Forgiving the Unforgivable (9/22/2011)

Weekly Pulpit -- Warren Sentinel -- September 22, 2011

I was particularly challenged by sermon on September 11^th. 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 11^th – 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.