Sunday, September 14, 2008Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn
Genesis 50:15-21
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35
Audio sermon link: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/292/32745F1F-5C26-C20E-8EA4-C6B1EE86EF1B.mp3
Pastor Mohn pointed out a realization that often hits “the crowd” (perhaps) more often than “the Pastor” – that sometimes the three Scriptural texts seem to bear no common theme. Not so today. Today the three texts have a resounding emphasis on forgiveness – one of the most difficult things to face. In Genesis, we hear of the story of Joseph and his brothers and the sins of favoritism and jealousy. In Romans, the sins of conflict and disagreement.
Pastor Mohn pointed out that she was listening to the speeches at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions weeks ago and was struck when Barack Obama mentioned it was an election about small and big things. So, she felt, was partly the message on forgiveness. We often fight about the smallest things. Pastor Mohn shared a story about a church committee arguing over the choice of hymn for Mission Sunday – how it got so heated the decision had to be tabled. Remember the book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”?
We so often do. And God calls us to think of our petty grievances in a larger context.
We do not live or die to ourselves and the small things. If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord. So often the arguments are about what we eat, what hymn we’re going to sing. Today Jesus is saying “Why sweat the small stuff … when the big stuff’s already been taken care of for you?”
Pastor Mohn also shared that while last week’s text was her wedding text, this week’s is her funeral text … for reasons that in it:
Forgiveness is a matter of perspective.
There’s a new play called Seventy Times Seven then Pow! in which a husband keeps a chalkboard checking off the 490 forgivenesses he’s called to offer his wife. Presumably, he’s off the hook after that. Pastor Mohn offered the sense that we often seek the literal accounting, "in the German sense". We want to know EXACTLY what’s expected of us – how many times to forgive, precisely. We want a tally, a chalkboard. But make no mistake ... when we sin, we come to God with conditions … the extenuating circumstances that brought us to give into temptation – a rationalization, a host of excuses and reasons for transgressions beyond our control. We want understanding for the circumstantial nature of the evidence against us, that brought us to fall victim to sin. We’re victims, you see, when we sin. But when we’re sinned against? Well, thems different apples all together. Then we want a full accounting by the letter of the law. We want the tally in minute detail. So … if we forgive, we want tit for tat; we want equal forgiveness.
What happens when we’re confronted? Jesus told us how to handle conflict two weeks ago in the scripture readings. But after that thoughful progression of confrontation, Jesus says then let go. But that goes against our sense of fairness. It’s not attractive, it’s not fair and it goes against our sensibilities. When the “seventy times seven” message collided with the tally sheet analogy, I wondered if what Jesus meant was not even just “seventy times seven”. What the questioners in Scripture does is “pose a number” (an accounting we can see and taste and touch!). What if what Jesus is saying is “It’s (always) ten times the number you mention times the number you mention” ?? By that reckoning, when the husband gets to 490 “I forgive you’s”, the number turns to 4900 times that. Just as Pastor Johnson said two weeks back, the number God has in mind is “beyond our imagining”. It’s always bigger and bigger than we can ever write down or reach. And no matter how big it is, Jesus sacrifice for us all is bigger still.
What God seeks from us is a change in perspective, to see a bigger picture, a picture bigger than ourselves.
At the end of the movie Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella, who’s listened dutifully to The Voice and built The Field at great cost to himself and his family, sees the ballplayers invite Terrence Mann into the cornfield, but not Ray, who says “Why him? I built this field!” … to which the player responds, “What are you saying, Ray?” Are you saying what’s in it for you?”. And Ray says that he has done “exactly as he’s been told”, he’s forgiven seven times seventy times. And he bellows “Im saying … 
’What’s in it for me?’
Well, Jesus has the answer today. What’s in it for us?
Pastor Mohn pointed out a realization that often hits “the crowd” (perhaps) more often than “the Pastor” – that sometimes the three Scriptural texts seem to bear no common theme. Not so today. Today the three texts have a resounding emphasis on forgiveness – one of the most difficult things to face. In Genesis, we hear of the story of Joseph and his brothers and the sins of favoritism and jealousy. In Romans, the sins of conflict and disagreement.
Pastor Mohn pointed out that she was listening to the speeches at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions weeks ago and was struck when Barack Obama mentioned it was an election about small and big things. So, she felt, was partly the message on forgiveness. We often fight about the smallest things. Pastor Mohn shared a story about a church committee arguing over the choice of hymn for Mission Sunday – how it got so heated the decision had to be tabled. Remember the book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”?
We so often do. And God calls us to think of our petty grievances in a larger context.
We do not live or die to ourselves and the small things. If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord. So often the arguments are about what we eat, what hymn we’re going to sing. Today Jesus is saying “Why sweat the small stuff … when the big stuff’s already been taken care of for you?”
Pastor Mohn also shared that while last week’s text was her wedding text, this week’s is her funeral text … for reasons that in it:
Forgiveness is a matter of perspective.
There’s a new play called Seventy Times Seven then Pow! in which a husband keeps a chalkboard checking off the 490 forgivenesses he’s called to offer his wife. Presumably, he’s off the hook after that. Pastor Mohn offered the sense that we often seek the literal accounting, "in the German sense". We want to know EXACTLY what’s expected of us – how many times to forgive, precisely. We want a tally, a chalkboard. But make no mistake ... when we sin, we come to God with conditions … the extenuating circumstances that brought us to give into temptation – a rationalization, a host of excuses and reasons for transgressions beyond our control. We want understanding for the circumstantial nature of the evidence against us, that brought us to fall victim to sin. We’re victims, you see, when we sin. But when we’re sinned against? Well, thems different apples all together. Then we want a full accounting by the letter of the law. We want the tally in minute detail. So … if we forgive, we want tit for tat; we want equal forgiveness.
What happens when we’re confronted? Jesus told us how to handle conflict two weeks ago in the scripture readings. But after that thoughful progression of confrontation, Jesus says then let go. But that goes against our sense of fairness. It’s not attractive, it’s not fair and it goes against our sensibilities. When the “seventy times seven” message collided with the tally sheet analogy, I wondered if what Jesus meant was not even just “seventy times seven”. What the questioners in Scripture does is “pose a number” (an accounting we can see and taste and touch!). What if what Jesus is saying is “It’s (always) ten times the number you mention times the number you mention” ?? By that reckoning, when the husband gets to 490 “I forgive you’s”, the number turns to 4900 times that. Just as Pastor Johnson said two weeks back, the number God has in mind is “beyond our imagining”. It’s always bigger and bigger than we can ever write down or reach. And no matter how big it is, Jesus sacrifice for us all is bigger still.
What God seeks from us is a change in perspective, to see a bigger picture, a picture bigger than ourselves.
At the end of the movie Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella, who’s listened dutifully to The Voice and built The Field at great cost to himself and his family, sees the ballplayers invite Terrence Mann into the cornfield, but not Ray, who says “Why him? I built this field!” … to which the player responds, “What are you saying, Ray?” Are you saying what’s in it for you?”. And Ray says that he has done “exactly as he’s been told”, he’s forgiven seven times seventy times. And he bellows “Im saying … 
’What’s in it for me?’
Well, Jesus has the answer today. What’s in it for us?
Nothing ……
We’re no more righteous than the next guy, no more deserving. You can’t “build-a-cornfield-your-way-into-heaven”. You have that gift, you had it … before you tried to earn it and build-your-way-in. That’s why Shoeless Joe Jackson tells Ray, “You better stay here, Ray … If you build it, He will come.”
What you get for putting down your clipboard, your accounting and balance sheet is this: freedom.
God put the clipboard down on each of us on the cross.
We’re no more righteous than the next guy, no more deserving. You can’t “build-a-cornfield-your-way-into-heaven”. You have that gift, you had it … before you tried to earn it and build-your-way-in. That’s why Shoeless Joe Jackson tells Ray, “You better stay here, Ray … If you build it, He will come.”
What you get for putting down your clipboard, your accounting and balance sheet is this: freedom.
God put the clipboard down on each of us on the cross.
Everytime … EVERY time you forgive someone, you thank God for forgiving you
... for everything you’ve ever done wrong … and that tally sheet’s a mile long.
How ‘bout we stop fighting over that hymn for Mission Sunday? How ‘bout we stop crying “What’s in it for me?”
If we live, we do not live to ourselves. If we die, we do not die to ourselves. We are called to see “a bigger picture”, something bigger than ourselves. We are called to “build it” so “they will come” … by building it, we earn nothing, not even entrée for ourselves. That price’s already been paid in full. And He who paid it asks this: for us to live as brothers and sisters, to bask in the forgiveness we can never fully understand … and we are called to extend it to others, so we can live in the grace of God.
How ‘bout we stop fighting over that hymn for Mission Sunday? How ‘bout we stop crying “What’s in it for me?”
If we live, we do not live to ourselves. If we die, we do not die to ourselves. We are called to see “a bigger picture”, something bigger than ourselves. We are called to “build it” so “they will come” … by building it, we earn nothing, not even entrée for ourselves. That price’s already been paid in full. And He who paid it asks this: for us to live as brothers and sisters, to bask in the forgiveness we can never fully understand … and we are called to extend it to others, so we can live in the grace of God.
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