Rev. Dustin ParkerCome Worship the Lord and Find Reconciliation
Concordia Lutheran Church
Pentecost 14, September 11, 2011
Come Worship the Lord,
Who Reconciles Everything!
Matt 18:21-35 and Gen. 50:20
† In Jesus Name †
I desire that God’s blessing for you today, is to realize that your cross is not the one which bears your sin, but the one which finds itself freed from those burdens…
The Hardest words to say….
It’s sad, so sad, It’s a sad, sad situation
And it’s getting more and more absurd
It’s sad, so sad. Why can’t we talk it over?
oh it seems to me, that sorry seems to be the hardest word!
What do I do to make you love me
What have I got to do to be heard?
What do I do when lightning strikes me
When sorry seems to be the hardest word…
Those lyrics are nearly forty years old, sung by a young British piano player, one of the heroes of my youth. I have wondered, what his partner Bernie Taupin went through to write those words. I wonder what Elton John went through, that enabled him to sing them with such desperate passionate, painful emotion?
Obviously, both men, the writer and the singer knew the pain of dealing with sin.
Where they involved in situations where they were the ones who sinned grievously against ones they loved? Or were they the ones brutalized by the sins of those who loved them?
There are days that I see the pain of those who would agree with the words of the song, that it is sorry that seems the hardest words. Yeah?
And there are days, perhaps many more, sometimes when those words are heard, other times when they aren’t, that the hardest words aren’t Sorry, but You are forgiven.
I am not talking saying “sorry” or “you are forgiven”, about the little things, though those can add up quickly, and overwhelmingly. I am talking about the times in our lives that seem irreconcilable, that the hurt and pain is just too deep. So deep that we cannot even contemplate revenge, for there is nothing that could be done, that would lay their hearts out in such pain… nor would we wish it…even on the friend/enemy who betrayed us?
Have you ever been praying the Lord’s prayer, and had all the hope sucked out of you when it gets to the part where it says, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us?
Or when you hear the last two verse of today’s gospel, “34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,12 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.”
Do those words nail you to the wall? Do they cause guilt which steals your hope? Do you know people, who need to be here, who need to come worship the Lord, but guilt caused by not being able to forgive, and think they aren’t supposed to be here until they can??
Is there hope for those who cannot forgive? Can we too… come worship the Lord?
Do we get the parable?
216 million dollars verse 12,000
Sometimes, when I hear Jesus analogy in the gospels explained, the debt owed to the ungracious servant is minimized and dismissed, as if he was owed 5 or 10 bucks. The amount is a bit more significant – about 100 days pay of a skilled worker – so 4-5 months of salary – so somewhere between 15-20-25 thousand dollars? Most of us, were we hurting, would have a hard time forgiving such a debt.
I bring this up, because I don’t want people to think that God doesn’t grasp what He is asking of us. The amount of pain and sorrow afflicted on us in this world is significant. It is not easy to bear, nor is the work of getting through it simple. It’s not something we get over in a moment or a day. Some pain takes a lifetime just to realize how deep it goes.
It is less than we owe of course, far less than the pain and anguish we cause God, but our disobedience, by our choosing to hurt ourselves and Him as we choose sin, as we choose to embrace that which would damage and tear at our lives. Let me be blunt – while sin against us may seem like a the debt that was owed to the ungracious slave, the debt he owed was 10000 talents of gold – and each talent measured somewhere between 56 pounds in Egypt and 130 pounds in Greece. If we calculated it at 80 – the debt adds up to 216 million dollars!
No wonder the debtor through himself down at the feet of the King, his master to whom he owed this debt! His pleas, His begging for patience so like those he would hear, but the difference - his Lord heard, and listened, and wasn’t just patient, the Lord forgave the debt!
So too our sin, our betrayal of God in thought, word or deed, if we dare look at it, calculates to numbers far greater than anything anyone could do to us.
This analogy, this parable then hits too close to home - for which of us easily forgives the betrayals that have littered our lives? This sin, no problem, but that one? This person’s betrayal perhaps – but that one which is so close? How do we forgive, especially if we hear the Lord’s prayer as a request to forgive us, conditional on our forgiving others?
Is there hope for those who cannot forgive, to come worship the Lord?
The answer, the hope,
Yeah, there is hope. Even in the midst of tears, even when passages like this nail us, not to just any wall, but to the cross of Christ.
That is why this passage is there, to stop us from pretending that we can bear this pain, that we are strong enough to forgive, strong enough to overcome the betrayals and strife. That we need to be nailed to that cross, united with Jesus there. For there we have hope.
You see, the 218 million dollar debt – you accumulated sin-debt was nailed to the Cross with Christ. But the 25 thousand dollar sins, and your pain was nailed there as well – it is all nailed there. Stripped from you – the damage and the pain – no matter how great – you’ve been freed from it, so why chase it down to get it back? Hear Paul’s words….
