew out of personal experience with hate and destruction. There is no future without forgiveness. As the first anniversary of September 11, 2001 becomes a memory, and as we encounter pain in our own lives, may we forgive and move boldly into the future.

AMEN