"Limits to UnConditional Forgiveness" September 17, 2017

Exodus 14:19-31 Matthew 18:21-35 Forgiveness is not for the sake of the one forgiven, but is for the forgiver. There is an old joke, about an Amish Couple leaving the Church after their wedding. As the Groom attempts to climb into the Buggy the horse reared up on its hind legs, and the man took a book out of his pocket and making a mark said “That’s One.” Along the road, the horse kicked, its hoof striking the buggy, and he said “That’s two!” About three miles from their farm, the horse lost a shoe and began to limp. At which the man declared: “That’s Three!” got out of the buggy and killed the horse. Horrified, the Bride began to chastise her husband, as to how they would get home, and how he would plow the fields having killed their only horse. And the Man took out his book, made a mark, and declared: “That’s One.” Our Scripture passages this week beg the question of us, “Do we keep track, counting how many times we have been offended, forgiving, making allowances?” We have a tendency to make Christianity all about our being forgiven, rather than recognize the huge responsibility placed upon us personally by Jesus Christ… Our lives and our relationships actually do matter. We are instruments of God’s Forgiveness. What you forgive, is Forgiven, by God. Resurrected for eternity. What really matters is what we Bind on earth, is bound in Heaven. Simon Peter asks Jesus, “How many times must we forgive? As many as 7 X 7 =49?” Seven is considered a number representing Infinity, completeness, so depending upon our translation Jesus says, “I tell you no, but 70 X 70 or infinity times infinity!” This as description of compassion; unlimited forgiveness. Several years ago I came to realize, if we are counting, we are not really forgiving. But what occurs to me today, I have not found elsewhere, is that Jesus is describing What we ask of God. Not simply to forgive, or to forgive 49 times, but over and over thru life. If this is what we routinely ask of God, praying each day “Forgive us our debts” and we are emulating Jesus Christ, do we not as Christians need to forgive the same? The Lost Sheep, last week’s passages all are about Forgiveness, based on Jesus’ instruction: What you forgive is forgiven, what you bind is bound in heaven. The heart of the Christian Gospel is Unconditional, Unlimited Forgiveness. Our title here is intentionally circuitous, because if forgiveness is Un-Conditional, how can there be Limits to limitless forgiveness? The difficulty is that particularly over the last generation we have so watered down Christianity, that it is believed Christians have to forgive everything, Christians are happy-faced Emogies, who tolerate abuse and smile no matter what. In the Wednesday evening Bible Study, we began discussion, that instead of leaving Christians at a 3rd Grade understanding of Sunday School, we need to be challenged with the hardest issues so our faith is prepared for the realities of life in a hostile and changing world. It is far too simplistic to accept the Old Testament had a vengeful God, the New a Loving, Compassionate Jesus! The New Testament describes life and death as an oppressed race in the Roman Empire, the animosity between religious groups who each claimed to be more righteous before God than all the others. NO, The First Testament is a love-story of Almighty God caring for us, but being forgotten and rejected, and God forgiving and forgiving over and over for centuries. We begin with The Passover, The 10 Plagues and Crossing the Red Sea. Read from the context of the Egyptian Empire, this is a bloody awful story of war’s devastation. Witnessing the drowning of Armies, Soldiers and Horses. We did not read the 15th Chapter of Exodus, which some describe as The Victory Song of Moses, others as the Song of Miriam with Singing, Dancing and Tambourine, at Egypt’s Loss! BUT this is not a story of war between Moses and Pharaoh, or the Egyptians and the Hebrews, as a human history this is only a bloody awful story… However, Exodus is the story of God’s love for Israel. Pharaoh had declared himself to be God and that there was no other God like him. Pharaoh committed genocide, killing all the Hebrew babies who would be men. Pharaoh had used the technology of his weapons against this enslaved people. The Passover of God, the 10 Plagues, Killing of the First Born of Egypt and the Red Sea, are like the Battles in a War, like Fort Sumter, Atlanta, Gettysburg… or Dunkirk, Normandy, and Berlin, but here between Egypt’s God The King