St. Paul’s Sermons 2005

The Seventeenth Sunday of Pentecost - September 11, 2005

Lessons: Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35

“Forgiven to Forgive”

Introduction:

I don’t think anybody “has” children just so they can punish them.

People have children so they can love them, nurture them, teach them, cuddle them, play with them, have companionship and be surrounded by love. But I can’t imagine someone having a child, just to have someone to punish.

With that as our starting place, why did God “have” us? What is God’s central attitude towards humans? That sets our agenda.

I) Law and Gospel

One of Martin Luther’s most profound insights was to recognize that Scripture presents itself and functions in the life of people in one of two ways: Law and Gospel.

The Law is the moral Law of God, an absolute demand, which puts limits on human behavior so that life can exists on this planet. All human beings have a sense of right and wrong, no matter how warped it may become.

Beyond that, as we try to keep the Law, or even try to justify ourselves before God because of the guilt we universally feel inside, the harder we try, the more it convicts us. Law puts limits on behavior; it puts to death our old rebellious, selfish nature.

The Gospel is the story about what Jesus has done for us. It means “Good News!” We hear that Jesus died for our sins, and forgives us as a free gift as we trust in him. Hearing that story, God begins to create faith in us. Hearing that Gospel story, the Holy Spirit enters our life and begins to work. Faith is our relationship with God, created by the Holy Spirit by pure grace. It’s a gift from God. The Holy Spirit, working through the Gospel produces faith. The Gospel changes us. It sets us free. The Gospel is this story about Jesus, and all of God’s promises which are fulfilled in Christ. The Gospel is then the root of the all promises of what God desires to produce in our lives- a new nature that loves God and loves neighbor. A whole new you.

II) The Power of the Law Versus the Power of the Gospel

When I was growing up, there was a junior high kid, named Chuck, who was about a head shorter than anybody else. I understand him now. His dad was an alcoholic and Chuck was physically abused at home. Chuck was really small, and used to like to bully littler kids. Woe to the poor seventh graders on the bus! He was a sour, obnoxious character, who couldn’t lick anybody his age. But he was certainly a pint-sized tyrant to anybody under his control. So it is with the Law. Compared to the Gospel, the Law is a pint-sized tyrant. It’s a lot bigger than any human being can stand, but compared to the Gospel, the Law is a wimp. It does have absolute power over people. It’s like a solid granite wall. It cannot be escaped by humans. It condemns us all to death. The Gospel is much, much more powerful. The Law is more than we can stand, but one little Word overcomes it.

That one word is Jesus. Jesus, the living Word of God has come and taken the sins of the whole world, including your. That’s the Gospel. He desires just to set you free to be the person God intended you to be. Free. Forgiven. No guilt. No shame. No fears. Free. Really, really, free.

Our Gospel lesson today is a powerful parable on forgiveness. A servant owes a huge, huge debt, 750,000 POUNDS of gold. The servant is forgiven this debt of worth more than this church and everything every member owns. A Donald Trump amount. A Fort Knox amount. He is forgiven this huge amount, then, amazingly, turns around and demands payment of about the price of a cheap car from his servant. This second servant begs the servant who was just set free to give him time to pay, but instead is thrown in jail. The master hears about it and punishes the first servant. End of story.

Or is it? That’s a story of what’s not supposed to happen in the Kingdom of God. Among God’s people, when we’ve been forgiven, it’s supposed to flow through us. We’ve been given a gift, so we’re supposed to give that gift of forgiveness.

This attitude of God towards us, that he desires to forgive us in love, is called “grace.” It literally means “gift.” God’s attitude towards us is “gift.” “Grace.” The Greek word is “charis.” That same word “gift” is also stretched a bit more to mean its result- forgiveness. To get how this works, listen to this verse, Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Literally, it says, “gracing one another as God is Christ graced you. Or, “gifting” one another as God in Christ “gifted” you. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, gracing one another, gifting one another as God in Christ forgave, graced, gifted you.”

That’s what this parable is about. Grace that moves. Once it comes, it keeps going. Like the black goop on the X-Files a few years ago that infected everybody it touched, grace comes and flows and gets passed on- the attitude of God that keeps flowing like grace, and love and freedom and gift and forgiveness.

III) Grace- God’s Central Attitude Towards Us

That’s the right-hand work of God. That’s what God wants. That grace comes to us hurting people, like oxygen to people who are suffocating. It’s the breeze of God that comes and gives life. It makes you well inside. It gives you life. It heals the brokenness and brings people together. It cuts through the fears, cuts through the hurts, it cuts through all the things that bind us and cut us or tear us apart inside and outside.

Grace is the Gift of God, that comes through the work of Jesus. It comes as a gift. It comes as a story. It comes as God works in peoples’ lives to make them whole in a broken world, filled with people who also are broken and sometimes do very evil things. Why would anybody want to shoot at rescue helicopters for fun? Why would police of the suburbs around New Orleans not allow people to cross a bridge to evacuate? There’s real brokenness and evil in this world. Do we need more proof? Don’t you know the brokenness inside?

But do you know the wholeness God desires to create? A God who desires to be in a relationship with you, to make you whole. Not rules. Not ceremonies. Not man-made religion. Not trying to control your behavior or make you good.

God desires to make you new. And free. And whole. And clean. And whole. And really, really, really free. Forgiven inside of the thing that makes you feel most guilty. That’s what the Gospel does. The promises of God work in the midst of this broken world so that God can show his love and work his goodness in our lives.

Our first lesson is end of one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible. It’s the end of Genesis. Joseph was the favored son, whose brothers were so jealous that they first decided to kill him, and later sell him as a slave. He went down to Egypt, where he became a favored servant, was wrongly accused, thrown in prison, and later not only released, but became the number two man in Egypt. Then there’s a famine, and who shows up hungry, but his brothers. They don’t recognize him. In our story today, in a soap opera ending, he finally reveals that he, this very powerful leader, is actually their brother- the one they sold into slavery!

At this point, humanly, they know that they’re dead meat. They lie to him again. One of the most amazing sentences of the Bible appears right here. Listen to these words of Joseph: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

They had meant to harm him. They meant all that had happened as dirty, mean, evil. But somehow, in his great love, God’s loving will had worked around, through, in spite of, against, maybe caused, –somehow God worked through this to cause good. Because Joseph had been sent on ahead, through this terrible thing of losing his family, and serving as a slave, going to prison unjustly, all the rest- God had worked his intention in the midst of all this horrible stuff- to lift Joseph up, deliver him, and even provide a place of food and refuge for his whole extended family, which would one day become the people of Israel. “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

That’s the kind of God we have. That’s how God’s grace works. That’s the kind of God we have. God loves us. God sets us free. So we can forgive, so that we can grace, so that we can bring freedom, and hopefulness and forgiveness and peace and kindness just like God gave that same stuff to us. So God can work in and through our lives. It’s all because of Jesus. And as we hear what he has done, he’s working in our hearts. “Faith comes from hearing, and what is heard is the preaching of Christ.” (Rom 10:17)

People don’t have children just to spank them. God didn’t create you to punish you. Sin got in the way, and Jesus desires to turn you away from the brokenness. He wants to be in a personal relationship with you, and he’s died to prove it. That’s grace. That’s love. That’s the central, pure, laser beam will of God for you- to know and love Jesus because he first loved us. It’s all a gift. It’s given to you. You hear it, and it’s breaking into your life. Just quit struggling and receive like a dirt receives a seed. You can’t earn it. You can’t merit it. It’s a gift; it’s grace. Jesus says ‘Follow me!” We simply say “Yes!” by his grace. Invitation, Amen.

Pentecost 17 - September 11, 2005

Genesis 50:15-21

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" [16] So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: [17] 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

[18] His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.

[19] But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? [20] You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. [21] So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Romans 14:1-12

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. [2] One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. [3] The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. [4] Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

[5] One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. [6] He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. [7] For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. [8] If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

[9] For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. [10] You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. [11] It is written:

" 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,

'every knee will bow before me;

every tongue will confess to God.' "

[12] So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Matthew 18:21-35

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

[22] Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

[23] "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. [24] As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. [25] Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

[26] "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' [27] The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

[28] "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

[29] "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

[30] "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. [31] When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

[32] "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. [33] Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' [34] In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

[35] "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."