0800 sermon HTC, 12 Nov 2017

Matthew 18:21-35 (also Philippians 1:3-11)

I notice two shocks in our Gospel story. I notice the second shock first: the mean servant loses his chance to be forgiven, by not himself taking the forgiving option. That’s scary. Our Lord uses this story to tell us plainly that we too should forgive people, just as we have been forgiven by our Father in Heaven.

It’s a big deal, whether we forgive other people. We don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of this parable.

But I tend to skip over the first shock in the story, when the rich and powerful king startlingly decides to listen to the plea of his servant, and forgives him the debt of 10000 talents.

I looked up 10000 talents on the web. In today’s terms, it would be 5.3 billion pounds. If you shopped carefully, you could pick up a couple of brand-new aircraft carriers for that sort of cash. The servant would have been absolutely incapable of finding this money, even if they and their family had been sold into slavery. When the servant throws himself at his master’s feet, it’s because he is absolutely desperate - he has no chance at all of paying off his debt.

And then the king forgives him. Imagine the sense of utter relief, the amazement, yes, the shock when the servant suddenly discovers he is home free, completely because of the grace of his master. Words cannot capture what he must have felt. It would be a complete transformation for him - straight from death into life.

This is the first take-home point from this story; our Father God deals with us like that. When we go up to communion, a few minutes from now, we remember that God has forgiven us through Jesus Christ in the same way that the king forgave the servant. That ought to be shocking. I ought to need time to come to terms with it. I’ve been a Christian for nearly fifty years, and I’m still processing it.

God forgives me through Jesus.

So why the second shock? When I have been forgiven that much, it changes me. It changes the way I think about other people. Whatever their circumstances, relatively speaking they aren’t so different; they need God’s forgiveness too, and God’s forgiveness is available to them on the exact same terms as it has been made available to us. So this is what Jesus’ story is telling us; we are forgiven that much, in that shocking way, so we’ve got to pass that forgiveness along, straight from the heart.

God forgives me through Jesus.
So I must forgive too.

Now we need to be practical about this. Sometimes “forgiving” is an easy matter; we recognise that letting ourselves bother about a silly remark is like getting all in a tizzy over a missing penny piece when a surprise cheque for a thousand pounds has just come through the post. Sometimes I can say, I’m going to let that go, forgive and forget, because it really isn’t worth picking up on.

And sometimes it’s a matter of being down-to-earth and realistic. Someone has just let me down for the third time. I’m going to forgive them, but obviously they are not in a place where they can manage their promises. So I need to find a way to avoid relying too much on them. I’m not writing them off, I’m hoping and looking for change, I’m forgiving them, but I’m also going to be realistic about what they can or can’t do at the moment.

You can pick up a taste of this in Peter's question at the start of our passage: "Lord, how many times ...?" and Jesus' answer, which amounts to, persevere for as long as it takes.

And sometimes forgiveness is so hard that it feels like I can’t even begin to forgive - I actually can’t do it. That’s tricky (I speak from the heart here, and from personal experience). But I want to obey my Lord, so what I’m going to do is to pray regularly for this person whom I find so difficult. Even if it is just “God bless so-and-so”, at least I have made a start. Sometimes forgiveness is a long long process, not an instant decision.

Philippians 1:6b is a comfort: "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ". The process is the work of God the Holy Spirit: I'm not on my own here.

But our Lord is speaking to us, and we need to pay attention, especially as we prepare for His Communion. We are forgiven sinners: so forgiveness is not an optional extra. Even if it’s going to be a long long haul, we need to make a start.

God forgives me through Jesus.
So I must forgive too.

Amen