Pentecost 17 – 1 October 2017 – Year A

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

 The text for this meditation is written in the 21^st Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 23 – 32:

²³ And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” ²⁴ Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵ The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸ “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. ³⁰ And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. ³¹ Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. ³² For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Broken Promises – I wonder how many songs and plays and statues and other works of art have been based on broken promises.  Most Country & Western music focuses on broken promises.  The Blues as well often mourn broken promises. 

The Bible too is full of broken promises.  How often did the Children of Israel promise, “All God says, we will do?”  How often were they then found worshipping the Golden Calf, Baal, Molech, or some other pagan god, a short while later?  Ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in Eden, breaking promises is what we humans do best. 

Today’s Gospel speaks to broken promises.  The Temple Authorities made promises to follow the laws of Moses. Yet, when the very fulfilment of those laws stood before them, they refused to listen.  Jesus wanted to take them deep into Holy Scripture, but they would have none of it.  They had their own agenda and they were blind to the truth that stood before them in the person of Jesus Christ.

When [Jesus] entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  Now, as the temple authorities, they were responsible for the teaching that happened in the temple area.  They had the right to ask Jesus this question.

Jesus honoured many ancient traditions by responding with a question of His own.  Basically, He offered them a sample of His teaching method.  Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”  In a way, Jesus was saying, “My authority and John’s authority come from the same place.”

It is at this place in the reading that we learn the true agenda of the temple authorities.  They don’t really care about the truth.  Their dialog is all about their standing before the people.  And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”  Here is a true broken promise.  Instead of following the laws of Moses and honouring the truth, these temple authorities honour their own agenda.  Their God is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but their God is their own agenda.

Since they were unable to answer Jesus’ question, there was no reason for Jesus to answer them.  Instead, Jesus told a parable to illustrate their hard hearts.

The story of the first son in the parable from today’s Gospel is very much like the story of the Christian life.  At first we all say “no” to God.  We are all full of that rebellion against God’s will.  We are like that stubborn two year old that is totally bored unless he is getting into trouble.

Then God brings His Gospel to bear.  He may bring it to us through our parents, our friends, or even on a rare occasion, a total stranger.  Eventually, we come to the font of life at our Holy Baptism and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ makes its way into the heart and we begin to question our rebellious thoughts.  The sweet Gospel eventually brings the word “yes” from our hearts to our lips.  We are like that first child in the parable who said, “No way!” but then kept his father’s will.

May I say for those Christians who were baptised as infants; this process is a natural progression that is often taken for granted. Personally, I was a married adult with two children when I came to the baptismal font of grace and I can honestly testify that the presence of Holy Spirit bought me a calm, strength and confident belief that changed my life forever.

The temple authorities were like the second son.  His sin is a little more sophisticated.  He has learned to lie convincingly and break promises.  I am sure that all of us know people who will make any promise just to get us out of their hair.  We hear phrases such as; “No worries.”  “Sure, that’ll be great.”  These people are pleasant enough and they seem very sincere.  You will hear them say, “Yes, we’ll be there Sunday morning,” but then Sunday morning comes and they aren’t there.  “We’ll come with our children to pre baptism classes,” or “Yes we would love to come to Bible Study” but when the time comes, for whatever reason they just don’t make it.

When Jesus told that parable in today’s Gospel, His primary audience was those temple authorities who challenged His authority, but He speaks to us as well.  The war that began in us on the day that the Holy Spirit planted faith in our hearts continues and a day doesn’t go by that we do not play the part of both sons.  At times we scream “NO” in God’s face until He draws us to Himself through the words of the Gospel and He gives us the ability to say, “Yes.”  Other times we say, “Yes!” with our lips, but our hearts are far from God.  These two children will live in each of us until the day we die.  They are products of the sinful nature that our parents give us at conception.  They battle against the holy nature God gave us when the Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts.  These two natures will battle within us until the day we die.

Fortunately, there is a third son.  He is not in the parable.  Instead, He is the one who first told it.  This Son said, “Yes!” To His Father and then obeyed Him perfectly.   His Father said, “You need to be human.”  The Son said, “Yes father!” and was born of the Virgin Mary.

