Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 17, 2023

Genesis 50:15-21+Psalm 103:1-13+Romans 14:1-12+Matthew 18:21-35

For those of you who are new to the Episcopal Church and the way we order our liturgies, it might be helpful to know that neither I nor anyone else here at All Saints decides what readings we will hear each week. No, we follow something called the Revised Common Lectionary which is also used in many other denominations and generally covers the four gospels in an every-three-years cycle.

So, no, I would most certainly not have selected a reading about a wicked slave who gets handed over to be tortured for being unforgiving on a day when we celebrate the sacrament of baptism. Under the best of circumstances, this is a challenging text. Peter wants to know how often he has to forgive someone who sins against him, thinking that seven would be very generous. But Jesus ups the ante to 77 times. In essence, there is no limit.

Jesus goes on to tell the story of this slave who has somehow acquired an Elon Musk wealth level of indebtedness but has it forgiven, even though the boss knows he has every right to ask for repayment. And what does that forgiven one do? He turns around and refuses to forgive someone who owes him a very small amount. Bad move. The boss is furious, the debt is reinstated, and he is thrown to the Tormenters until he can pay.

Not the most uplifting story. Except that we have reached a place in Matthew's gospel where he is trying to teach people what it means to be a community. And we all know that being in community with other people means we're gonna get annoyed with them from time to time. We are going to say and do things that are uncaring or unthoughtful or maybe even deliberately harmful, and others are going to do the same. But we can't simply cancel each other. This was part of last week's sermon, as well. Everyone is redeemable. No one is beyond the pale of forgiveness.

And that is hard. It's hard for everyone because what about justice? How do we balance justice and mercy? Do we just let evildoers off the hook? I don't think so. Mercy and forgiveness require confession, restitution, making right and whole what was harmed.

This story of the unforgiving servant as it is known actually hearkens back to the Sermon on the Mount twelve chapters ago when Jesus taught his followers the Lord's Prayer. We pray every week that God will "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." We can't take our forgiveness and hoard it. If Jesus gave his life that we might be reconciled to God, that places a claim on us to forgive others when we have been hurt by them.

When Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, they, too, were trying to figure out how to live in community with each other. And what did he say? "Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God" (Romans 14:10). Paul knew that unforgiveness hardens hearts and wrecks communities, and we, followers of Jesus, can't allow that to happen. There's enough of that out there in the world.

As we welcome these two children into the household of faith through baptism this morning, my prayer is that they will learn as they grow up in this community that they are loved, that if they mess up it can be made right, that nothing will separate them from God's abundant love for them. They will experience enough judgment in the years ahead from people that they encounter. It is, sadly, the way of the world.

But here, in this household, we are people who love and forgive and stick with one another. My prayer is that Noah and Emma will find that to be so, and will then go and share that with others.