Göttinger Predigten

Choose your language:

Startseite

Aktuelle Predigten

Archiv

Besondere Gelegenheiten

Suche

Links

Konzeption

Unsere Autoren weltweit

Kontakt
ISSN 2195-3171

13. Sunday after Pentecost, 09/11/2011

Sermon on Matthew 18:21-22, by Gregory Fryer

Then came Peter to [Jesus], and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith until him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

As long as many of us New Yorkers can remember anything at all, we will remember September 11, 2001. Even here on the Upper East Side, miles away from the horrors at the World Trade Center, we could look south that morning, see the plumes of smoke drifting upward against the beautiful blue sky, and know what that smoke signified. Among the many sorrowful people who came to our church in those days, was a dazed-looking physician from nearby Lenox Hill Hospital. He told me that he and his colleagues had all rushed to the hospital to be ready to treat the injured, but that as the night wore on and there was no one to minister to, they knew what they meant. They knew that there were few survivors, and their hearts sank.

Oh! how cruel we human beings can be to one another. But also, oh! how noble we human beings can be in the practice of love and forgiveness. The work of justice must continue. It is the work of what we Lutherans call "God's left hand." It is the divine work of resisting evil and punishing the wrongdoer, and we do well to pray for those who bear the burdens of justice, including soldiers, police, legislators, and courts.

But then there is also you and me, ordinary folk who simply face our neighbors and a vast world of people. If we do not have responsibilities for the administration of justice, we still have responsibilities of life in Christ. And that is a life that should always incline us toward mercy, love, and forgiveness. We are the ones who can never be excused from what the theologians call "God's right hand" -- the way our Maker rules his creation through the Gospel of forgiveness.

Triune forgiveness

It is with forgiveness as it is with many of the most important things of life that they can be considered in a triune way. It is the nature of reality, embraced as it is by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we best see things when we look at them three times over, from the point of view of what was, what is, and what is to come. So it is with forgiveness: we can forgive what has been done, we can forgive the one who stands before us right now, and we can forgive what is to come. Perhaps this third dimension should especially interest us. It is the called "the way of the cross." Forgiving what lies ahead of us, in the plain practical sense of seeing the possibility of suffering and evil, but pressing on ahead with love, that is a Christ-like thing. That is what Jesus himself does: he sees the cross looming ahead, but presses on anyway, undeterred by the grim possibilities.

Let's take this threefold path and work our way through our main topic: forgiveness. Let's begin with the forgiveness of past wrongdoings, move to present sins, and then to the sins that we might well face if we continue the path of love.

Forgiveness of past sins

For a good story of forgiveness of past sins, let's take a look at today's Old Testament lesson about Joseph of old forgiving his brothers.

When Martin Luther contemplated the story of Joseph and his brothers, he was led to this comment:

Sin is easily entered into, but not easily healed. [Let us learn that sin] is a horrible evil, not when it is committed -- for then it gives pleasure and satisfaction in a strange way -- but that when it begins to torment the conscience, it is hell itself and forgiveness can become almost too much to be hoped for.(LW 8:325)

Recall the early days in the story of Joseph and his brothers. As the melancholy story is told, it only took an instant of time for the brothers to fall into great sin against Joseph. They had been jealous of the boy. They had been resentful of his dreams, according to which they would bow down before Joseph. And so, one day when they saw the boy approaching, out there in a lonely place, they conceived a plan to kill him! In the small interval of time between seeing Joseph on the horizon and his actual arrival, they plotted to take away his life.

Here comes the man of dreams," they said to one another. "Come on, let us kill him and throw him into some well; we can say that a wild beast devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams."(Genesis 37:18-20)

And then, somehow, their plot becomes even more wicked!

What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? [they thought to themselves.] Come, let us sell him...

And so, they sold their brother into slavery, for the price of twenty pieces of silver.

They did that deed, and returned home full of lies to their father about some wild animal devouring their brother. They were twenty pieces of silver richer. That's that! They thought they were done with that troublesome Joseph. It was sin easily entered into, but not easily healed.

