Being a born and bred Episcopalian, 

I was confirmed when I was 12 years old.

This was at St. David’s Episcopal Church 

in the then Missionary District of Spokane.

The bishop who confirmed me was Russell S. Hubbard, 

whom I remembered as a giant of a man 

with huge hands that pressed down on my head 

with all the weight and solemnity of the occasion.

I was so impressed by this man as a child 

that I actually listened to and remembered his sermons.

 

One sermon of his that I remembered so well was about the Lord’s Prayer.  

The bishop varied his usual calm, even tones 

to a rise of inflection and stronger volume to tell us, 

“This prayer is the most damning prayer you can pray, 

when you say, ‘Forgive us our trespasses 

as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ 

You are asking God not to forgive you unless you also forgive others.”

 

Thus I learned from early years that forgiveness 

was very important and very central in living out the Faith.

 

Now let me share something with you about the Greek word for forgiveness.

John 11:44  When Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb, 

he then said to those who were there witnessing this 

to loose him and let him go.  

The word in Greek for “let him go” 

is the same word that is commonly used throughout the entire NT 

for the verb to forgive.

In the Greek of the New Testament 

to forgive is to send forth, with the idea of setting free.

Sins are forgiven a person, that is, the sins are sent away, 

so that the person is no longer bound by them.

Someone who is forgiven 

is someone who has had their sins taken from them 

and tossed away, sent away.

The person is liberated.

 

Remember the story of the paralyzed man 

            who was brought to Jesus by his four friends

             who stopped at nothing to get him in front of Jesus?

 

Jesus said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven.”

And the religious experts who were with him there got in a twit 

because Jesus had just pushed their hot buttons.

And he did it on purpose, of course.

Jesus healed the man of his paralysis by saying, 

“Your sins that are binding you are sent away, forgiven.”

And the man, no longer paralyzed by his sins, walked.

 

In today’s Gospel lesson, Peter approaches Jesus with a serious question.

“If another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?”

            Now, how did the church get into this passage?

            This is the gospel; the time setting is before the church was formed.

Friends, it doesn’t say that in the Greek.

            It is much more specific.

It reads: “If my brother sins against me, how often should I forgive?”

            Hmmm – Andrew has been given his brother Peter some grief.

                        Quite common among siblings, don’t you know.

But we also must remember that around Jesus we are all brothers and sisters.

            We are all family – every single one of us, and not just here in this place.

                        ALL humankind really.

 

Well, how long does Peter have to put up with being sinned against by another?

            Seven times?            How about 77 times, Jesus replies.

He tells Peter 

that he is not to be stingy in how many times he sends away sin.

 

Jesus modeled forgiveness VERY powerfully in healing the paralyzed man,

             and then he instructed his disciples to do this also, 

to set others free from what binds them in their lives.

 

But Peter sees a problem with this.

What if someone thinks they are getting away with something 

and then takes advantage of this free forgiveness 

and just keeps on transgressing, 

especially if it is personally directed at the same person.

It was as though Peter was saying, 

“Jesus, do you want them to think that we’re dumb or weak or doormats?!  

Isn’t there a reasonable limit?!”

 

Peter was expressing a very real issue for the people of that time and culture, 

an issue which is still very much alive today.

 

So Jesus needs to show Peter, and all of us, 

that there is another perspective other than our usual world view 

that reframes the issue entirely differently.

 

So he tells a Kingdom of Heaven story about a bond servant/a slave

who somehow managed to accrue a debt in the millions of dollars,

            far more than the total value of his lifetime work productivity

                                                many times over.

When this servant gets down on his knees and begs for mercy, 

the king (whom the Kingdom of Heaven is like in this parable) 

is moved deeply with pity 

and lavishly forgives the whole debt, 

he sets him free from the debt, he casts out the debt.

 

So this fellow has a brand new lease on life, a whole new start.

And what does he do?

He immediately looks up someone who owes him the equivalent 

of four months wages for a common laborer, 

not unlike the amount of credit card debt that many folks have,

a significant amount but nothing like what he had owed.

But he just can’t let that amount go, 

after all he himself is now starting over from scratch.  

He has his wife and kids to provide for. 

He wants to get on with his life.

            So he insists that this colleague of his pay up – now.

 

This time there is not the same compassion and valuing of his coworker

            that had been shown to him.

First he grabbed him by the neck, 

                        his hands around his windpipe cutting off vital air, 

            and then throws him into debtors prison.

That’s how much he values his coworker;

            he only sees him as 100 denarii.

That is all he is worth to him.

 

He is totally disconnected from the act of mercy shown to him, 

            but those around him can see clearly the blatant disconnection, 

and they are so scandalized by his action that they go tell the king.

 

And this man is then held accountable for his actions.

It was not his debt, but his own lack of mercy  

that brought him to a dismal end.

 

What Jesus is saying to Peter 

is that we may not realize just how much mercy we are shown by God, 

how much grace we live by.  

There is abundance of this mercy, 

and we are disconnected from the realization of it.  

 

To withhold mercy and forgiveness 

then shows that we are blind to what we ourselves have received,

             and this places us in a very shaky position spiritually.

We have got to forgive!

 

In the parable the king goes ballistic when he is told what happened.

The King commands that he be 

            “handed … over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.”

But remember how this parable started?

            The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king 

                                                who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.

 

And Jesus concludes, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you,             if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

 

Do this sound like a threat to you?

Then think of it in terms of a consequence.

But the point is this:

            The wickedness of the unjust bond servant

                        was in separating himself from the community 

                        and missing entirely the importance of the brother, the sister.

 

If you do not forgive, if you do not take away the debt owed you,

            you will be put into a state of suffering, like being tortured.

And then when you are feeling so bad 

                                    that you feel as though you are being torn apart, 

            then God will show you that there is no separation with God, 

                        no possible separation from others, 

            and God will show compassion.            That is how mercy works.

The brother or sister cannot be made an object,

            cannot be quantified with a price, a monetary value.

 

And the forgiveness, the taking away of the debt, must be from the heart,

            Jesus says.

God who knows the thoughts of our hearts, as the Collect for Purity states,

            is always looking at the heart and its struggles.

                        Is the heart clean and open?            Or is it choked and cramped?            

For always we can count on this:

            We are worth more to God than the value of our debt.

            We are worth more to God than the value of our debt.

 

Knowing that and remembering last week’s Gospel, 

            what is the value to us of the one who sins against us?

Forgiving frees you, and it also frees the one forgiven.

            It opens the way for you both to be brought back into communion, 

                                                                                                into community.

And so, dear people, 

be mindful of the incredible abundance of mercy shown to you.

And if today in this place, the shoe fits,

                                                put it on.