13 You were dead, because you were sinners and uncircumcised in body: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us every one of our sins. 14 He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it by nailing it to the cross; Colossians 2:13-14 (NJB)
Notice how the passage switches from singular to plural, forgiven everyone of our sins! Who is the “our”? We are! Those who Jesus died for – all of us! Including those who sinned against us. If Christ is our Lord – and theirs – If He is our Creator, if to Him we owe all our life – then debts owed to us, are really owed to Him. He’s taken them, and settled them.
If you are like me, these words sound so incredible; the relief from carrying that sin is too good to be true. We can’t believe the offer is out there, to remove the pain we feel because we’ve been betrayed, we’ve been hurt, dang it we’ve been screwed over by people, people who are supposed to love us, people so close, that only pain can be closer! How do we heal enough? How do we bear up under the pain?
We don’t. We let it nail us to the cross, we let it kill us, for it is there we are born again and we find hope.
It is there, that Jesus embraced the pain caused by every sin. We need to trust Him on that, we need to grasp that we aren’t the Messiah that will bear the iniquity of the world, He is. It is not about dealing with the pain, it is not about bearing up under it. It is about recognizing that He owns it, that He paid for it – not just the pain caused by your sin, but the sin which afflicted you as well! He is the master of both slaves, they were both indebted to Him for if owns them, what is owed them is owed to Him. He wanted to settle all the books, and He did.
Trust in Him, that as you are embraced by Him, you allow Him to lovingly release you from that which weighs you down, That’s the only way to forgive your enemies, or your loved ones – to realize that they are already forgiven.
That is the lesson Joseph realized, as he saw God at work – He was released of the resentment against His brothers. Could he have gotten enough revenge? Perhaps partially, but there is no way the vengeance would result in healing.
He had to see God’s hand at work, reconciling the books – he had to see God take that which was evil and trust that God’s hand is what made it right. He wasn’t more noble than his brothers – he was healed. It’s not about Joseph trusting his brothers again, its about his trust in the God who delivered them all, who delivers us all.
This is so radical, it’s about sorrow, and forgiveness, about compassion and mercy. It is about Jesus, the one who takes all our sins, and all unrighteousness and all burdens, and frees us to live, in peace. Everyone whom He has died for, for all for whom He is patient, not will that any should perish, but that all come to be reconciled… completely. It’s why we come here, to the altar, to the pace where His blood heals, His and forgives, and reminds us, He is the Master, the debt is to Him, and He has settled it.
Which is why we come to worship the Lord, for we all are His people, the sheep of His pasture. AMEN?
Pentecost 14, September 11, 2011
Come Worship the Lord,
Who Reconciles Everything!
Matt 18:21-35 and Gen. 50:20
† In Jesus Name †
I desire that God’s blessing for you today, is to realize that your cross is not the one which bears your sin, but the one which finds itself freed from those burdens…
The Hardest words to say….
It’s sad, so sad, It’s a sad, sad situation
And it’s getting more and more absurd
It’s sad, so sad. Why can’t we talk it over?
oh it seems to me, that sorry seems to be the hardest word!
What do I do to make you love me
What have I got to do to be heard?
What do I do when lightning strikes me
When sorry seems to be the hardest word…
Those lyrics are nearly forty years old, sung by a young British piano player, one of the heroes of my youth. I have wondered, what his partner Bernie Taupin went through to write those words. I wonder what Elton John went through, that enabled him to sing them with such desperate passionate, painful emotion?
Obviously, both men, the writer and the singer knew the pain of dealing with sin.
Where they involved in situations where they were the ones who sinned grievously against ones they loved? Or were they the ones brutalized by the sins of those who loved them?
There are days that I see the pain of those who would agree with the words of the song, that it is sorry that seems the hardest words. Yeah?
And there are days, perhaps many more, sometimes when those words are heard, other times when they aren’t, that the hardest words aren’t Sorry, but You are forgiven.
I am not talking saying “sorry” or “you are forgiven”, about the little things, though those can add up quickly, and overwhelmingly. I am talking about the times in our lives that seem irreconcilable, that the hurt and pain is just too deep. So deep that we cannot even contemplate revenge, for there is nothing that could be done, that would lay their hearts out in such pain… nor would we wish it…even on the friend/enemy who betrayed us?
Have you ever been praying the Lord’s prayer, and had all the hope sucked out of you when it gets to the part where it says, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us?
Or when you hear the last two verse of today’s gospel, “34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,12 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.”
Do those words nail you to the wall? Do they cause guilt which steals your hope? Do you know people, who need to be here, who need to come worship the Lord, but guilt caused by not being able to forgive, and think they aren’t supposed to be here until they can??
Is there hope for those who cannot forgive? Can we too… come worship the Lord?
Do we get the parable?