The Father said, “You need to humiliate yourself under the law.”  The Son said, “Yes father!” and lived a life that was perfectly free from sin.

The Father said, “You need to exchange your perfection for the sin of the world.”  The Son said, “Yes father!” and John the Baptiser baptised Him.

The Father said, “Now, carry that sin to the cross.”  The Son said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

The Father said, “Now, take that sin to the grave.”  The Son said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

The Father said, “Now, proclaim your victory to the world.”  Then Jesus rose from the dead and he said to His disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Each time we come to the alter to partake of the body and blood of God’s perfect Son who takes away the sin of the world, we share a meal with all the company of heaven, including those loved ones who have gone before us into heaven, as we eat the bread and drink the wine that deliver the true body and blood of our Lord and older brother Jesus Christ to our lips.  This foretaste of the heavenly meal strengthens our faith in our older brother who obeyed the Father perfectly.  It strengthens our faith in Jesus Christ.

Our sin is gone.  Jesus Christ, God’s Son, in perfect obedience to His Father has taken it away.  It is left behind in the grave.  It will forever remain dead and buried.  We, on the other hand, will rise from the dead just as our older brother rose and live with our Heavenly Father, our Older Brother Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit forever.  We know this because God never breaks a promise.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pentecost 16 – 24 September 2017 – Year A

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 20^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 1 - 16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. ² After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ ⁹ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰ Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹² saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

This Gospel passage is part of a longer teaching.  Jesus has basically been teaching that everyone who enters the kingdom of God does so by a miracle of God.  He has recently taught that the chances of a rich person entering heaven are not even as good as the chances of a camel passing through the eye of a needle.  The thing is that the culture of the day believed that rich people were especially favoured by God and so when they hear Jesus saying that rich people face impossible odds of entering heaven, to them Jesus was saying that no one has a chance.  He then went on to say, ^{[Matthew 19:26]} “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  With these words we learn that our entry into the kingdom of God is a miracle that only He can perform.

Jesus then told us something else that we, as humans, have trouble understanding.  He said, ^{[Matthew 19:30]} “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  This He illustrated with the parable we heard in today’s Gospel.

Right across modern Australia where fruit and vegetables are grown, we see a large annual influx of backpackers from all over the world who come to work at harvest time. Recent proposed changes to the ‘back packer’ tax laws brought strong protests from the farmers, as they totally rely on these people to get their crops in and processed. They desperately and successfully opposed the tax thereby maintaining the incentive for the back packers to travel to Australia for the harvest.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus began talking about a similar situation.  The ‘casual workforce’ would gather at the local market, which was usually located on the main road that entered the city from the countryside, waiting to be hired.  The rain was coming and the grapes had to be harvested ASAP or they would be ruined. Because of the great demand for Casual labourers the landowner went to the market early in the day and hired all those available. The working day was 12 hours, from 6:00am to 6:00pm.  Over the day he keeps returning to the market to see if there is more; and because he is desperate to get the grapes harvested, he even went back at 3:00pm and 5:00pm.

I reality, it was unheard of to hire anyone at the eleventh hour (5:00pm)… an hour before the end of the working day.  The hour would pretty much be over by the time they walked out to the vineyard, located the foreman, and received their instructions.  There wouldn’t be much time left for them to do any productive work for the landowner.  Never the less, Jesus tells of a landowner who is still hiring at the eleventh hour.

So the landowner in Jesus’ parable really starts to confuse everyone when he hires people at the ninth and eleventh hours, but that confusion turned to bewilderment when they hear his pay policy.  When it is time to pay the workers at the end of the day, this seemingly irrational landowner paid the eleventh hour workers first and he paid them a whole day’s pay!  As his paymaster continued to pay the workers, the labourers who had been in the vineyard since dawn began to think they were in line for a bonus.  After all, if the casuals who barely had time to walk out from town got a day’s pay, then they should get a lot more.  As it turned out, their rationalisations were unrealistic.  They also received a day’s pay … no more … no less.

