Stop Counting!

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

September 17, 2017

19 Proper A

          When Don and I moved into our house in Hudson, the number of books we brought with us out numbered the available bookcase space by about 10 to 1, or perhaps 20 to 1.  My books all fit on the very generous bookshelves in my office.  Don’s books, however, had come from the entire wall of floor to ceiling bookcases in his office at Wittenberg, and our house does not have an entire wall of bookcases.  So, I went online and ordered several nice bookcases, but they are the kind that come in a small box and turn into 6 foot tall pieces of furniture.  Unfortunately, they neither inflate to that size nor do they expand to that size when immersed in water.  They have to be put together.

          Actually, I do not really mind putting furniture together, so long as the instructions are good and break the complicated project into very small bite size pieces.  There is something satisfying about following the instructions to the letter, from counting and identifying the 432 pieces, to attaching the parts to each other, to finally looking at the finished product, which, so long as I’ve done everything right, will actually stay finished.  Following the instructions exactly pretty much guarantees success, which is very gratifying. 

          Peter just wants just such a set of instructions this morning.  He would like following Jesus to be broken down into simple quantifiable steps so he can be guaranteed success.  “Lord,” Peter says, “If another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?”  Peter’s heart is in the right place.  He wants to make sure he forgives the right number of times, and seven is a good Biblical number.  Seven also seems like a very generous number of times to forgive, so I imagine Peter was quite taken aback when Jesus says “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.”  Seriously?  Why would anyone forgive seventy-seven times?  The instruction manual that was supposed to simplify life just got very complicated.  Then we hear a parable about a slave who begged for forgiveness from his lord, which was granted, but then refused to forgive someone who asked him for forgiveness.   The lord hands the slave over to be tortured until the slave can pay his entire debt, which will never happen since making money while being tortured is not quite possible.

          When Jesus tells Peter he is to forgive seventy-seven times, what Jesus is really saying is “Stop counting.”  Rather than count, Jesus is asking us to be a community that mirrors God’s forgiveness.   If we want instructions that guarantee success, the instructions are not going to involve numbers and measurements.  The instructions are going to tell us how to be such a community.

          In the letter to the Romans, Paul writes to a community that was in the midst of conflict over the eating of meat, and whether to treat one day as sacred or all days as equal.  In dealing with that conflict, Paul reminds the Romans that as Christians we neither live nor die to ourselves.  If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So, then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.  If those words sound familiar, by the way, they are the opening words of our funeral service.  Paul’s point is that we belong to God.  If we belong to God, we are to mirror God’s forgiveness and live in God’s mercy.  Sometimes we have to mirror that forgiveness and mercy with our actions long before our hearts are ready.  Judgement, we are reminded, belongs to God.

           Paul also reminds us, as does Jesus in his parable, that we are all ultimately accountable to God.  Forgiveness is not about lack of accountability or accepting unacceptable behavior.  When we forgive, whether or not forgiveness has been requested or deserved, we unbind ourselves from what has been done to us so we can be about the work of restoring broken community.  Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa, said “Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”  For a broken community to be restored, the first step is to end resentment and practice forgiveness.  When Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive, he is asking how many times should he forgive before just giving up and getting on with life.  Jesus’ answer is that we must never give up on restoring the community to wholeness.

          In Jesus’ parable, the wicked slave failed to show others the forgiveness he had received and the slave was bound to his debts forever.  The instruction manual Jesus gives us for forgiveness is short.  Model for the world the forgiveness we have been given.  If we want a measurement, the measurement is to forgive as much as God has forgiven us.  Jesus makes the instructions simple and clear.  

                                                                             Amen