By the time of this morning's scripture reading, many years have passed. They are all older and maybe wiser. Our reading tells the story of the definitive reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. There had been an earlier reconciliation, back when Joseph first revealed that he had become the Prime Minister of Egypt. Joseph had forgiven his brothers then and had been kind to them all the intervening years.

But now, the family suffers a major blow: their father, Jacob, dies. Maybe he was the background force that had kept the family at peace. But now that he has died, the brothers become very uneasy about their sin of long ago. They seem to wonder whether the death of Jacob would reveal another side of Joseph -- a more vengeful side! They find themselves fearful that mighty Joseph would at last unleash anger toward them for having sold him into slavery back when they were young:

...It may be that Joseph will hate us, [they thought to themselves] and pay us back for all the evil which we did to him. (Genesis 50:15, RSV)

Joseph's initial word of forgiveness was not enough for them. Their souls seem troubled. They can hardly believe that he has really forgiven them, in spite of his gracious words.

So, they beg once more for his forgiveness, thereby prompting one of the most amazing responses I have ever heard:

Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves." But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones." In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.(Genesis 15:17b-21NRSV)

"Do not be afraid!" said Joseph. "Am I in the place of God?" This question is always worth bearing in mind when we ponder those who have sinned against us. As miserable and as unworthy as those sinners were back then, it is still the case that God loved them, had high hopes for them, and counted them precious. If they face us now and seek forgiveness, it would be good for us to not be found opposing God, but rather to align ourselves with his divine good will toward others. As far, then, as lies possible for us, let us forgive those who desire our forgiveness and let them go in peace.

Forgiveness of present sins

For the matter of forgiving present sins, let me leap ahead to the paradigmatic story for us Christians: the story of Jesus forgiving those who crucified him:

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. (Luke 23:34, KJV)

What Jesus says here is also true concerning those who sin against you: they simply do not know what they are doing. They entirely underestimate you! They do not yet sense that you are destined for majesty in God's kingdom, that you are meant to sit on the throne judging angels¹, and that you are beyond any price in the sight of God. Perhaps then, you can forgive them, in light of their ignorance.

Even more, forgive them in light of the forgiveness you yourself depend on. That is the point of today's parable. It is quite plain from today's Gospel Lesson that if we would follow Jesus, then we must be inclined toward forgiveness. We must be patient with the failings of others, ready to forgive if asked. Forbearance and forgiveness should shine forth from the Church. We should stand endlessly ready to forgive -- yes, to forgive even "seventy times seven" times.

So, let us not follow the example of the unforgiving debtor in today's Gospel story. The amount of money this man owed the king was fantastic. The footnote in my Bible says that this fellow owed more than $60 million (NJB)! And the punishment facing him was all the more heart-breaking because it involved his family. He and his whole family were to be sold into slavery because of his inability to repay that which he owed. But, the man pleaded for mercy, and it was granted. His entire debt was forgiven him.

The wretched thing is that this lucky man turned around and cruelly condemned a fellow-servant who owed him less than two hundred dollars. And for his meanness, he lost everything. Because he refused to forgive, he lost the forgiveness that had been granted to him.

So, Jesus asks that we do not shoot ourselves in the foot. He asks that we not undermine the only basis of hope that we have, which is that even the most miserable of sinners can be forgiven -- indeed, forgiven by Almighty God himself. That is, we are to treat others as we need to be treated by Christ, which means we should incline toward mercy.

St. Paul says it well:

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us...(Ephesians 4:31-5:2)

Forgiveness of future sins

Now, we come to the kind of forgiveness that seems most to concern our day by day life: I mean the forgiveness of sins to come. They are farther on down the road. They can be anticipated. They are likely. I suggest that we can forgive those sins too in the practical fashion of not turning our back on them and walking away, but continuing our path in spite of those looming sins. We do not want them, we do not consent to them, and we do have to like those who will wield the blows against us. But we forgive what is to come in the most important way available to us: we press ahead. We take up our cross and follow Jesus.

For an example of forgiving what lies ahead, let me tell you something of the story of the monks of Tibhirine².

In 1996 seven French Trappist monks from their monastery in Tibhirine, Algeria were kidnapped and murdered. In some measure, they could see it coming. It was likely. They had been warned to abandon their monastery, but they had refused. A good shepherd does not leave the flock when he sees the wolf coming, they had said.

These monks ministered to their neighbors, and they were loved for that. Algeria is a Muslim land, and so their neighbors were Muslim, but the monks noted that when Jesus calls upon us to love our neighbors as ourselves³, he does make distinctions among those neighbors. Christ does not call us to love the nice neighbors or the Christian neighbors, but simply to love our neighbors, whosoever that should be:

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? (Matthew 5:46, KJV)

The start of the story goes back to a young soldier named Christian de Chergé. He was serving in Algeria, making the rounds of villages, trying to get to know the lay of the land and the people. He was escorted by a village policeman named Mohammed. Christian was drawn to Mohammed because of how devout he was, and how eager to discuss God and spiritual things. The story continues this way:

The young Frenchman and the older Muslim were lost in conversation during one of their regular rambles in the countryside, when some fells (fellaghas or rebels) appeared from nowhere... Mohammed put himself between Christian and the rifles aimed at his chest. He insisted that the soldier was a godly man and friend of Muslims. The fells withdrew without harming the Frenchman. The next day, Mohammed was found with his throat slit near his home in tiny Aïn Said, where he lived with a wife and ten children.⁴

This is an important story because it is a moving illustration of what has been called "the two faces of Islam."⁵ Islam is an old religion. For much of it history, it has shown two sides, a large side of compassion and openness to others, but also a smaller, intense side of violence and hatred. The Monks of Tibhirine seemed to love them all.

This young soldier, Christian de Chergé, eventually became one of the monks at Tibhirine and then its prior. He was an intellectual and a passionate monk. He wrote essays and was fearless. The monastery there at Tibhirine was defended by no weapons, by no soldiers, but simply by its friendship with its neighbors. The monks had little money, but they gave what they could to the poor. Chiefly, they prayed on behalf of the world and they worked in their garden and sold their produce to their neighbors at as low as price as they could.

As I read the story, the monk I liked best was named Luc. He was a physician. I imagine him sometimes being late to the prayers, but never late to where he was needed. He was kind-hearted and ministered to all, and he was loved by the Muslim neighbors.

In the end, seven of these monks were kidnapped. People prayed for their release, including their Muslim neighbors, but it was not to be. They were beheaded.

Now, you get the feeling about these Trappist monks that they knew this was a possibility. They did not want to be reckless with their lives, and they certainly did not approve of the violence that did them in. But above all, they wanted to give his world some true reflection of Jesus, who took up his cross and continued on his path for love of the world.

I am inclined to call the life of these Trappist monks to be "forgiveness of future sins." Their heart could leap ahead to their eventual death, but they did not let it dissuade them. They loved the Muslim neighbors, and would not turn their back on them.

Firemen and emergency medical people

And so it was with firemen and emergency medical people rushing to the Twin Towers. They had no guarantee that they would survive their work, and many of them did not, but they did not turn their backs on their work, but pressed ahead in their ways of love.

Our hearts are heavy for all those who lost loved ones on this day ten years ago. The tongue cannot tell the story of all the suffering endured then and all the sadness endured these years since then. But also, heavenly things were done that day. People took up their cross and rushed ahead trying to save lives. Other people took up the cross and organized the disaster response. And these are the things that are going to survive all the way into eternity. The lives lost that day rest in the trustworthy hands of Jesus, and for us who remain, the most divine thing we can do is to take up our cross and walk on where so many good people have walked before, trying to do some good in this world and to bring glory to him who deserves the glory, even Jesus Christ our Lord, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.