The grumbling began.  Notice that the problem is not the amount of the pay.  The landowner paid according to their agreement.  They cannot say they were robbed.  Listen to the complaint again.  These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. – “Equal to us” Outrage; envy – ‘Surely we are more entitled; more important; after all we have been here the longest!!

Envy is a nasty business: Search the pages of the Old Testament: Out of envy Cain murdered his brother Abel; Saul originally loved David but when Saul “saw that David was “a man after God’s own heart” he was filled with envy and wanted to kill him. Joseph’s brothers became envious of him and bound him and threw him in a hole and left him for dead. 

The devastating effect of envy is there for us to read, and yet it remains a powerful force of self-destruction in our society especially today.  There is envy and loathing of people simply because they are rich, or they got the promotion or they seem more popular or for whatever reason.

Sadly even within the Christian Church this emotion festers and causes division and hurt. People get envious of those who have responsible positions, the best worship centre, God given talents etc. etc.  This is sad in any organisation, but it is especially sad in the church because there is one and only one person who is to have influence in the church, and that is Jesus Christ!  How much grief, anguish, and division do we experience because we do not look to Jesus Christ and His Word as the ultimate influence among us?

The parable Jesus told in today’s Gospel challenges this.  I like to use that old Australian idiom for a person who seems easily fooled – ‘A soft touch’ In last week’s parable the King who forgave the large debt seemed to be a ‘soft touch’ and now in today’s parable we have a boss who pays a days wages for one hour’s work; he has to be a ‘soft touch’. Unfortunately, that is a very human perception; because in Biblical terms, when we really look at it, the person in a parable who we consider to be a ‘soft touch’ usually represents God.  The work day in this parable represents a lifetime.  Sometimes parents bring their children to the font and those children belong to Christ throughout their lives and on into eternity.  These are the 6:00am labourers.  Then there are those times when people in their adult life or on their deathbed repent and are baptised. These are the ninth and eleventh hour labourers; and our loving God welcomes these people into His kingdom joyfully. The point is that God can draw people into His church; His earthly Kingdom at any time in life … even at the last minute.

In the end, God pays us all with the same pay.  It is the pay that Jesus earned when He took our envy and all our other sins to the cross.  With His suffering and death He earned the wage of forgiveness, life, and salvation for the world.  He certified the validity of His victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil by rising from the dead on the third day.  All the people in the vineyard receive the same pay, life forever in the gracious presence of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This parable illustrates the idea that we are not more important than other Christians simply because we have been a Christian for a long time or hold some official office in the church.  In the same way, we are not less important than or subordinate to other Christians simply because we are relatively new to the Christian faith.  How often I have been approached by those who are full of despair over their loved ones who have not yet come to the font of grace. This parable reminds us that it is never too late. Jesus calls us to pray and believe that as long as a person is still alive, the Holy Spirit can work faith in them.

On two occasions whilst holding studies on this parable, the comment is made “That means I can do my own thing now and worry about church and salvation later in life!” – Really? Do we shun Jesus and play Russian roulette with our eternal salvation.  Do we know if we will wake in the morning?  Can we be sure of a safe trip home from church?   Now may be our eleventh hour.  Now is the day of salvation.

When Jesus said, ^{[Matthew 19:30]} “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  He was speaking to all mankind. He was speaking to the Jews of the day who considered themselves superior in God’s sight and marked exclusively for salvation. He was speaking to us who, through the weakness of our own human nature, tend to compare ourselves with others and classify ourselves in terms of priority and importance. Jesus is telling us that it is dangerous to compare ourselves to other people.  When we do that, we take your eyes off of Jesus.  Our salvation is not based on how much better we are than the other person.  It is based on the price Jesus paid on the cross.  He is the one who earned our salvation.  He is the object of the faith that saves … the faith that the Holy Spirit works in us.

Dear friends, the idea that our work for the church earns us points with God is so seductive.  Only the power of God that comes from the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ can save us from its subtle attraction.  The love that flows from that cross shows us that God already holds us in the highest place in His heart.  It is this love at work in us that motivates us while we live on this earth.  It is this love at work in us that will keep us in His arms forever. 

