Sermon preached on September 11, 2011 based on Matthew 18: 21- 35.
What do you remember about September 11, 2001? For many of us, it was an unforgettable, gut-wrenching, world-changing day. Many of us recall exactly where we were when the four coordinated suicide attacks began to unfold. On this 10th anniversary of 9-11, as people of faith, we have an opportunity to contemplate, reflect, persevere and endure. I believe all of us --- ten years on --- can testify to our faith being forged --- not destroyed --- on the anvil of human adversity. And what can we testify too? Perhaps --- forgiveness.
It was literally out of the clear blue sky that 19 AL-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four planes. Two of the planes were intentionally crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Both towers collapsed within two hours. Hijackers crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. When passengers attempted to take control of the fourth plane, it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, preventing it from reaching its intended target in Washington DC. Each of us has our memories of that day as that morning began to unfold. Where we were. How we felt. Who we lost. What we found.
Therefore, today's assigned lesson, the lesson for churches that follow the three year Bible readings, is stunning, particularly in the context of this anniversary. Taken from the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, it is one of the sternest passages of the gospels; and it teaches forgiveness as the fundamental basis for faithful Christian practice for settling moral debts. In today's lesson, we hear the famous response of Jesus to Peter's question, "'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy seven times.'"
Seventy seven times. As many of you know Jesus uses an ancient figure of speech that means an "un-countable numbers of times." Moreover, this word choice points us to another biblical figure who also used the term, but used it in ways opposite of Jesus. In Genesis 4, we read about Lemech, a descendent of the murderer, Cain. Lemech, is a tribesman who lived by blood revenge. It is Lemech who boasts that he is sanctioned to avenge wrongdoing with unlimited violence. In the "Song of Swords" Lemech sings, "If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lemech seventy seven times." Lemech's understanding and practice of settling disputes is that of unlimited vengeance toward ones who have wronged a life.
In polar contrast, if we were to tease out the full meaning of Jesus' response to Peter's question, it would go something like this. When it comes to conflict and to moral offenses, forgiveness is to Christians as vengeance was to Lemech. As unlimited and unrestrained as Lemech was in wielding violence as a way to right wrong, so will the Christian wield forgiveness in unlimited, unrestrained, and even indiscriminate fashion. For this is God's way of curbing the lethal tendency in us all.
Lemech vowed to avenge unlimited times. Jesus commanded his followers to forgive unlimited times. This is to be our practice, our way of being in the world. We are to spread it wherever we go. The power of God is in love and forgiveness, not in vengeance and bloodshed.
Yet, here we are --- on September 11th --- the day when many of us came face to face with the spirit of Lemech, the horror of a morality of vengeance. It also was the day that we began to learn once again the difficulty of forgiveness. So perhaps we need to ask on this the tenth anniversary, "Can we forgive?"
Indeed, are we even asked to forgive not only the 19 hijackers but the person and organization behind the terror? And can we forgive the Afghani Taliban that harbored and supported Al-Qaeda? Well first, Peter and Jesus are not having a political science discussion. The question instead is a personal one. We do not know why Peter was asking this question. Was there an episode in Peter's life, a persistent memory that could no longer be contained? Was it the words of Jesus before these? Nevertheless, Jesus is unequivocal: We must forgive and forgive -- until it hurts. Forgiveness releases the power of the offender and the offense against us. It frees us to be about our business.
It certainly is not saying that everything's okay. Forgiveness is not absolution or pardon. Forgiveness is necessary because of what it does for us; if it has a constructive effect upon the offender, fine. But that's not the purpose of forgiveness. Forgiveness does not let the offender off the hook; indeed, forgiveness is not about the offender. For example, the late Pope John Paul II forgave his would-be assassin. But he did not immediately lobby for his release from prison. We may forgive the thief who steals from us, but we are not obligated to loan him money.
So, can we forgive? Are we ready to forgive? I suspect that the answer is as varied as all of us. Does that mean that forgiveness is relative, changing and changeable? No, rather forgiveness is personal.
Let me explain. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was at a cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As I was saying the words, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," as I poured dirt on the casket, the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
But let me share with you something about that funeral other than it coincided with this horrific event. The funeral was for an elderly woman. Around the casket besides myself and the funeral home and cemetery personal was the family: a granddaughter and several great grand children with their significant others. There were also a few nieces and nephews and elderly cousins. Yet, there was one person who was not there --- the daughter of the woman who died. You see, years ago this daughter came home pregnant and left the child with her parents after a few years --- never to be seen again. This elderly woman and her husband raised their granddaughter and although they never kept the circumstances of her birth a secret and insisted that they be called grandma and grandpa, this granddaughter always saw them as her mother and father.
Before the funeral I had come to learn some of the circumstances and details of this event. Although not seen, there had been some contact between the daughter, grandparents and granddaughter; especially at moments of change --- weddings, birth of children and the death of the grandfather --- yet there was never complete reconciliation among the grandparents and prodigal daughter and her child.
Nevertheless I can tell you from my vantage point, that forgiveness was discussed, started and in some ways given but that forgiveness was uniquely different for each person. Each person needed to see what forgiveness meant for them self. Although the words of Jesus is for what we strive --- unlimited, unrestrained and indiscriminate forgiveness --- it is also true that forgiveness unfolds uniquely and perhaps quite differently among all of us. In other words, forgiveness has a different meaning for those who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center than for us, who may have only stood by shocked as we watched it unfold on TV. Nevertheless we are each to struggle through the process of forgiveness. Why?
In a sermon at Harvard University's Memorial Church on September 23, 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks, the late Peter Gomes told the story of Ernest Gordon, who was captured on the River Kwai during World War II. Gomes related that "while in the Japanese prison camp, Gordon and his fellow British captives were initially very religious, reading their Bibles, praying, singing hymns, witnessing, and testifying to their faith. They were hoping and expecting that God would reward them and fortify them for their faith by freeing them or at least mitigating their captivity."
Gomes then shared how Gordon and other struggled because "God didn't deliver and the men became both disillusioned and angry. They gave up on the outward display of their faith; but after a while, as the men began tending to the needs of their fellows --- caring for them, protecting the weaker ones and in some cases dying for one another --- they began to discern something of a spirit of God in their midst. They discovered that religion was not what you believed but what you did for others when it seemed that you could do nothing at all. Compassion gave them their inner strength, and their inner strength gave them compassion."
Forgiveness is a form of compassion and it is not something to believe, but to live out, because in living out forgiveness, we find inner strength and in our inner strength we can forgive. God forgives sin and wrongdoing and our forgiveness is participation in God's larger act of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
Yes, there will be a time when we all come to be "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." There will be a time when we come to what we do not understand, what we cannot change. It is then when we discover that religion is not what we believe but what we do for others when it seems that we can do nothing at all. Amen.
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