Preparation for the reading of Scripture

· Rabbinic tradition said that one was required to forgive 3 times – so when Peter offered to forgive 7 times – he thought he was being very generous

· Jesus responded with 77 times (or some ancient versions translate the expression 70 times 7 times) – the point being that the number of times to forgive is more than we can count or keep up with – forgiveness is therefore unlimited

· The parable – it is just that – a story to illustrate a point and not to be taken literally. We miss some of the extent of the exaggeration in the story. The first slave or servant in the story owes the king 10,000 talents – a talent is the largest monetary unit – the wages of a manual laborer for 15 years and 10,000 is the largest number possible – the point is that the debt is beyond calculation and certainly unpayable and both the king and the servant know this. The second scene in the parable is that of a fellow slave who owed the first slave 100 denarii – a denarius was the usual day’s wage for a laborer – therefore this slave owed the wages of about 100 days of labor. Though not a small amount of debt, it was a more reasonable sum than the first. It is the extremes in the story that are worth noting given the response of the king in showing mercy and the lack of mercy on the part of the slave.

· Finally, some commentators suggest that the writer of Matthew added the last 2 verses that we will read for his own emphasis to his church with a typical Matthean flare for an emphasis on the final judgment – Matthew’s way of quite literally scaring the hell out of his congregation.

This past week, Doc and Judy Campbell traveled to Duke where Doc underwent 4 days of tests to see if he qualified for a lung transplant. Now they wait – they wait to see if they can begin waiting for a transplant. The coming weeks and months are going to be grueling because waiting is intense, waiting is anxious, waiting is exhausting. All medical procedures shift you from one holding pattern to the next holding pattern where most of your time is spent waiting. But the waiting is not passive in Doc’s case. He’s got to lose weight. They’ve got to get their ducks in a row. They got to learn all they can about life with a lung transplant and life without a lung transplant. They’ve both got to stay healthy. There’s medication to take. There is much to be done while they wait. And they will pray, and we will pray with them and for them. Indeed while they are waiting to see if they will wait on a transplant – we will be the church for them – because that is what we do best.

And what does this have to do with forgiveness, you may ask. This image of a transplant came to me this week as I studied this text. We are all waiting on a transplant – a heart transplant that is. Let me tell you how I know. I read these words this week from a professor at a Lutheran seminary, “I have learned in my life that I do not always have it in my heart to do what is required. For many of us, the only solution is to get a new heart.” (The Christian Century, August 28-September 10, 2002, page 18) You may not even realize it, but you have come here to wait on a transplant. But it will not be passive waiting. It will be waiting that will require work.

Some of you think you came here today out of obligation or out of habit or out of guilt or because you had a job to fulfill. Some of you think you came here today simply because you genuinely like worship, and you like to be with friends who are as close as family. Others of you have no idea why you are here. We come here for as many different reasons as there are people in this room, yet there is something common to us all: We are all waiting on a transplant – because you and I both know that in order to live the teachings of Jesus and to follow in the way of God – we are going to need a new heart.

I arrived here today with a heart that keeps a record of wrongs – even when I say I have forgiven. The old cliché “Forgive and Forget” couldn’t be further from the truth. I arrived here today with a heart that never seems to forget. I arrived here today with a heart that can hold a grudge – I learned that from my father. A quick story: my senior year in high school I was suspended for 3 days for lying. I did lie – but it was an innocent lie – having something to do with seeing my boyfriend – the details are not important. When I told my father about my transgressions, he and I met the next morning with the assistant principle in charge of female discipline and the teacher who turned me in. In meeting with them separately, it was apparent that one of them was not being truthful. My father, being a wise man, instructed me to take my punishment like a man – whatever that means – and when the 3 days were up – he’d meet with the principal to report his employees lack of truth telling. After the 3 days of misery, my father met with the principal and demanded to know what he was going to do about one of his employees lying to us. Nothing. My father muttered something about “spineless shrimp” and proceeded to hold a grudge against that man for the next 15 years. It was only about 3 years ago, my father told me he had finally let go of the grudge and even spoke to the principal and shook his hand! So, you see, I know how to hold a grudge. I arrived here today with a heart that knows how to let anger just simmer – not out and out rage – just enough fuming to leave no room or energy for forgiveness. I arrived here today with a heart that knows bitterness and knows what it’s like to derive pleasure from thoughts of revenge. I arrived here today with a heart that does not always beat the rhythm of God’s love. I love conditionally rather than unconditionally. I seek personal gain and not the best interest of others. I, like Peter, dare to ask the question, “how many times must I forgive?” thinking of myself as awfully generous to even consider forgiveness more than once.