God continues to search the market place of this world looking for workers for His vineyard. He may find workers in the market place early in the morning in infants.  The Holy Spirit may find us in the market and give us faith at the exhalation of the last breath before sun down.  He may find us sometime in between. When He does His Holy Spirit works faith in us through the Word combined with the water of Holy Baptism. No matter when we receive this faith, we know that all the guilt of every sin is gone – taken away by the Son’s sacrifice on the cross.  We know that, by His resurrection and ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ has prepared a place for us.  Whether our faith is old or young, we all receive the gift of life everlasting.  Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pentecost 15 – 17 September 2017 – Year A

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 18^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 21 – 35:

²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

²³ “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.²⁵ And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. ³² Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. ³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Jesus begins the parable with these words: “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.  When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.”  Ten thousand talents is a lot of money.  Based on historical and archeological records a talent is a unit of weight of approximately 30 Kilos.  Based on the current value of gold that adds up to $12 billion dollars.  Even Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world would have to admit that this is a lot of money.  There would be a very few people on earth today who could even pay the interest on this kind of debt.

You can be sure that the servant was not carrying a $12 billion debt. Here Jesus is using symbolic language, that can be easily understood, to convey His point. Within the context of this parable, Jesus is saying, “This massive debt is the equivalent of your sin.  Your sin is a debt that you can never, ever repay no matter how hard or how long you work at it.”

Then there is the penalty for such a large debt.  “His master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.”  The king had the right to sell this man and his family into slavery.  Even that would not cover the debt.  Once sold into slavery, the man and his family would never be free again.

Within the context of this parable, Jesus is pronouncing judgment.  “You deserve nothing but the slavery of the eternal punishment of hell for your sin.  Just as the debtor in the parable will never be free from slavery, you will never be free from your punishment in hell.”  

Then the debtor tried to bargain with the king.  “The servant fell on his knees, pleading to him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’”  At this point in time you might be tempted to think, “How foolish!  There is no way that this servant can ever deal with that debt.  He is desperate and lost touch with reality”

Within the context of this parable, Jesus asks us to imagine that we are that man.  With these words, He asks, “How often have you tried to bargain with God?  How often have you said, ‘I promise to do better.  I promise not to be so bitter.  I promise to explain things in the kindest way.  I will try really, really hard to be a better person.”  Within the context of this parable, Jesus is telling us that we are just as foolish as the servant in the parable when we even begin to think we can pay back the sin debt we owe to God.  Not only can we not even make the interest payments on this debt, but our daily sins continuously add to the principal of the debt we owe.  Jesus is telling us that we have lost touch with reality if we think we can pay God back.

The king had compassion on the servant, and out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.  No earthly king would ever do something so foolish.  The generosity of this king is beyond human comprehension.  To use an old Australian idiom, the king appeared to be a ‘soft touch’.

One way to find God in a parable is to look for the person who is the ‘soft touch’.  Jesus tells us that the king corresponds to God the Father, but we can also know that the king represents God because He is a ‘soft touch’.

Think how big God is in the context of this parable.  Each and every human being on the planet owes that kind of massive sin debt toward God.  Not only that, but all the people who have ever lived on this planet and already died also owe that kind of debt to God.  Then add in all the billions and billions of people who have yet to be born between now and the day Jesus returns.  Each and every man, woman, and child owes that kind of sin debt to God.

If 10,000 talents represents just one person’s sin, then the sin debt of the world is several orders of magnitude greater than the national debt of the combined capitalist countries of the world.  In fact, we are talking several orders of magnitude greater than the combined total of all the debt of every government, every corporation, every individual, and every other kind of debt that there can be.  Just think of that, and the thing is, God has released and forgiven it all through His Son, Jesus Christ.  It is all free and clear in His sight.

Near the end of His time on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished!”  This sentence, “It is finished,” is one word in the original Greek, ‘tetelestai’.  That word was also used when a debtor paid his debt.  The person who held the debt would write, “It is finished,” on the contract.  That meant that the contract had been paid in full.  When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He did the impossible.  He paid the sin debt for us.  When He said, “It is finished,” He said our sin debt is paid in full.

