24th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Stop Counting

 

'Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times”.’

Matthew 18.21

Let us get our wrongdoings into perspective. The distance between what we perceive as our minor misdemeanours and the wickedness perpetrated by the vilest tyrant is the distance from your front door to the bottom of the road, when seen from a GPS Satellite; we might say a drop in the ocean. But this doesn’t mean that we should ignore the rifts caused by sinfulness and brush matters under the carpet. They need to be resolved and forgiveness is the key.

The point Jesus is making in this pronouncement, and the ‘Parable of the Unmerciful Servant’ that follows, is that we should never give up seeking forgiveness and reconciliation even in the most harrowing of circumstances. We must forgive and forgive and keep on forgiving.

Love and forgiveness are central to the Gospel message. At the centre of the Lord’s Prayer we ask a merciful God to forgive us just as we are forgiving those who have wronged us. The first is dependent upon the second. We will not be granted God’s forgiveness unless we are prepared to forgive and forgive and keep on forgiving. At first that seems at odds with the God who is love but that is to misunderstand the nature of that love. God does not stop loving us nor does he stop forgiving. Rather, it concerns our being receptive to very nature of forgiveness; if we cannot forgive others the tiniest of injustices, it will never be possible for us to accept God’s unmerited forgiveness for the immeasurable wrong we have done to him.

If you are keeping a tally of the times you have forgiven someone who has sinned against you, you are not really forgiving them, you are just postponing your retribution. If God’s absolution is granted for the greatest of humankind’s atrocities, we can offer nothing less. We must forgive and forgive and keep on forgiving.

The Lord’s Prayer (modern form)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever.
Amen.

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk