The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

Jesus said, “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants^[a] to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;^[b]
this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is marvellous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”^[c]

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.   (Mt 21: 33-46)

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Jesus is laying a story on the chief priests, and Pharisees, and quite obviously, at that. The landlord  in this story is God, of course. The tenants are the chief priests, the scribes and the religious lawyers. The servants who are sent by the landlord to collect the rent, are the prophets of ancient times  – killed for telling people the error of their ways – and the son of the landlord, of course, is Jesus himself.

The religious leaders had been trusted with the care of Israel, but had seized it for themselves. And they see Jesus as a real threat to what they have going on.

This story tells us that Jesus already knew he was going to die. And the people he is talking to?   The truth is, they can’t change . They are as much prisoners of the system as are the poor.  They might,  if they really, really, wanted to – change – but it would call for too great a sacrifice. 

One man who did  manage to change, of course, was Paul. He had been one of them.  As he says here, he had been one of the religious elite. He had been part of the power structure. He had persecuted Christians. He trod the same road as those who crucified Jesus.    He had been one of the elite, but ironically, had been a slave to the law.

Confronted by a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus,  he turned his back on a lifetime of  worship of the law,  and followed Jesus.  He realised that despite all that he did to obey the law, it hadn’t been able to save him.

Today, he tells us that he has given everything up for Christ, and counts all his past achievements as garbage.       And he  has no regrets.   He says, “Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ.”

“Christ showed me,” he says, “That what I once thought was valuable,  is worthless.”

Have you been following the stories of the heads of huge corporations?  Those  who have been caught  stealing vast sums of money from the companies they ran?  Sums  so vast that their companies collapsed around them?

Did you read about how one family looted the company they ran, of hundreds of millions of dollars? The prosecutor says they used the company as a personal piggy bank.

The main culprit is the  family patriarch, who is seventy-five years old.  He has already lived past the average lifespan for males in North America. 

And yet, this man who could be called to his judgment any day now, is still robbing and lying and accumulating loot.

“What is a man of seventy-five going to do with hundreds of millions of dollars?”  He can’t spend it in his lifetime. It isn’t to leave to his family,

because his sons were riding the same illegal gravy train.

We are not talking about making a comfortable life for yourself here. We are talking about greed for greed’s sake.

Did his greed blind him to all sense of proportion?

He is going to die someday soon. Probably in prison. Hello???

How is all that money going to help him then?  Doesn’t he know he will have to answer for everything he has done?  And soon. And he too will realise, too late, that what he has valued is truly worthless.

You know I read something that really made me sit up and take notice the other day. It was written about near death experiences, by a surgeon who has been present at many of them. 

You know what usually happens, don’t you?  The person’s heart stops, usually during surgery, but sometimes in the patient’s hospital room. The doctors rush to revive the now ‘dead’ patient using those paddles placed on the chest. They do it a couple of times and the patient’s heart starts beating again.

When they have come around enough to be able to talk, some of them tell of having gone toward a bright light, meeting dead relatives, or even meeting a Christ-like figure. They report feeling a deep sense of peace, and happiness, and they usually say they will never again be afraid of dying.

You have heard these stories, haven’t you?

Well this surgeon says that when he questioned patients about their near-death experiences, he found that  for  over half of them it wasn’t so wonderful at all.

These people reported  seeing dreadful landscapes, lakes of fire, and horrible figures – demons – for want of a better name – and intense fear. It was terrifying!

When they have had more time to think about their experiences, they decide not to tell anyone,  as they are ashamed to talk about it.   

The people to whom Jesus was preaching – the same ones who would ultimately crucify him- were hanging onto power. They were hanging onto their perks. They were probably even scheming to add to what they already had, and just like those modern day criminals, we have talked about,  they were apparently oblivious to the fact of their inevitable journey from this world to the next.

And to the coming judgment.

But Paul doesn’t fear judgment. He isn’t living his life out of fear of retribution. He has come to love Jesus, and enjoys telling about it, and he wants his friends to continue to find joy in their faith, and,  in their lives.

And he very emphatically warns those friends in the church in Philippi,  against those who would enslave them to Jewish laws. He says that knowing Christ is enough.

Now our Old Testament lesson today recounts the Ten Commandments.  Does what Paul is saying mean they are no longer needed? If Christ is enough? 

A big emphatic, “ No!.” Those laws are still valid.

But if you look at just a few of them  you can see that you could look like you are obeying all those laws, and still not be a good person.

Do not worship any God except me.  Well we know there aren’t any other gods, don’t we? So that’s an easy one.   

But even though you may not worship Baal, or any other heathen god,  there may be things in your life that you put before God.  Think about the things that take up all your time and a lot of your money?  If you  give inordinately – if you sacrifice  – time and effort, and money, to something, then isn’t it a god, to you?

Do not misuse my name. This refers back to when it was thought that knowing someone’s name allowed you  to use it against them in magic.  I think that using God’s name in vain is an insult to God. You could avoid doing that, and so be on the right side of this commandment,  but still have a filthy mouth.

Remember the Sabbath. I remember people who would never work on the Sabbath. But they never went to church either. They didn’t use the Sabbath in the way it was meant to be used. They didn’t work on Sunday but they  sure didn’t keep it holy.

Respect your father and mother. It’s possible to respect your father and mother, but not to really care for them.

Do not murder.  I know of instances where a person’s life has been almost destroyed by lies, and yet the liar could claim never to have murdered.

Be faithful in marriage.  We have read sad stories of  couples whose public face has been one of  marital accord, and have heard later of terrible abuse that went on behind closed doors. And yet the abuser could claim never to have committed adultery. 

So you get the idea.

Sticking to the letter of the law is easy.  What we want is people who stick to the intent of the law.

And the intent of the law?

Well Jesus summed that up when he told us: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. And  Love your neighbour as yourself.

The religious leaders obviously didn’t do this, and yet, they would say they obeyed the law in every way.

And so have today’s leaders, corporate and political. How many times have you heard, “ Everything I did was within the law.”

Tell that to the shareholders and bond holders, and the banks left holding worthless paper.    And the employees now without jobs, and with pension funds ravaged.

And did they enjoy doing what they did?   Do they really feel fulfilled?  Do they consider they have contributed something noteworthy to  this world?

And we?  We who try hard to live as Christ did, and find ourselves falling back at times; discouraged at times; despairing at times?  What about us?

Like Paul, we are not perfect.  We haven’t yet reached our goal – the goal of living  in Christ, and for Christ.  But let Christ take hold of us, and help us keep running towards the prize.

Because the past is over, gone, forgiven, and should be forgotten, as we strive with  new life in Christ, to win the prize of being called to Heaven.

This is the prize God offers because of what he did in Christ Jesus. 

This is the prize that is open to us, because of his life, and death and resurrection and glorious ascension.

And in striving for that, think of the legacy you will have left in this world.

Not because of what you took, but because of what you gave.,

he Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”

And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them,

“Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. ( (Matthew 21:23-32):

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The preacher went on and on, and some of the people began to wonder when he was going to finish. It wasn’t that what he said wasn’t interesting, but rather, most of those there were long time church members and they didn’t think they needed to listen too closely.

And it was a hot day and even though the windows were open, it was stuffy in the church, and most people there wanted to get home for lunch, and hopefully, a cool drink. So they looked at their watches, and sat this way and that, and looked around, and counted the tiles in the ceiling, and eventually the sermon was over and the rest of the service would soon go by, and they could leave.

The parson shook hands with each member of the congregation as they exited, and then he turned to go back inside, to tidy up before he left. But he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and saw an older man, dressed in old and shabby clothes brushing grass from his pants. The man saw the parson and smiled, “Can I talk with you sir?”

“Well, er, I was just going. But come inside. Would you like a glass of water?

 “Thanks, but no. I just walked into town an hour ago, and was tired, so I sat against the church wall in the shade, and I heard what you said. I meant to be on my way, but something you said stopped me.”

“What was that?”

“You said that because of what Jesus did we are forgiven whatever bad we have done and can be back on good terms with God again. Is that right?”

“That’s basically what I said, “ nodded the preacher.

“Does that apply to me too?”

“It applies to everybody.”

“And what do I have to do?”

The parson took this man by the arm, and led him to the altar rail. “Just kneel here and ask God to forgive you for your sins, and if you are truly sorry, then He will and you will be free.”

 The man did that. He prayed aloud,” God, you know I have been a bad person. You know I have stole stuff, and hurt people. And I am sorry. I am tired of being on the outside. Can you please forgive me. Can you please let me in?”

 Something seemed to change in that old man. He stood up. His eyes were wet but his shoulders seemed to be set a little straighter. His face didn’t seem so lined.

“I’ll go now,” he said to the parson who was also crying, and he walked out the door.

The minister sat there for a long time. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. He had preached each week at this church for seven years, and although he knew some of his flock needed to repent of the way they lived, none had ever indicated they would.

Oh, the people at his church seemed like such good people, There was the odd person you had to tread lightly with. There were people who partied a bit. One couple seemed too strict with their children, and he worried about them. But they attended regularly.

They all seemed to listen to what he preached, and seemed to want to follow what he said, but he knew they didn’t.

But this man?

Here was a man who had rejected God, had lived his life outside of God’s grace. had refused God, and yet he had finally realised his mistake and had come back to his Father. (I came across this true story on the web many years ago. Still relevant today)

Matthew tells us that Jesus is talking to those who show their love of God by how they played by the rules, by the law – in other words, how they showed it. They seem to be saying they serve the Lord but often they don’t. The law gives them latitude to look good but not necessarily to be good or to do good.,

And he gives them the story of the two sons, to illustrate what he means. One rejects his father’s order but later changes his mind and does it. The other says OK, but then doesn’t. He is telling the Pharisees something here, but they probably won’t hear what he is saying. Their lives are so organized around the law that they can’t imagine how they could be wrong.

 I am going to tell you another true story of two brothers. One was eight and the other four years old. Someone had given them a budgie in a cage, which they loved, but often forgot to look after. It was their responsibility and mostly they did what they had to do, but being young children they often forgot.

Then one day the cage was silent, and their mother checking it saw the bird was dead Its food box was empty and the water container, was dry. Then she remembered that in the last day or day or so, she had kinda heard, and kinda saw, it do something weird. It would jump down from its perch, head toward the seed bowl and do a sort of strange dance around it before going back to the perch. She had no idea what it was doing, and had been too busy to really check it out..

I remember when she told me about this, about thirty years ago, but it was only the other day that I understood what had happened. I am a really slow learner.

 Birds aren’t so dumb as you might think. They can be trained to do tricks, and they can learn.( Some day I will tell you the story of the chicken that played the piano.)

 This budgie had probably seen that when it did that little dance – made a noise, and jumped around, that it would not be long before food and water arrived. And here it was doing that and expecting the same thing to happen.

This time there were no little boys around, but the bird performed that same ritual, which had been answered in the past, hoping food would appear.

 Like from God?

 We read in the Old Testament, and in other historical accounts that people would have gods whose purpose was to help humans. A god who provided rain, another who provided fire, another who brought good luck and so on.

It seems that humans have always had a real sense that there is a God, and have sought ways to influence God. To win his favour. But how to please this God? How to ensure that he would continue to favour his people? The answer appeared to be that sacrifices would have to be made.

The sacrifice would have to be something precious. God wouldn’t want a worthless sacrifice, would he? So sometimes a child was sacrificed.

The Old Testament refers to this, and we know from archeological research that it took place in South America. You will remember the story of Abraham being prepared to sacrifice his only son, Isaac but being restrained by an angel. Sacrifice has always been a part of worship, it seems.

We especially remember the sacrifice that Jesus made, for us – his own life, And we remember it in the Eucharist, don’t we?

We relive that last night when Jesus was with his disciples when we participate in the Eucharist.

Such rituals help us to remember and to commemorate, and to make a connection, with our God. And are very valuable as a part of our faith. They help us to come close to God. To feel a nearness with God and with each other. And we do them to persuade God to be near us.

But these rituals are for us, not for God. He doesn’t need ritual, he doesn’t need praise, He needs nothing. He created everything there is. Why would he need anything?

Psalm 50, says it well,” I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. 10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the air,[a] and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine

 If God is so great, and so powerful, then he doesn’t really need anything, does he? Even praise?

 That’s something we need to do. We need to, as I said, to help us feel close to God. I remember the first time I knelt at the altar rail and took communion. I was blown away by the feeling, the blessing, the closeness to God I felt and still do. But really, it’s not what we do in here, in our beautiful old church, that is important. It is what we do out there.

What we do here is to help us to do the important stuff out there. And what we do for others. What we do to others. How we help others. How we Love others.

That’s what He wants from us.

And when we finally do see Him, He is going to ask, ” What did you do? ” Not how much did you worship? Or how many times did you go to church?

 Like he would ask those Pharisees, what did you do for others? And they would say, “We obeyed all your laws.” But he would ask, again, ” What did you do for others?

And He will ask the same thing of us. Not did you jump off your perch and do a dance to please me, but what did you do for others?

You might say, ” Well, I played a good round of golf every week, or I worked hard and built a nice home. Or I attended church every Sunday and sat through hundreds of sermons. And He will ask again, ” But what did you do?” “

And He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”… And the goats on the left…….?.

For over a hundred and eighty years people have needed the church I attend as a place of praise, of prayer , of ritual, of community, and friendship, all of which have helped our forebears, and help us, to know what it is we should be doing out there, and to encourage us to do it.

So we should be able to answer the question, ‘ What did you do?” with confidence.

The man I mentioned at the start of this story, had done nothing good, it seems. In fact he confessed to doing a lot of bad. But when the  minister sat outside that church,for a moment after the service, he thought of people  who attended regularly. Some there would be, the preacher knew,  who didn’t actually follow what he tried to tell them in his sermons.  That old man who had wondered by, not a church attendee, had found something that urged him to move from his old life into a new one.

 He didn’t jump off his perch and do a dance, nor did he make any great sacrifice, all he did was acknowledge his need to be right with God.

I have loved my church. I have loved all who attend faithfully,. I have loved doing worship there,. but I oft need reminding, and maybe you do too, of all we need to do to be right with God. .

It’s not so much is it?

Really!

The Gospel of Our Lod Jesus Christ According to Matthew

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius^[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” ( Mt 20:1-16 )

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I had a friend who worked for an airline that was bought by another larger airline. He kept his job, for which he was thankful, but he lost the seniority he had built up with his original airline, and moved to the back of the line in the new airline. 

He lost all the perks that he had built up over his years of service.

And the fault didn’t lie with the company. 

It was a union policy.

In other words, union brothers at one airline refused to let their union brothers from the other airline be integrated into the seniority system, but insisted they be tacked on at the end.

I read of one example where a man who had been flying planes for thirty years was behind his own son in seniority after the merger.

Where is the equality, the fair treatment, the brotherliness in that?

I have no doubt, though, human nature being what it is, that  if it had been the other way around, the same thing would have happened.

The thought seems to be that  it’s good that I have the perks that come with seniority, but I don’t want you too have them too.  My  enjoyment of  my perks would be spoiled if you were to get them too.

It’s like you get to a certain level of salary in your job and you feel good about it, then you find out that someone else, who doesn’t seem to have worked as hard, or as long as you gets the same.

You have the same raise as before. You have reached the same level as before. But it just doesn’t seem that good anymore, does it?

Gore Vidal famously said, ‘It isn’t enough to succeed, others have to fail.”

It’s true, isn’t it?

Just imagine you have run in a race as hard and as fast as you can, and you break the record for that distance, then you find that all the other runners ran through the finishing tape, just as you did.

The all broke the record together.

That would  kind of spoil it wouldn’t it? 

Now I don’t wish to boast, or seem more righteous than anyone else, but I don’t fit that pattern. 

As a long time minister, I have many perks in my job.

That’s right.

I can come into the church whenever I want, and ring the bell.

I can come in and read from the big bible, anytime I want. I can – and don’t tell Marilyn – come into the church and play the organ anytime I want.

And if a new minister comes in, I don’t mind sharing my perks with him or her.

Even if they don’t have all the years that I have served.

The worker who was chosen first in the parable we heard today, said, “ I have worked all day, and got the pay I was promised, but when I find out that you have only worked one hour and got the same pay, then my pay which I thought was fair, doesn’t seem fair any more.” 

There was no unemployment insurance in those days. There was plenty of unemployment, of course, because a lot of people had been moved off their land when they couldn’t pay the taxes the Romans demanded. 

No unemployment insurance!

If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat.

If there was no work then there was no food.

Men would stand around in that hot sun, waiting for an employer to come along and choose them for a day’s labour.  If they were chosen at the beginning of the day, then their families would eat.

If they were chosen halfway through the day, then they would eat, but not so well. 

If they waited in that burning sun all day long and were not chosen, then their families would starve. 

This employer came early and took the men he thought he would need, but there was too much work for them. So he came back at noon, and then later, at three o’clock, and again at about five in the afternoon and took more workers each time. 

That was normal.

What was different was that when it  came time to pay his labourers, this man paid each of them – the ones who had worked all day, the ones who had worked only half a day, and even the men who had worked for one hour only – he paid them all a full day’s pay.

The ones who had been there the full day, and who had been paid what they had been promised, didn’t like the way this employer worked. They grumbled that the late-comers had been treated as well as those who had laboured all day. 

Does that sound like the airline union member with seniority?   The worker with twenty years experience?   Does it sound like long-time faithful workers seeing new people coming in and being treated as well as they?   And not liking it!!

It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

And we don’t like it.

Now I must say it is not like that in this church.

You may only have been a member of this church for a month and you will be just as privileged to provide for the coffee hour as someone who has been here for ten years.

And I have seen people here for the first time, helping to put away the chairs and tables after coffee hour is over.

And no one complained.

All joking aside, Jesus is saying that’s  how the kingdom of Heaven is – everyone accepted fully, and welcomed, whenever they find Him. and you know,  I am glad that’s how it is.

I am glad that when I finally came to know my Saviour,  I was accepted, forgiven and loved, as much as those who had come to know him years earlier.

I never felt that I was second class.

You know, some people die after a full life, and have had the chance to serve Him for years.  Others, die young, and consequently don’t have the same number of years to serve God.  But He loves us all the same.

The problem with us human beings is that we may have forgotten how to be grateful for his grace.   We are too busy comparing what others are getting.

The men who were chosen to work first thing in the morning had the satisfaction of knowing that they had work. They would be paid. Their families would be fed.

Those hired halfway through the day, would have experienced relief that at least they would earn something.  But imagine how those who had to wait until mid-afternoon, or just one hour before the end of the day – imagine how they felt at not being chosen.

Imagine how their hearts must have fallen each time they were passed over?

The ones who were chosen first had a lot to be thankful for, over and above their pay and  knowing what it was like not to find work, they should have been glad to see others doing alright.   

A truly grateful person can never resent another.

We might overlook the goodness that God has sent to us. We might take for granted the lovely way he has looked after us.  Sometimes, it takes seeing another’s loss to bring it home to us.

There was a couple who had lost their son in the war. They made a sizeable contribution to their church, in his memory. When the announcement about the donation was made, a woman whispered to her husband, “Let’s give the same amount for our boy. “

Her husband said, “What are you talking about? Our son wasn’t killed.”

“That’s just the point,” she said, “Let’s give it as an expression of our gratitude to God for sparing our son.”

Let’s be grateful for what God has done for us,

Let’s do our best to help others find His love and Grace – just as we have.

The story that Jesus told to illustrate the kingdom of God,  is a great story, isn’t it?   It guarantees all of us a welcome into the kingdom, however early, or however late we arrive.

And it behooves us all to point the way for others.  And to rejoice with them when they find it. 

No matter how late in the day.

AMEN.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew,

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?”
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.  When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 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.

So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.  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.’      Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.
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.

Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’
 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.

So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35 )

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The narrative  that preceded this week’s Old Testament lesson told us  of the cries of the Israelites when they were trapped between the sea and the Egyptian army. How they blamed Moses, and God and wished they had never left Egypt.

This week we read how God took pity on them, causing strong winds to blow on the waters of the sea and the waters to separate so they could cross safely.

The story of the Hebrews in the wilderness is one of deliverance, rebelliousness, forgiveness, drifting away from God, being welcomed back, sinning, forgiveness – just like the lives of many of us, don’t you think.

I used to think the Hebrews were an ungrateful lot. I used to think they were whiners in the bad times and arrogant so and so’s  when things went well.

Then I realised that the story of their struggle is an allegory of the struggle of each of us as we live our lives.

We too whine and blame God when things go wrong, and yet when things go well, we tend to take the credit ourselves.

We drift away from Him, and when we wander back, beaten down, remorseful, sorry about what we have done, He welcomes us back.

And isn’t it good to come back?  Isn’t it good when we know we are forgiven, and loved and wanted?

The Christian knows that, but what about those who don’t wander back?  What happens to them?

The story is told  in Spain of a father and his teenage son whose relationship had become strained.  So the son ran away  from home. 

The father, broken-hearted,  began to search for the rebellious boy.  Finally, in Madrid, in a last desperate attempt to find him, the father took an ad in the newspaper.

The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you.   Your father.”

The next day 800 Paco’s showed up outside the newspaper office.

Seeking forgiveness and love from their fathers.

And there were 799 fathers somewhere, too arrogant, or too unforgiving, or too lost themselves, to make the effort to be reconciled with their children.

I don’t know why children and parents fall out.  There seems to be a  different reason in every case.

But one lesson that we parents have to learn is something that Paul tells us in this week’s epistle. 

He is talking to people who have ‘fallen out’ over some religious ritual.

“Hey,”  he says, “ Some abstain from eating meat to glorify God, while others eat it  for the same reason.  Why should one treat the other as if he were a sinner?”

