Sermon for March 10

 The reading

Matthew 18:15-35

15 "If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." 21 Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, "Pay what you owe.' 29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' 30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 31 When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, "You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?'34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

The message

A few days ago, on Ash Wednesday, I opened up the church from noon to three to share prayer and ashes with whoever came in.  We had a constant flow of people, teachers, families, friends and neighbors.  I had about 35 people stop in.  I talked about why ashes (an ancient sign of repentance and a reminder that every person is dust that is loved by God), read psalm 51 (King David’s song of repentance and seeking God’s mercy after his great sin), read Mark 1, about Jesus time tempted in the wilderness and invited our guests to use Lent as preparing for Easter, a time of reflection and remembering you are loved by God who walks with us.  On Friday I spoke to the children at Rainbow about Ash Wednesday as a time when we remember we are all the same, loved children of God.  We also counted down from 40 to 0 (not a very easy task for 4 to 8 year olds), seeing Lent as a countdown to Easter.  Our Sunday readings are on the same path. Last week, we saw Jesus preparing his disciples for Easter, talking openly about his death and resurrection.

The chapters right before today's reading in Matthew's Gospel are focused on the identity of Jesus, as savior, as God with us, as suffering servant. In Matthew 16, we have Peter's great, spirit given proclamation. When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” then Jesus said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”.  These words are received with praise, excitement, worship and joy. Matthew chapter 17 is focused on the identity of Jesus as the son of God, the Messiah, the word of God made flesh, the long awaited savior. There is the Transfiguration, the moment when Jesus literally shines with the glory of God, when he appears with Moses and Elijah, the law giver and great prophet. This moment in Jesus ministry is received with praise, excitement, worship and joy.  In these chapters we also hear Jesus talk about his death and resurrection, destruction and rebuilding so that all might have life.  These words are received by his disciples with fear, doubt, disappointment and anger.

In Matthew chapter 18, where today’s reading is found, the focus changes. Now it is not about the identity of Jesus. That will be fully revealed later, on Easter morning, with the empty tomb, the good news, that Christ is Risen, the instruction "go and tell the others" and the proclamation " i have seen the Lord".    Matthew 18 starts to look at the identity of Jesus followers, the disciples, the women walking with him, the curious people on the margins of the ministry, the group that will become the church, the group that will face persecution, exclusion and death as they tell the world the surprising and upsetting things God has done. We start with some practical advise, how to settle disputes in the church, conflicts between members.  The church is people, more specifically sinners in need of grace. The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” this quote, or something similar has been attributed to 4th and 5th century  theologians Augustine of Hippo and John Chrysostom, modern day columnist Dear Abby and lots of others.  Jesus policy on settling disputes recognizes that people in church will sin against each other, People will lie about their resources or need, people will lie about their level of commitment, people will not welcome the stranger, will welcome with suspicion, will let in the economic, cultural, racial, educational, sexual and social divisions that fill the world, will not let others use their gifts. The policy involves forgiving but it seems to have a limit, If the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.   

Now in Jesus society, gentiles, non jews, were considered unclean and you were to no contact with them.  Tax collectors were even worse, traitors, people who became servants of the Roman Empire who made themselves rich collecting taxes for the oppressors.  They also could not be confronted or attacked (as they were protected by Roman soldiers)  There were few people lower and more hated than the tax collectors. There was no "well we're just doing our job" or “someone has to do it”. Of course, for Jesus Gentiles were part of the kingdom of God, healed, welcomed, included, taught and blessed.  Tax collectors were also blessed, welcomed and forgiven. (in fact, Matthew, who writes this Gospel, was a tax collector before he met Jesus).  To the jewish world gentiles and tax collectors were at best ignored.  To Jesus they were just like everyone else, sinners in need of God's grace and humans with a place in God's kingdom. 

This makes Peter feel awkward, trying to do the math and he asks 'okay, I want to obey, "I want to make sure your church runs right, exactly how many times do I have to forgive". Peter chooses the number 7 since it was the number of perfection, Jesus responds with 77 times, that is double perfection,  which sort of means unlimited. Peter is thinking what if we run out of resources, we forgive so much things fall apart. Jesus knows forgiveness is not a limited resource, grace is not a limited resource, the kingdom of God does not room just for the best billion. The church will be an example of God's unlimited Grace, an oddity in a hypercompetitive, divided world of limited resources.

The next story about the 2 debtors is a warning to the forgiven. Do not abuse God's grace.  To see this, we need a brief ancient economics class.  A Denarii was a day's pay for an unskilled worker .Today, we could think of a minimum wage worker at 15 an hour, which would be about 120 dollars.  100 denarii was about 12,000 dollars, nothing to sneeze at.  A Talent was 6,000 denarii, so that makes his debt about 72 million. These values have changed over the centuries but its sufficient to say the king forgives a debt that this man could never repay and than that man chases someone down for pocket change. A lot of people look at this story and say that Jesus is exaggerating the amounts. No one person could accumulate 10,000 talents of debt and virtually everyone owed more than 100 denarii to someone.

The man who requests more time to repay the 10,000 talents has his debt forgiven, His life is given back to him.  He receives way more than he deserves or could earn.  What he does next is what will damage the church, stop the people of God from doing the work given to us, he does what cannot be tolerated. To celebrate the grace and mercy he received, he tries to viciously collect a small, common debt.  This is an act of abuse, taking advantage of mercy, of disrespect, of refusing to share the grace you received, of refusing to let it change you. Of all things in the story, this is what gets punished. 

This story is at the heart of what we believe.  God is the king who forgives a debt we cannot pay, giving salvation we cannot earn.  The results of sin is death, Jesus removes the consequences of sin. We are the person who has that 10,000 talents debt forgiven, we are told to do better than that guy does with this gift.