Limitless Forgiveness

A sermon by Bishop Don Philips on Romans 14, 1-12 and Matthew 18, 21-35

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Gracious God, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place. And within each one of us gathered here, and gathered at home. Help us now to open our minds and our hearts to receive the gift of your living word for us this day. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

I don't know how often you pay attention to that little prayer that the lay reader that led today near the beginning of the service, it 's in a italics, it 's in the upper right corner of your song sheet, you might want to take a peek or not quite the corner or right hand side.

And in traditional Anglicanism, it's referred to as a collect prayer. I don't think it's really for this reason, but I like to think of it because it collects our thoughts, and focuses our thinking in preparation to hear the scripture readings.

So if we look at it now, the central part says these words, you call your church to witness that in Christ, we are reconciled to you. Help us so to proclaim the good news of your love, that all who here it may turn to you.

Now, I think if you're anything like me, when we hear words, like proclaim the good news of God's love, we tend to think of words that are going to get spoken words that we speak so that all hear may turn to Christ.

But in today's readings, that proclamation is about attitudes, and actions.

In today's first reading Paul's letter to the church in Rome, and it's in kind of the last section of that letter. It sounds initially like he's putting down vegetarians. And I want to be sure if there's any vegetarians here in our midst, he is not doing that. Okay, that's not what this is about. Because he says, Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.

But he's not putting down vegetarians. It's rather an illustration about diverse practices in the church, and how each one is offered sincerely in faith, and needs to be respected and honored. That diversity is to be accepted, because each member of the Body of Christ belongs to and is accountable to the Lord.

Paul states these words, he says, We do not live to ourselves and we do not die to ourselves, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

His summary point, then is each of us will be accountable to God.

So having that reality before us in our minds, let's take a look at the Gospel reading.

It opens with Peter giving a question to Jesus. He says, Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, How often should I forgive as many as seven times? I would love to know what had preceded this and Peter's mind, because it kind of lays it as if someone's offended Peter, and he wants to know can I stop forgiving him after seven times. However,

Jesus response says this, he says,

Not seven times. But I tell you seventy-seven times. And apparently in the original biblical languages, it can either be 77, or it can be 70 times seven 490. So in other words, forgiveness is limitless without limit.

Then Jesus tells this allegorical parable that we heard read for us this evening. And when the king in the story, who is clearly meant to be God, when that King decides to call in his debts, one slave who owes him 10,000 talents, and I'll get to that later about how much that is, can't pay. And so the king pronounces the usual sentence, the slave begs for mercy. And the story says, and out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave the debt.

Not just let him not just released him but for gave the debt. He didn't set up a plan for him to work it off as community service or payments over time, or anything like that. He just forgave the debt. Now, you know the next part, and the next part that forgiven the slave runs into a fellow slave who owes him 100 denarii.

A nd the debtor pleads in the same way for mercy. But the forgiven slave ignores his plea, and enforces the usual sentence. He refuses to forgive the debt of a fellow slave.

Of course, the king to whom both slaves are accountable, finds out and is furious, and pronounces judgment against the first slave.

So how large are these debts? Well, it's hard to tell for sure. But if we do a kind of a rough calculation with talents and denarii, it comes out about like this. The second debt, the 100, denarii, would be somewhere between about $10,000 and $16,000. Pretty good size, right? It's not insignificant. But the first debt, the 10,000 talents, could be close to $6 billion.

I don't know how an individual racks up that size of debt. I don't know if he had a business that failed or how it happened. But it is huge.

And clearly, even though the first slave when he pleads for patience says he will repay the king everything. He's never going to be able to do that.

So what is the truth that St. Paul and Jesus through Matthew are proclaiming?

In God's kingdom and therefore in the Church and its witness to God's kingdom, there is on the one hand accountability. And on the other, there is limitless forgiveness. There is limitless forgiveness.

Now, sadly, I think, in at least in my experience of the church, and I'm not suggesting this is the case for St. Benedict's table. But I think often there is a lack of accountability in the church. Church members in their ministries are are often not asked to give an account. They're not even invited to share something about the ministry they've been trying to do. And it's not necessarily because it's a negative issue.

But they just want to be able to share their experience of doing various ministries in the church. But rarely are they asked for that accountability.

And often, they are not forgiven either.

Leaving them feeling alienated, but never sure why never given the opportunity to explain, and if appropriate to ask for forgiveness if there's been an old fence of some kind.

Now, I have no idea if this has been or has been in the past and issue in this community, but I think it may be a relevant message at this time going forward.

We have moved into a time of transition. lines of authority and function are blurred. Some are asked to exercise leadership in new ways that they're not familiar with. Others may feel anxious and uncertain about how things should be done. Chris and I were furiously comparing notes before the service today, or whose responsibility it is to see that something happens.

But in the body of Christ, there has to be accountability and limitless forgiveness. And our accountability ultimately is to Christ. We are all mutually accountable to Christ.

As a side script,

what should be our attitude toward ourselves and our own actions?

St. Paul has some interesting words about his own response to his own actions. In first Corinthians four verses three and four. He says these words, but with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or

by any human court, I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

Even the apostle Paul, in his ultimate accountability to the Lord leaves room for the possibility of sin in his own life that he is not aware of. And hence he asks forgiveness, in humility from God.

It is our experience of God's loving and merciful forgiveness that enables and empowers us to offer forgiveness and reconciliation to those who have offended us.

Unlike the first slave and Jesus parable, we pray in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. When we have been honest, made ourselves accountable to God and received God's forgiveness, then we can open ourselves to hear a fellow disciples story, to ask them to give an account so we can offer effective healing forgiveness to them.

That is a powerful way a powerful action as we prayed in the in the opening collect prayer, to proclaim the good news of God's love, so that those who experience it will indeed turn to and receive God's limitless forgiveness offered to us all.

Amen.