If you act one way to glorify God, and she acts another way to glorify God, then that’s fine.  Both are glorifying God.

He is saying in effect,  “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”    Don’t be too quick to judge each other. As God is not  quick to judge us.  

Jesus tells the story of one man who had done wrong against his boss, and was forgiven.

He was happy to have been let off. He had panicked and groveled, and cried for forgiveness and his boss had relented and forgiven him.

But what lesson did he learn?

He must have learned the wrong lesson. He may have thought, “Oh, he forgave me because I am such a good worker. He forgave me because I am valuable to him. Because I am special. Or, I am such a good persuader.”

That must have been the lesson he learned  – wrong! – because when he was in the position of  deciding whether or not he should  forgive someone,  he  had them  thrown into prison.   But he hadn’t been forgiven because of any personal virtue. He was forgiven because his boss took pity on him.

If he had figured that out, then he might have been a bit more forgiving of the man who offended him.

It’s hard to know how he couldn’t see it.  Everything was out in the open, wasn’t it?    Most often,  our sins are committed in secret.

It is so easy to secretly destroy a reputation by passing on something and saying that  you were only repeating what someone else told you.

It is so easy to lie about your circumstances when someone has asked you for help.   “ I am sorry. I am tapped right out.”  No-one really knows.  

There are, of course,  many ways we can sin in private,  away from the eyes of others, and still present a face of virtue to the world.  No-one need know.

And aren’t we glad, because we have all done something that we don’t want anyone else to know about?

There was a movie called, “We Know What You Did Last Summer.”

The idea  must have come from a real incident which happened fifty or so years ago, when  two girls sent an anonymous letter to a man, saying simply, “ We know what you did.” 

They weren’t aware of anything wrong that this man had done. It was just a silly joke

But the man committed suicide.

I wonder how any of us would feel  if  we thought our worst sins were public knowledge?

One welcome result might be that people would stop criticising others.  We can only criticize when we appear to be virtuous.    

That poor man  would not have killed himself if he had known that our sins don’t need to be there, even in the secrecy of our heart.  We are told that  because of what Jesus did,  then our sins can not only be forgiven, but they will be forgotten

Forgotten!

That comes about when we are once again in a loving relationship with God.

And if we are in a loving relationship with God then we won’t want to judge others.

In fact we will be forgiving and forgetting the sins of others as ours have been forgiven and forgotten.

Because we will want to be back in a loving relationship with them too.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it?

I forgive you,  you forgive them, they forgive others, and so on.

Imagine if the sins of the Croatians against the Serbs, and the sins of the Serbs against the Croatians, and  the sins of the Albanians against the Serbs, and the sins of the Serbs against the Albanians had been forgiven – years ago – the tragedies of Bosnia and Kosovo would have been avoided.

Imagine if the sins of the Israelis against the Palestinians and the sins of the Palestinians against the Israelis, and the Catholic Irish against the Protestant Irish and the Protestant Irish against the Catholics, and so on had been forgiven. 

Instead, it has been like the famous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, hasn’t it?

That feud lasted for decades. Somewhere in the mountains of the southern United States.  It went something like  – ‘You killed my brother because my cousin killed your uncle, so I am going to kill you, and you will try to kill me, and if you do my father will kill you,’ and so on.

Whole peoples have been behaving that way haven’t they?    But in  broken relationships between nations, just as between individuals, someone has got to be the one who says, “Stop. It’s  enough.”

That’s what God did, didn’t he. He said, “ Enough is enough. This has got to stop!”   

And he stepped in Himself, in the person of Jesus to show us how love and forgiveness work.

And  love and forgiveness do work!

If given the chance.

Here is a lovely poem by George Roemisch published years ago, titled ‘Forgiveness.’

Forgiveness is the windblown bud which blooms in placid beauty at Verdun.

Forgiveness is the tiny slate-gray sparrow which has built its nest of twigs and string among the shards of glass on the wall of shame.

Forgiveness is the child who laughs in merry ecstasy beneath the toothed fence that closes in  D

a Nang .

Forgiveness is the fragrance of the violet which still clings fast to the heel of the shoe that crushed it.

Forgiveness is the broken dream which hides itself within the corner of the mind oft called forgetfulness, so it will not bring pain to the dreamer.

Forgiveness is the reed which stands up straight and green when nature’s mighty rampage halts, full spent.

Forgiveness is a God who will not leave us after all we’ve done.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.