Matthew 18:21–35 (NRSV): 

21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. 

23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 31 When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Forgiveness is our theme from the lectionary this week!  A good thing to come after last week where we talked about reconciliation.  Although, actually, I think forgiveness should come before reconciliation.  Or, maybe they go hand in hand.  

One of the things that I wanted to say last week is that there is also sorts of reconciliation going on in and around our congregation.  It’s actually pretty amazing.  And, it’s humbling.  I have to be able to not only encourage you to reconcile, but I have to practice it as well.  

Reconciliation is a constant practice that marks all of us.  It can be exhausting at times, as well as invigorating.  When Peter comes to Jesus and asks how many times must he forgive someone, Jesus has a precise number:  77!  That’s a lot!  Now, what Jesus is saying is a figure of speech.  We don’t go around keeping track of how many times we have to forgive someone in a day.  And, we don’t count to 77 and then at 78 say forget it!  You can’t be forgiven!  

No, it means that we have to constantly forgive.  That’s hard.  I know.  In a world with so much trauma, where we are having things done to us, even as we may do things to others, to say to forgive is easy, but to do it and to live lives in that posture is hard.

This has a lot to do with us becoming more of what we were created to be:  human beings living in communion with ourselves, God’s Presence, and with others.  We know we need forgiveness, and we know we want to give it.  We have to start with forgiving ourselves.

When you have someone that forgives you, that makes it easier to opening up forgiveness within ourselves and others.

The parable that Jesus gives makes this point. Now, I know we don’t related to the slave and master thing as much these days.  And, I’m glad that we recognized that this language and behavior is simply wrong.  Yet, when I read it, I thought of my PePa.  I think I’ve shared this story before, but its a powerful reminder to me and hopefully to you.

PePa was someone that really believed in me.  I always felt loved and respected by him.  No matter what I was going through, or when I was acting out or having major growing pains…even as a teenager, he always had the effect of seeing something worthwhile in me.  He was a huge encourager and forgiving person, I loved being around him.

When I graduated from UK, I wanted to change the world, so I went to work for a non-profit youth ministry.  I didn’t make hardly any money, but my PePa still supported me and was proud of me.  When I graduated from UK, I didn’t have any debt because of the generosity of my parents.and the fact that college tuition was not nearly as expensive as it is now, it was much more accessible back then.  After about 3-4 years or so of being on staff with this non-profit, I had accumulated quite a bit of debt.  I had made a decision at that point to move to Atlanta to work in partnership with the Presbyterian Church and Young Life, another non-profit.  My PePa had me over for dinner, and asked me to write down all of my debts.  I was so embarrassed giving him that sheet of paper.  But, when I did, he sat down, didn’t question anything, and wrote a check out to me for the full amount of my debts.  He then said, “you need to start in Atlanta a new page and not have any financial debt to worry about.  I believe in you and what you are about.  Your debt is forgiven.”

My debt was gone financially, but I also felt something more, a deeper healing knowing that my PePa believed in me.

That forgiveness and belief in me had a profound impact on me and how I wanted to be treated and how to treat others.

It would have been wrong for me to receive this gift from PePa and then go out to my best friend who maybe owed me $50 and tell him to give it to me right then or I’d have to do something drastic.  I was humbled and needed to allow that humility to work its way through and around me.  

We all need forgiveness don’t we?  I came across this quote on forgiveness last week:

“…did Jesus change his regular policy after his resurrection, and his love become exclusionary and conditional, as it never was during his lifetime? In fact, his breath, perfect Shalom, and divine forgiveness have all become the very same thing after the Resurrection John 20:22) and given freely to the crowd who had just totally let him down and are hiding behind locked doors. The community of saints is the community of sinners.” – Richard Rohr

Friends, we’ve been given grace after grace by a God who allows all things in this world…even our debts and grievances and sufferings.  And, yet, this God that is a part of us just as we are a part of God, has given us forgiveness.  May we live in that practice of love and forgive one another, even when its not reciprocated.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a call from a church member that humbled me.  He said he was wrong on something and apologized.  At that moment, I had a choice…actually, I didn’t know what to say.  But, I did manage to say thank you.  I accepted his apology and forgave him.  And, I know that I need to keep on doing that, just as I hope others do with me when I need forgiveness.