I was particularly challenged by sermon
on September 11th. Now that's not as vain as it sounds.
You see, I preached on the topic of forgiveness on a day that I (and
probably many others) were struggling with forgiveness.
While I don't normally preach according
to the lectionary (an agreed upon schedule of scripture passages many
churches follow), it just so happened that the gospel text for this
particular Sunday was on forgiveness. So even though I was tempted
to preach on something different, the very fact that I myself was
struggling with forgiveness led me to believe that this was the very
thing I should preach on. If I were to limit my preaching to that
which I've mastered, I'd be out of a job!
It can be hard to forgive even when
someone apologizes to you for what they have done. But should we
forgive when there is no apology offered? This isn't the specific
question addressed in Matthew 18:21-35, but I think it is related.
In that passage, Peter asks Jesus how many times we should forgive.
Peter thought maybe seven times should be enough. That does seem
like a lot, right? Well Jesus responded that we should forgive 77
times (or 70 times 7 times, depending on which translation you
prefer). Either way, Jesus was saying that we should be willing to
forgive many many many times – many times more than I normally
would want to forgive.
As part of my sermon I played a video
clip of Miroslav Volf, an evangelical theologian, answering the
question of whether we should forgive when no apology has been
offered. His answer was far more brilliant and convincing than
anything I could have come up with. He responded that we definitely
must forgive even when an apology hasn't been offered. Why? Because
the God that we worship does this. We worship a God who offers
forgiveness to all and for all. There is no sin that is too great
for God to forgive. And God offered us forgiveness, through the
life, death, and resurrection of his son nearly two thousand years
ago – long before we had a chance to sin, let alone apologize.
During my sermon I quoted some of the
last words of Jesus as he hung dying upon the cross. He said,
“Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.”
Having been mocked, beaten, and nailed to a cross, Jesus prayed for
the forgiveness of the people who were in the very process of
murdering him. Part of me wants to ignore these words because “I'm
not Jesus.” But the fact is that as a follower/apprentice of
Jesus, I'm called to become more and more like him.
And so I asked the congregation this
question, “How did the events of September 11, 2001 make you more
or less like Jesus?” It is a challenging question but not an
unfair one. Each of us who claim to be followers/apprentices of
Jesus are, I believe, in the process of either becoming more like him
or less like him.
So on a day set aside to remember the
horrific events of September 11th – a day when we
proclaim that we will “Never Forget” – I believe that we are
called to never forget that we have been forgiven. Even more, I pray
it will become a day on which we will never forget that we ourselves
have forgiven the unforgivable.
