Forgiveness

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
September 14, 2014

19 Proper A

This week, as we marked the 13th anniversary of 9/11, I am reminded of a quote from the short, furry, philosopher in the two Star Wars trilogies. In Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Yoda says to young Anakin Skywalker "Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering."  Those days from 13 years ago were days of fear that left us feeling  powerless in the face of evil. Too often, that fear did become anger, the anger too often became hate, and the hate certainly led to suffering.  As I read and hear about the atrocious acts of violence around the world today and in our country today, along with the stories of Ebola in West Africa and other instances of grave human suffering, I may not feel that same fear, but I can see the fear on the faces of those whose lives or the lives of their loved ones are in grave danger.  And I feel that sense of powerlessness-that there is nothing I as one person or even we as one church can do in the face of such atrocities.  Powerlessness may lead to fear, but powerlessness can also lead to inertia, because it seems like there is nothing one person can do or we throw up our hands in despair and wait for God to act.

In the story from Exodus, after all, God does seem to take matters into God's own hands.  The Israelites finally have Pharaoh's permission to leave Egypt, after God has taken the first born of every Egyptian family and spared the Hebrew families.  The Israelites depart quickly before Pharaoh changes his mind and sends the Egyptian army after them.  God protects the Israelites as they flee with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, preventing the Egyptians from getting too close.  When the Israelites finally reach the sea, Moses stretches out his arms and God drives the waters back so the Israelites can cross on dry land.  Then God closes the sea to drown the Egyptian army.  While part of me is appalled at a God who could not think of a more creative way to save the Hebrews than to drown their enemy, another part of me wishes God would act so decisively in the face of all that threatens innocent people now.  If God could take care of the Hebrew people then, surely God could protect suffering innocent people now.

What I can easily forget, is that God did not act alone.  While in this particular bit of the story, God does all the heavy lifting, if we look back, God called Moses from the burning bush and God told Moses to deliver the people from the Egyptians and lead them to a land of milk and honey.  Moses offers lots of good reasons why he, Moses, is not the person for the job-no one will believe him, for starters.  And Moses is not eloquent, and Moses killed a man in Egypt, so going back to Egypt is a really bad idea.  God responds to each of Moses's excuses with a counter argument, then says to Moses "I will be with you" and sends Moses on his way back to Egypt to bring God's people out of slavery.

When I wonder what one person or one church can do in the face of overwhelming adversity, I think about Moses and about what I, myself, have said over and over again.  If everyone thinks that their one little bit cannot do any good, then nothing will happen.  But if everyone contributes their one person worth, then together, we can make a difference.  If everyone says "what good can my one prayer for peace do" and no one prays for peace, then peace does not have a chance.  If everyone says "what good can my few dollars do to help relief agencies get supplies into isolated areas," no relief efforts will happen.  If everyone says "there is nothing I can do to stop racial violence" then nothing will happen.  God hears each of our excuses, reminds us that we are the Body of Christ, tells us that we have been sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, and sends us on our way to make a difference.  Inertia is not an option.

But what do we do with those very real feelings of fear, anger, and even hatred?  Another favorite quote of mine is from Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life in prison during apartheid and had every reason to be angry and bitter.  Mandela is quoted as saying "Resentment is like drinking poison, then hoping it will kill your enemies."  This morning, we hear Jesus tell a parable about forgiveness.  In the parable, the slave who was forgiven his great debt proceeded to refuse to forgive the debt of his fellow slave.  The forgiven slave has his fellow slave thrown in jail until that slave can pay his debt, despite the forgiveness he himself has received.  When the lord finds out about the actions of the forgiven slave, he hands the forgiven slave over to be tortured until he can pay his entire debt.  Because he could not forgive his fellow slave, the once forgiven slave will now be bound to his debt forever.

 If we think that forgiveness is about condoning evil and pretending that atrocious events never happened, I think it is safe to say that forgiveness will never happen, whether we are talking about terrorism, abuse, violent crime, betrayal, or any of the many human acts that cause pain in our lives.  God does not want us to condone evil or act like atrocities never happened.  But God also does not want us to let our anger and bitterness bind us to those harmful actions as the slave in the parable was bound to his debt.  The way to break the cycle of fear, anger, hate, and suffering that Yoda describes, with the accompanying resentment Mandela spoke of, is the forgiveness Jesus describes.  Just as forgiveness could have freed the slave in the parable, forgiveness frees us to make a difference as Moses did, not bound to fear, anger, hate, or suffering.  The forgiveness Jesus describes leads to peace. Peace leads to freedom.  Freedom leads to action.

Amen.