I come here waiting for a transplant. And my guess is, if you are honest, that is why you come here as well. There really is no other good reason. We come here to remind ourselves that we are not alone. We come here to strain to hear some words, any Word, that might just be from God, that will sustain until we come here again. We come here to try to bring some balance to what we are seeing and hearing out there because forgiveness is not often practiced or even recommended out there. We come here to be transformed – to be changed into the person that God created us to be.

Fred Craddock says that “in the final analysis, that which creates and sustains the Christian community is forgiveness.” (Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year A, page 441) There is a wideness in God’s mercy. And if we are created in the image of God, why is mercy so narrow in us? I’m not talking about carelessness or indifference to wrongs. I’m not talking about permissiveness or pettiness. I’m not talking about no consequences for wrong behavior. I’m talking about the kind of forgiveness that is unlimited. This parable today emphasizes the point that when we do not forgive then our own forgiveness from God has been invalidated. (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII, page 382)

Does God ask too much of us? It would seem so. But it’s not the first time and it will not be the last time that God asks us to do what seems to be the impossible. Could it be that God sees something in us that we cannot see in ourselves? You see when Jesus taught about forgiveness – throwing out a number that stood for unlimited – he knew that this would be something we would spend our lives doing. We come here each week to seek forgiveness and to wait on a transplant. We also come here each week to remind ourselves that we have been called to be forgiving people. When we have understood that the nature and character of God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love – when we realize that as far as the east is from the west, so far God removes our transgressions from us – then we are aware that this image of God that I embody contains that same nature and character, and God expects no less from us.

Some of you have been deeply wounded in your life. You have been wronged, abused, molested, lied to, cheated. I suggest that one path toward healing is to come to this place and pray for a transplant – a new heart that will let you live freely in the grace of God. Some of you have been the offender. You have hurt someone deeply – to the point where you have come to believe that you do not even deserve forgiveness. I suggest that one path toward healing is to come to this place and pray for a transplant – a new heart that will let you live freely in the grace of God.

In a recent Newsweek article entitled “Loving My Neighbor Can Be Hard Work,” Christy Lenzi says, “So these days I look people in the eye as I pass, and smile at them too. I don’t know who stole my car [twice], but I forgive them. I remind myself not to look for loopholes [when it comes to loving my neighbor].” (Newsweek, September 2, 2002)

Jesus must have known that forgiveness would be something we would spend a lifetime practicing. In a week remembrance, what would it do for us if we began the process of forgiving the terrorists? (Does it even make you angry for me to suggest such?) What if we forgave the abusive spouse? What if we began the process of forgiving those who have wronged us? What would it do for us? It would change us, and we could in turn change the world.

I hope to see you here next week. I’ll still be waiting for a transplant myself, and I’d sure enjoy the company. May it be so.

Pastoral Prayer

We seek, this day, O God your kind of mercy and your kind of forgiveness. Teach us the wideness in your mercy. Teach us your amazing grace. Grant to us this day a new heart for this week. A heart that beats steady the rhythm of your love. A heart that pounds the depths of compassion and forgiveness. A heart that pulses with your nature and your character.

Do you ask too much from us, O God? It would seem so. So we expect too little from ourselves? Indeed. So today may forgiving begin in us. Amen.