of Egypt and God Almighty (who loved Egypt’s Slaves, heard their prayers and set them free). Is that not the definition of forgiveness? To have been enslaved to the past. Locked in a reality that you cannot escape. So trapped, as to be enslaved in debt, unable to envision a different future is even possible. Yet God hears and cares... Our debt, our past history, is Cancelled! The Permanent Record you have had since Grade School is Forgiven. We start life anew Resurrected. This is not condoning what happened. Not forgetting it occurred. While it takes two to fight, and three to reconcile, it really takes only one to forgive, because as the ones caught in the past we cannot escape, until we forgive. This is not letting go, it is the most intentional of actions, recognizing there is nothing worth arguing over in the past, choosing to live for a different future. I do not think I can elaborate or improve upon Jesus’ parable. The persons and amounts of debt here are extravagant, representing a lifetime of debt from having embezzled, being forgiven by the King. Instead, I share two true stories about the atrocities of the Nazis treatment of others. The first from the book Sunflower describes, Samuel Weisenthal was a survivor of the Concentration Camps. Weisenthal was imprisoned for being born Jewish. One day, he was put in hand-cuffs and shackles, made to walk under guard to the hospital, where an SS Officer lay dying. The Soldier lay in a clean bed with starched white sheets, propped up by pillows, sunlight, his arms folded across his chest, as he reported that he could not die in peace until he had confessed something… to a Jew, any Jew. The Dying Soldier described he had been in a Russian Village, where he herded all the Jews into a building filled with cans of gasoline and locked the doors. 200 people inside this house. Then the Nazis threw grenades through the windows. When the Jews tried to escape, he shot them. These were Russian Jewish Peasants and he was an SS Officer of the Reich, but it bothered him, so he wanted forgiveness from a Jew. Weisenthal described the painful silence in the room, as he stood in rags and chains, exterminated to a living corpse, while this dying Officer was propped up, indignant. At last, Weisenthal decided to leave the room without saying a word. He described that for the rest of his life, he wondered what he should have done. Weisenthal carried “this not-forgiving” with him the rest of his life, choosing not to forgive is choosing to give power to our darkest memory. Weisenthal’s story leaves us with the question: “What would you do?” Herman Engel had been a notorious Nazi General during WWII, who was arrested and tried at Nuremberg. Instead of being executed, Engel was sentenced to a Maximum Security Prison for 30 years. When Engel served the 30 years, he was released. He and his wife resolved to live out their days incognito, in a cabin in the woods. But among those who had been killed by General Engel had been a family named Morrieaux. Their son grew up to be a Journalist, who had been outraged Engel was not put to death, nursing his anger and hurt, replaying it over and over for 30 years. When Engel was released, Morrieaux went to the Village nearest the woods and heated up a mob with the righteous vengeance of killing Engel that night. But Morrieaux decided before Engel died he wanted to look Engel in the eye and tell him what was going to happen and why. So Morrieaux went to the Cabin. Instead of the monster he expected, Morrieaux found a very tired shell of a very old man, who had been so changed by his imprisonment he was not the same. Morrieaux, himself was so affected by this change in Engel, he offered to help Engel escape before the mob came. But Engel responded he would only go with Morrieaux, if Morrieaux will forgive him. According to the play The Black Angel, Morrieaux left Engel inside the cabin. Morrieaux was willing to help Engel escape the mob Morieaux created, but Morrieaux was not willing to forgive. Forgiveness is not for the sake of the one forgiven, but for the forgiver. Each of our lives, our relationships actually do matter. We are instruments of God. What really matters is what we Bind on earth, is bound in Heaven, what we forgive, is Forgiven, Resurrected for ever. As your pastor, I know you folks are perfect, but I also truly confess that I have been forgiven a great deal over the course of my life, blessed with more than I can name. Having been forgiven so much by God, I cannot burden God with the stuff I remember others have done to me.