Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
Proper 18
Text: Matthew
18:15-20 and Colossians 3:12,13 “You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. … So then … you must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you” |
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Since
it’s Fathers’ Day how about a little father-son story to start off?
After the
nightly routine of a story, the toilet and a drink, a small boy was tucked into
bed for the night by his dad.
Five minutes later.... “Da-ad.”
“What?”
“I'm thirsty. Can you bring me a
drink of water, pleeeease?”
“No. It’s time to go to sleep.”
Five minutes later, “Daaaaad.”
“What?”
“I'm really thirsty. Can I have a
drink of water?”
“I told you NO!” And thinking this would end the matter, he continued, “If you
ask again, I'll have to come in and paddle your bottom!”
Five minutes later. “Daaaa-aaaad.”
“What?”
“When you come in to paddle my bottom, can you please bring a glass of water?”
That scenario might be frustrating at the
time but it is one of those little incidents in family life that make things
interesting and we can laugh about them later.
However, we know that within families and within any human relationship
there are things that happen that are no laughing matter.
Conflict is one of those things. It can tear apart the best relationships
and leave people feeling wounded and let down.
·
A once treasured
friendship is left shattered and permanently scarred.
·
Partners in a marriage
wound one another and every conversation has an undertone of anger and hurt.
·
Brothers, sisters,
mothers, fathers, sons and daughters no longer speak to one another.
·
A member of a
congregation leaves because of a disagreement or misunderstanding.
What is clear is that the deeper we become
involved in some kind of conflict that is left to ferment and remain unresolved,
the more we are in danger of forgetting that forgiveness and reconciliation are
an essential part of our Christian faith.
It is also clear that while we are entwined
in conflict and engrossed in stating how right we are and how wrong the other
person is, we are blocking out the power of the Holy Spirit to kindle love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
within us. And so what we say and
do gets out of control.
To help us go deeper let’s go to the little
New Testament Book ‘Paul’s Letter to
Philemon’. Here Paul outlines
how important forgiveness and reconciliation are to the Christian.
Philemon was a wealthy man who had been converted to faith in Jesus by
the apostle Paul at Ephesus. For
some reason one of Philemon’s slaves, Onesimus, had run away.
This was a crime punishable by death.
He ended up in Rome in Paul’s company where he too became a Christian.
By now, Paul was an old man and so Onesimus
stayed and helped Paul for a while.
However, as much as Paul enjoyed the assistance Onesimus gave, he knew that
there were unresolved issues between Onesimus and his master Philemon.
Things needed to be set right things between these two brothers in
Christ.
Philemon was under no obligation to forgive
Onesimus. It could have easily been
a matter of right and wrong.
Philemon was right and Onesimus was wrong.
Philemon is the master; Onesimus is the slave.
Paul probably had a pretty good idea how angry Philemon was about the
actions of his slave and so wrote a letter of encouragement to Philemon to
forgive Onesimus. Paul says,
“He is not just a slave, but much more
than a slave: he is a dear brother in Christ” (v 16).
In Christ there is a special bond between master and slave that went
beyond what was considered as normal.
Paul often talked about the implications of
what it means in everyday life to be
‘joined to Christ’ or to ‘walk in the
Spirit’. He says it clearly in
today’s reading from Romans, “The only
obligation you have is to love one another. … If you love others you will never
do them wrong” (Romans 13:8,10) and in Matthew’s Gospel we hear Jesus
telling the disciples that they are leave no stone unturned in seeking to be
reconciled to a person who has sinned against them.
This business is so serious he says that if
there is some sort of conflict between you and a fellow believer, it doesn’t
matter who is considered to be right or wrong, go to that person privately and
talk it out. If that doesn’t work
settling matters enlist the help of a couple of others, not to gang up on the
one person, but to let Christ's love shine on the situation and bring together
those people who are in conflict. And if that doesn’t work then, the larger
community needs to become involved in bringing the parties together, and if the
offending person won’t accept the love shown by the community then this calls
for special and constant compassion, care, and reaching out in grace to win that
person back.
Don’t these words of Jesus say how
important forgiveness and reconciliation is to the life of the Christian?
Jesus himself saw forgiveness and reconciliation as the goal and centre
of his life on earth – to reconcile people with their God. And today we hear
Paul say, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” and be
like-Christ to those we find ourselves in conflict whether that’s a person who
is united with us in Christ or anyone we need to bring the love and forgiveness
of Christ.
All this
implies that forgiveness is not an easy thing to do.
The more natural thing to do is to harbour our hurt and hold grudges.
It’s hard to let go of our resentment and let bygones be bygones.
Jesus knows how hard it is even for Christians, members of his body, the Church,
to let go of their grievances.
No doubt that has been
your experience as much as it has been mine.
The hurts and wounds you’ve experienced,
or the way someone has taken advantage of you may have hurt you deeply but what
is required of you and me is the same as what Paul is asking Philemon to do.
He is asking him to consider the fact that they are both united with
Christ and are joined in the same Spirit, and so to deal with his offending
brother or sister with love and forgiveness.
This
is no less our responsibility as well.
As a Christian, as a child of God, as a person who has been richly
forgiven by Christ, our one goal should always be to seek out ways to be
reconciled to one another. Paul
says, “You are the people of God; he
loved you and chose you for his own. … So then … you must forgive one another
just as the Lord has forgiven you” (Col 3:12,13).
Let’s put
it this way. When we find ourselves
in a situation where we have been offended or we have given offense we are faced
with two choices.
The first choice is to let our
emotions – our anger and resentment – take control and fan the flames of a
broken relationship. We can allow
ourselves to be so consumed with bitterness that we wouldn’t entertain any
thought of getting over it and restoring the friendship.
We are so angry and hurt we most certainly wouldn’t consider taking the
first step toward any reconciliation.
It’s far easier to justify our
actions and blame the other person.
It’s far easier to let ourselves off the hook of any responsibility when it
comes to reconciliation; after all we were the person who had been wronged.
After a while we can find enough reason why we should just forget the
whole matter.
The second choice is to let the
grace of God guide us in reaching out and restoring the relationship.
God has been so gracious, understanding and kind and has reached out to
us with his forgiveness. He has
done this even though we have deserved not one iota of his love.
Likewise, we are urged to do this same thing.
Forgive others as God has forgiven us – generously, graciously, warmly,
and sympathetically. The new life
that we have received through Christ’s death and resurrection affects the way we
speak and act toward others to such a degree that it compels us and won’t let us
rest until we become agents of God's grace and seek out the person with whom we
have fallen out and do our best to restore friendship.
At this point I want to throw in another
aspect of forgiveness that has come my attention just recently. Sometimes when
we reflect on past sins it’s hard to accept that God has forgiven – wiped away
that bad choice, that life altering decision, that cringe-worthy event in the
past that has harmed us, others and no doubt saddened God. Often, we find it
hard to accept that we have been reconciled with God in Christ and are still
haunted by that sin or that bad choice and feel full force of the guilt as if
God had never said to us “Your sins are forgiven”.
This is one of Satan’s favourite games.
Let me state again the Opening Sentence I
said as we began the service today, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation
has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” You are a child of God. It is
for you he died on a cross. It is
for you he shed his blood and made you new in your relationship with God. In
Colossians Paul says, “Through Christ God reconciled everything
to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of
Christ’s blood on the cross” (Colossians 1:20).
It’s here at worship, at the Communion
table that we are reminded of how far Jesus went to fix our broken relationship
with God! Even though the breakdown
between God and us was our fault, he didn't wait for us to come to him, he took
that costly first step towards us, leaving the glory of heaven and sacrificing
his life on the cross so that we might be reconciled to God!
He came to us at our baptism and comes to us every day reminding us of
his love for us, forgiving us for all of our sin and reclaiming as his children
and members of his kingdom.
Forgiveness and reconciliation are hard
work. If there is one person who knows that it is Jesus. He knows how the evil
in us can be harsh, critical, lacking in sympathetic understanding, judgmental.
And this is where Jesus shows us the way
and understands our weakness and responds with his grace and love and mercy to
our pleas for help. Even when we
are too blind to see that we need his help and strength and forgiveness, he is
always ready to hold us up, forgive us and encourage us and remind us just how
much he loves each one of us.
God grant us the desire and the means to
show that same love to others. We
have been given the privilege of sharing Christ's peace where there is no peace.
© Pastor Vince
Gerhardy
E-mail:
sermonsonthenet@outlook.com
6th September 2020