There are many people who do not come to church because they do not understand this parable.  Some do not understand the massive sin debt they owe and they actually believe they can pay it off.  They believe that they do not need the forgiveness of sins that Jesus gives away in this place.

Then there are those who understand that the debt of their sin is a crushing debt, but they believe they must deal with the debt before they can gather with God’s people.  They do not understand that the church is not a debt collection agency, but a debt forgiveness agency.  They do not understand that church is the place for sinners who carry an impossible debt.

Then there are those who do attend church regularly, but still don’t understand how serious their sin is.  One of those sinners in church is the ordained leader of their church who stands before them and pronounces that God’s forgives all their sins in the name of Jesus.  Never the less, these people do not really appreciate the magnitude of that forgiveness because they do not appreciate the magnitude of their sin.  They hear the words of forgiveness, but they do not value the forgiveness.  The rest of the parable is a warning to these people.

You see, as Jesus continued the parable, the servant who received the forgiveness of that unimaginable debt did not pass that forgiveness on to his fellow servant.  “He found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’”  A denarius was the going wage for one day’s labor.  So, a hundred denarii would be a hundred days’ pay … about the equivalent of the price for a small hatchback car.  It is not a small debt, but it is payable.  It is certainly miniscule compared to the massive debt that the king forgave earlier in the parable.  Never the less, the servant had no mercy on his fellow servant.  He demonstrated that he did not appreciate the forgiveness his king had for him.

We live in a culture that surrenders a lot of power to those who are easily offended.  There is a great temptation to follow the lead of our culture and get offended at our fellow men.  We all sin against God daily and most of those sins are also against our neighbor.  This also means that people sin against us daily.  Sometimes those sins hurt … a lot.  It would be easy to take offense at those sins … to hold a grudge.  After all, someone has violated our rights.

Jesus warns of the danger in such an attitude in the parable.  When the king learned of the ingratitude of the servant, “[He] summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’  And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.”  With these words, Jesus teaches us that those who receive His massive gift of forgiveness have an obligation to share that gift with others.  Jesus not only gives forgiveness to us, but He also gives forgiveness through us.  The forgiven sinner will readily forgive those who sin against him.

This is impossible for the natural human being.  We enjoy our grudges too much.  A well-known quote of the eminent US First Lady and Diplomat was Eleanor Roosevelt was ‘that it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness’.  The only problem is that many of us really, really enjoy cursing the darkness.  Even though anger, malice, spite, revenge, and all the other aspects of an unforgiving heart will eat us alive from the inside out, we still seem to get some justification out of nursing that grudge.

That is the reason the cross is so important, for it is on the cross that Jesus earned the lavish, generous, outrageous forgiveness that He pours out on us every day.  We receive that forgiveness by faith as we hear the Word preached and consume the Word in Christ’s body and blood.  It is that forgiveness that frees us from our destructive desire to nurse that grudge.

The Old Testament reading from Genesis ^{50: 15-21} gives us a wonderful example of the Holy Spirit at work in the life of Joseph.  Joseph looked forward to the salvation that God promised to Adam and Eve and to his great grandfather Abraham.  He looked forward to the Seed that would crush the serpent’s head.  By that faith, Joseph saw God’s hand at work even when his brothers sold him into slavery.  His brothers hoped that a life of slavery would kill Joseph, but Joseph loved and forgave them.  By his faith in the coming Messiah, Joseph freely and lovingly forgave his brothers.

While we live in this world, we live in a war zone.  We are both saints and sinners.  One of the battles in that war pits our natural desire to nurture a grudge against our holy desire to forgive.  Only the reconciliation with God that Jesus provided through His death on the cross gives us the victory.  Once again, we see that God does all the work.  It is His forgiveness working through us in Word and Sacrament that forgives our brothers and sister in Christ.  It is His forgiveness that gives us the victory and reconciles us with God and all humankind forever.  Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen