Forgive Others (Trinity 4)

Introduction

Simon Wiesenthal’s book The Sunflower is a true story of Simon as a Jewish prisoner and his journey through one of history’s most difficult and trying events, the Holocaust.

The text

Luke and Matthew both have these extended sermon on the mount teaching. Outside the usual Rabbinic style

The sermon on the mount continues to be thought of as the high of personal ethics

For us Christians it is not just great personal ethics but the commands of our Lord on how to live as new Covenant people.

Outline

Todays text gives us a list of commands from Christ, 3 Parables, and a confirmation of the original command.

Commands (vs 36, 37, 38)

Be Merciful, Judge not, Forgive, Give. Why? (Thou art giving and forgiving)

God is merciful, remember who you are and from whenst you came, God is the righteous judge that has moved your sentence off you and put in on your son. The condemnation of God is on Christ not you. God has been infinity generous. If we are sinners saved by the grace of God theses are the only reasonable ways to live. Anything else would betray us to be hypocrites.

Parables.

Purchasing Grain in the marketplace. Disney Story… God is not so. And if we want to show ourselves to be in the family of God we will do likewise.

Blind leading the blind. Are you better at this than Jesus? If he is merciful, withholding judgement, forgiving, and giving are you gonna act different? are you wiser than he?

Don’t you see the reality of your own falleness. Your own lack of moral credibility? Search your self Christian. know that you can only bring conviction to your brother from a place of humility.

Remember that the prayer book demands of us a high level of self reflection. Every service, MO, EO, HC comes with an invitation to confess sin. to repent, to hear an absolution. We have to look for these planks in order to then invite our brothers to remove specks.

Main Point:

Today’s Epistle reading gives us a pep talk as to why and how we should persevere into this Gospel way of life.

The Apostle Paul reflects that any suffering we should endure is minimal to what lays ahead.

Its like being hungry, and you have an option of eating something mediocre you somewhat enjoy and satiating your hunger now…or you can wait for something else. The goodness of that something else will help you determine if its worth the wait. St. Paul surmises that we are waiting of the a meal of infinite satisfaction. The perfect experience.

And not only are we waiting to experience this wonderful meal, but we are getting the first fruits of it. Having the HS means that the appetizers are coming out. We have the foretaste of heaven. It is not yet the completed experience. There is a final consummation to come…the redemption of our bodies.

Main Point

Remember that the Gospel is always calling us to something countercultural.

Be Merciful - We celebrate stories of historical people who showed mercy, but we feel a deep desire for justice to be repaid, for our hurts to be made whole. Friendships end because we feel slighted in a way that we can not give another chance. Careers ended because of public mistakes that no apologies could fix.

Judge not - We sell not just products in our advertising we sell an image. If you can not live up to this image there must be something wrong with you. If you associate with a certain class of people or political party there is a judgement made.

Forgive - We have friends or family that we have cut out of our lives. We have been hurt too bad, we are still mad and we do not want to relinquish that. they are beyond forgiveness.

Give - We are greedy. This is something we earned to pass down. We do not want to part with it. The person on the other end of the transaction has not done enough to earn my generosity.

But on the cross Jesus perfectly accomplished all these things. He shows God’s perfect mercy, he absorbs God’s judgement, he forgives the sins of the world, He freely gives everlasting life to those who would call upon his name. It was your failures in these areas that Jesus pays for. It was your sentence to everlasting death.

Friends we deserve the winepress of God’s wrath, but in Christ we have the wine of his supper. The first parable today was one of God’s grain, today we will eat the grain made bread and inso doing be partakers of his precious body. Let us never grow weary of this part of God’s character for as Saint Paul reminds us it is our entrance to “ the glory which shall be revealed in us.”