Forgiveness #2

Clip 1 — Mr Rodgers

“I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you…

I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

Soooooo, let’s make the most of this beautiful day;

Since we’re together we might as well say:

Would you be mine?

Won’t you be mine?

Please, won’t you be my neighbor?”

Mr Rodgers. He sings the word so harmlessly. So sweetly. So ideally...

Jesus almost does the same thing.

Mark 12:28–31 ESV

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Who is my neighbor?

Luke 10:25–29 ESV

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Priest, Levite, Samaritan

Pastor, Prof at SBU, Caitlin Jenner

Neighbor. Such a harmless word set within a story filled with injury, injustice, abuse, abandon, and betrayal.

We are God’s neighbor. We are lousy neighbors. We’ve committed many offenses --- but the most heinous, was murdering his son. He forgave us.

Now we are neighbors. Jesus, in this command and this story, dumps all human relationships under this one, singular heading — Neighbor.

Neighbors don’t always behave as neighbors should… and that explains much of the tension, weight, confusion, and sadness that you carry inside you today.

Grudges. Judgments. Punishments. Cold shoulders. Exactly the things we are glad God does not extend to us as God’s neighbors, we extend to our neighbors.

In the movie, our neighbor Lloyd has a problem with his Dad — who abandoned he and his sister and their Mom when the kids were young and their Mom was dying. He stayed completely out of their lives until he re-emerges at Lloyd’s sisters third wedding to walk her down the aisle. And this is Lloyd and his Dad’s first conversation in… years.

CLIP 2

Lloyd is facing a $5million offense. And some of you are as well.

Not all offenses are $5million

Some are $5… some are $50… Some are $500… Grudgie people and cultures make everything $5million offenses — because that is good news and good politics.

But that isn’t how neighbors treat each other.

“There is always something you can do with the mad you feel.”

JT — I’ve tried Jack. I’ve tried Jim. I’ve tried all of their friends. I can’t drink you away.

All these rocks I can’t swim out of this skin I’m livin in.

Don’t they make medicine for heartbreak?

The Keys.