216 million dollars verse 12,000
Sometimes, when I hear Jesus analogy in the gospels explained, the debt owed to the ungracious servant is minimized and dismissed, as if he was owed 5 or 10 bucks. The amount is a bit more significant – about 100 days pay of a skilled worker – so 4-5 months of salary – so somewhere between 15-20-25 thousand dollars? Most of us, were we hurting, would have a hard time forgiving such a debt.
I bring this up, because I don’t want people to think that God doesn’t grasp what He is asking of us. The amount of pain and sorrow afflicted on us in this world is significant. It is not easy to bear, nor is the work of getting through it simple. It’s not something we get over in a moment or a day. Some pain takes a lifetime just to realize how deep it goes.
It is less than we owe of course, far less than the pain and anguish we cause God, but our disobedience, by our choosing to hurt ourselves and Him as we choose sin, as we choose to embrace that which would damage and tear at our lives. Let me be blunt – while sin against us may seem like a the debt that was owed to the ungracious slave, the debt he owed was 10000 talents of gold – and each talent measured somewhere between 56 pounds in Egypt and 130 pounds in Greece. If we calculated it at 80 – the debt adds up to 216 million dollars!
No wonder the debtor through himself down at the feet of the King, his master to whom he owed this debt! His pleas, His begging for patience so like those he would hear, but the difference - his Lord heard, and listened, and wasn’t just patient, the Lord forgave the debt!
So too our sin, our betrayal of God in thought, word or deed, if we dare look at it, calculates to numbers far greater than anything anyone could do to us.
This analogy, this parable then hits too close to home - for which of us easily forgives the betrayals that have littered our lives? This sin, no problem, but that one? This person’s betrayal perhaps – but that one which is so close? How do we forgive, especially if we hear the Lord’s prayer as a request to forgive us, conditional on our forgiving others?
Is there hope for those who cannot forgive, to come worship the Lord?
The answer, the hope,
Yeah, there is hope. Even in the midst of tears, even when passages like this nail us, not to just any wall, but to the cross of Christ.
That is why this passage is there, to stop us from pretending that we can bear this pain, that we are strong enough to forgive, strong enough to overcome the betrayals and strife. That we need to be nailed to that cross, united with Jesus there. For there we have hope.
You see, the 218 million dollar debt – you accumulated sin-debt was nailed to the Cross with Christ. But the 25 thousand dollar sins, and your pain was nailed there as well – it is all nailed there. Stripped from you – the damage and the pain – no matter how great – you’ve been freed from it, so why chase it down to get it back? Hear Paul’s words….
13 You were dead, because you were sinners and uncircumcised in body: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us every one of our sins. 14 He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it by nailing it to the cross; Colossians 2:13-14 (NJB)
Notice how the passage switches from singular to plural, forgiven everyone of our sins! Who is the “our”? We are! Those who Jesus died for – all of us! Including those who sinned against us. If Christ is our Lord – and theirs – If He is our Creator, if to Him we owe all our life – then debts owed to us, are really owed to Him. He’s taken them, and settled them.
If you are like me, these words sound so incredible; the relief from carrying that sin is too good to be true. We can’t believe the offer is out there, to remove the pain we feel because we’ve been betrayed, we’ve been hurt, dang it we’ve been screwed over by people, people who are supposed to love us, people so close, that only pain can be closer! How do we heal enough? How do we bear up under the pain?
We don’t. We let it nail us to the cross, we let it kill us, for it is there we are born again and we find hope.
It is there, that Jesus embraced the pain caused by every sin. We need to trust Him on that, we need to grasp that we aren’t the Messiah that will bear the iniquity of the world, He is. It is not about dealing with the pain, it is not about bearing up under it. It is about recognizing that He owns it, that He paid for it – not just the pain caused by your sin, but the sin which afflicted you as well! He is the master of both slaves, they were both indebted to Him for if owns them, what is owed them is owed to Him. He wanted to settle all the books, and He did.
Trust in Him, that as you are embraced by Him, you allow Him to lovingly release you from that which weighs you down, That’s the only way to forgive your enemies, or your loved ones – to realize that they are already forgiven.
That is the lesson Joseph realized, as he saw God at work – He was released of the resentment against His brothers. Could he have gotten enough revenge? Perhaps partially, but there is no way the vengeance would result in healing.
He had to see God’s hand at work, reconciling the books – he had to see God take that which was evil and trust that God’s hand is what made it right. He wasn’t more noble than his brothers – he was healed. It’s not about Joseph trusting his brothers again, its about his trust in the God who delivered them all, who delivers us all.
This is so radical, it’s about sorrow, and forgiveness, about compassion and mercy. It is about Jesus, the one who takes all our sins, and all unrighteousness and all burdens, and frees us to live, in peace. Everyone whom He has died for, for all for whom He is patient, not will that any should perish, but that all come to be reconciled… completely. It’s why we come here, to the altar, to the pace where His blood heals, His and forgives, and reminds us, He is the Master, the debt is to Him, and He has settled it.
Which is why we come to worship the Lord, for we all are His people, the sheep of His pasture. AMEN?
