“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors”
Matthew
I like this part of the Lord’s Prayer,
Not
because it’s any easier to live by than the rest
But
it gives me a chance to show that every
Once
in a while, we Presbyterians get it right.
You
know what I mean-
the ongoing
debate about debts or trespasses.
There
are two words in the Matthew text:
Opheilamata- which literally means debt;
And paraptomata- which means trespasses.
Debts
is the word that is used in body of the prayer
And
Trespasses is the word that is used
to interpret
what the prayer means.
In a sense
you could say that we are all right,
but in my more
prideful moments
I
take comfort in being a little more right.
And
that is the whole problem
with sin and
forgiveness after all.
We
may believe as Paul says that all have sinned
and fallen
short of the glory of God
but at least
we haven’t fallen as short
as the next
guy.
If
God is grading on a curve then at least
We
score higher than that despicable guy.
And then Jesus tells us the story of the
unjust steward in Matt 18.
Let’s
do a little math to unpack that story a little more.
The
steward owed 10,000 talents.
My Bible says that one talent is 15 year’s
laborers wage.
If we say that a laborer’s wage is
$20,000 per year,
Then fifteen years is
$300,000 and if we multiply
That by 10,000 we
get $3 billion
About the cost of a small war.
Then if we look at how much the steward
was owed by his friend
We
see that he was owed 100 denarii.
A Denarii is worth about one days
wage, say $80.
Multiply
that by 100 and you get $8,000.
Now
that’s a fairly significant debt to me
But
compared to $3 billion it is .000002%.
Practically
nothing, and that’s Jesus point.
We can focus on what other owes us and
we can be reasonably reluctant
To
forgive that $8,000 debt or sin or trespass- whatever we call it
But
it pails in comparison to the $3 billion debt
God has
forgiven in us.
And Jesus says:
Forgive us our $3 billion debt and we forgive our
$8,000 debt.
Jesus is saying that our focus should be
less on the debt,
Or sin or trespass and more on the forgiveness.
The Greek word for forgiveness, apheimi, means to let go, release, pardon.
When
we realize the meaning of the word then the prayer
make more sense
to us.
Even if God has released us from our
sin,
If we don’t release the
people in our lives from sin
Then we are still
bound to sin, or debt.
We are
still attached.
Walter Wangerin calls this living in the house of forgiveness.
If we cannot forgive others,
Then we aren’t really living
the house of forgiveness
That God has paid
for in Jesus Christ.
Think of the story of the
prodigal son
And the loving
Father who receives him
and forgives
him but the elder son stays
outside and
is unwilling to come in
to
share the celebration.
The
older son is forfeiting his right to live in
The Father’s house of forgiveness.
Our forgiving others is not required
before God will forgive us
But
it is evidence of our having received the forgiveness
God offers
in Jesus Christ.
When
we forgive others it is recognition of how much
God
has already forgiven us.
That’s where the song Amazing Grace
comes in.
John
Newton was overwhelmed by the fact that God
Could forgive actually him.
The
thought he was working on when he wrote the lyrics were:
“Only
God’s amazing grace could take a rude, profane,
slave trading
sailor and transform hi into a child of God.”
He compared his sin with the sin of King
Proclamation
in Chronicles 17:
“Who am
I, O Lord God that you have brought me thus far.”
And yet when John Newton wrote the song
Amazing Grace in 1779
The
journey of forgiveness was only beginning for him.
His
life had changed, he was transformed from slave trader
To
an Episcopal Priest and yet the demons
Of
the slavery he had witnesses continued to haunt him
It would be another 20 years and take
the life work of British statesman
William
Wilberforce to abolish the British slave trade
And
then it would take another 100 years for the
To
abolish slavery through the Civil War
And then
another 100 years to end institutional racism through the Civil Rights movement
& the work of Martin Luther King
And we are still working to end the
internal racism that plagues us.
So when we pray “Forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors”
With respect to the debt of slavery, we
are still working on
The
“as we forgive our debtors” part because even though
God
has forgiven us, we still haven’t embraced that
Forgiveness of forgiving each other.
We are still in bondage to the sin of
slavery just as we are
In bondage to any sin or debt
or trespass that we have failed
To forgive in another person.
IT
is when we can offer the forgiveness of Christ
Coupled
with our own forgiveness
That we are truly free and forgiven.
So
the challenge of this petition of the Lord’s Prayer
“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors”
is to live in
the house of forgiveness that God
offers us in Jesus Christ.
My
grandson Ashton has taught this lesson well
To all of us.
He
is a very exacting little boys and very
Aware
of when he breaks the rules.
He
was terribly worried on day and his mother
Told
him, don’t worry about mistakes
God
loves you anyway.
He
took great solace in that word of grace.
A
few days later, his mother made a mistake and was
Feeling
really bad and Aston, with his 3 year old wisdom
Said
“Don’t worry Mommy, God loves you anyway.”
This little boy was living in the house
of forgiveness because he was able
to share the
forgiveness he had experienced with his mother.
I pray that
we might all be children of God
So that we might all
live in this forgiving love.
Who are you? I am a child of
God.
What does it mean to be a child of God? That I belong to God, who
loves me.
What make you a child of God?
Grace—God’s
free gift of love that I do not deserve and cannot earn
Don’t you have to be good for God to
love you?
No. God
loves me in spite of all I do wrong.
How do you thank God for this gift of
love?
I promise to love and trust God with all my heart.
How do you love God? By
worshipping God, by loving others and
By respecting what God has created. Amen