The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.
Lent 3, Year A
Romans 5:1-11
Dear heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit on us so that we may forgive as we have been forgiven through the death and blood of Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the accounting world, to reconcile accounts, you need to make sure everything matches and balances accurately. The debits and credits need to be accounted for so that there’s nothing left over or nothing outstanding.
In a similar way, to reconcile people in conflict with each other, you need to make sure everything balances and there’s no debt left unforgiven.
Unfortunately, many relationships aren’t reconciled and at peace because someone always has to pay. While the payment required isn’t always a financial figure, there’s still a debt owed to the hurting party.
For example – a child accidentally puts a ball through a window, but the child can’t pay for the damage. Yet someone has to pay. The child’s parents might pay the initial amount, but may exact a payment in kind from the child through extra jobs around the house until the full debt is worked off or forgiven.
A boy pulls a girl’s hair. He says sorry, but that’s not payment enough for the girl. He now owes her more than an apology, so she exacts revenge by telling on him, hoping to see him squirm under the discipline metered out by a parent or teacher.
A husband forgets a wedding anniversary, and the debt exacted by the angry wife is a number of gifts like flowers, chocolate, clothes, or a night out. On the other hand, the debt could be paid through a series of public humiliations as the wife tells everyone she knows how her husband forgot their anniversary. After all, someone has to pay.
A member of a congregation doesn’t get her way, so she exacts revenge through gossip to damage the reputation of all those who stood up to her. In her mind, someone has to pay, and they’re going to pay dearly.
A man makes an error of judgment and lives with regret of his actions. Someone has to pay, and he attempts to exact the full payment from himself, allowing himself to suffer for his mistakes.
So in our congregations, in our families, and in our communities, we keep on adding up the unpaid debts and try to work out how we’re going to force people to pay when they won’t do so voluntarily. It’s also hard to get rid of a debt when we don’t know who to charge, or when the full amount can’t or won’t be repaid.
Let’s call these unpaid debts ‘unforgiveness’. Someone has to pay, and we’re not willing to cancel their debt, so their debt remains unforgiven.
But while we’re harbouring that grudge of unforgiveness, a payment is already being exacted from the one seeking to have the debt repaid. Some of you may have heard this before, that ‘unforgiveness is the poison we drink hoping the other person will die’. Unforgiveness acts like a poison eating away at our souls, minds, and bodies.
Unforgiveness eats away at our souls because the bitterness, hatred, and revenge rob us of joy, peace and love. It eats away at our minds as our unpaid-for anger and grudges lead us into depression and other mental diseases. It eats away at our bodies by sometimes turning into forms of physical illness or it may hinder our body’s normal healing process.
Some of you might be struggling with unforgiveness. Perhaps you are struggling to forgive someone else, forgive yourself, or even forgive God, and you might say and feel you just can’t do it. You want the debt to be paid. If they won’t pay the debt, who will? How can you get even when no-one’s willing to make things right, or when no-one’s willing to balance their account with you?
But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Someone still has to pay. To forgive is to cancel the debt, and you don’t want to cancel the debt. You see, if you cancel or forgive the debt for the pain, suffering and heartache caused by someone else, then you’re the one making the payment. To give up your rights for revenge, payback and grudge holding, you need to let go of that debt, and not expect anyone to pay it back – ever.
Ok, you might say, there are some people I’m willing to forgive, but others I can’t. You might be able to forgive some of your family or friends. You might be able to forgive those who generally do good to you. In this case you might be willing to give up your right of revenge to these types of people, because their goodness to you pays for their debts anyway.
On the other hand there may be some you’re not willing to forgive. There are some you consider to be your enemies and you avoid them. You can’t or won’t forgive them. In fact, maybe one way to define an enemy is someone you can’t or won’t forgive. They remain our enemies because we won’t forgive them. Although, if you think about it, if you can’t or won’t forgive yourself, could you be your own worst enemy?
God knows the damage unforgiveness can do to us, so he teaches us to forgive as we’ve been forgiven.
How does he do this? St Paul says, “God shows his love for us in that – while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Someone had to pay, and it was Jesus who paid the full price. The most extraordinary thing is he paid the full price for us while we were still sick; while we were still sinners; while we were still enemies.
Sure, we might be willing to pay the price for a good person, but not for our enemies. While we might think we’re basically good people, in God’s eyes we were his enemies. Jesus willingly paid the price for his enemies – for us - and said from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they do”. Later he announced the work of reconciliation between you and God was fully completed and our account fully balanced when he said “It is finished.”
We believe in a God who forgives, but that’s not the way many people see God and his church. Many, as a result of disasters, see God as a cruel and unjust God. Many send their children to Christian schools to ‘get them sorted out’ or in order to teach them good Christian morals. Many see the Church as a place you can only come to once you’ve got your life sorted out and you’re now good enough to deserve God’s blessings. Many see Christian faith as a set of rules to live by.
Yet this is not what God, the Church, or our faith is all about!
The Gospel the Church is to proclaim loud and clear is the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ.
God is by nature gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Christian schools should be teaching and practicing forgiveness to free their students from their sinful past. The Church has never been for the deserving, but has always been for the undeserving who by faith receive the blessings of forgiveness through Christ’s death and resurrection. The Christian faith, at its core, is all about being forgiven and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, about learning to forgive others by the grace of God.
This is why we continue to forgive sins today. Today you had an opportunity to confess your sins and receive God’s forgiveness. Someone had to pay for your crimes against God, against those around you, and even against yourself. And someone has! Jesus Christ has paid the full price for your sins. The ledger is now clean. Through faith in Christ’s payment for your sins, you’re now reconciled and at peace.
We baptise people, not because it’s a cute little ritual, but because baptism is about washing away and forgiving sins. Even though some may think babies can’t sin, the bible teaches sin isn’t just sinful thoughts, words, and actions, but that we’re even born sinful, like being born with a disease that can’t be fully cured without the medicine of baptism and faith. Through baptism, God forgives us our sins, and joins us to our Lord Jesus Christ who already lives eternally.
When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we celebrate the forgiveness of sins by eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus Christ. None of you need to clean up your act first. In fact, if you think you haven’t sinned, you don’t need this meal. Yet, if you want to receive assurance of the forgiveness of your sins, then come and eat and drink in faith, fully believing this meal is given for you for the forgiveness of your sins.
Then as forgiven people, focusing clearly on Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, you may learn to forgive others, letting go of any unforgiveness.
You may either forgive someone without having to tell them, releasing the debt of unforgiveness to restore your peace and joy, or you may go and tell the other person that you forgive them, thereby proclaiming the gospel of forgiveness through Jesus Christ to them. You may even tell them your forgiveness means you won’t dwell on what they did any longer. Your forgiveness means you’re not going to bring this incident up again or even talk to others about it. Your forgiveness means you won’t let this incident hinder your relationships any more. This is the type of forgiveness God gives you through the death of Jesus. This is the forgiveness you pass on. Through forgiveness the debt is cancelled and enemies become friends once again. Through forgiveness, hurting bodies and souls are restored to health and peace, relationships are restored, and the gospel is enacted and proclaimed to bring others to faith.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, someone always has to pay, but you don’t have to. Jesus has paid the price for your sins and the sins of those who sin against you. The debt has been paid. The account is now balanced and through faith you can live in harmony once again. Don’t let any debt of unforgiveness stand in the way of your joy and hope and peace.
The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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