Sermon for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost
Forgiveness and Mercy
By The Rev. Christie Webb -
He was the beloved son, the youngest, the baby. His father’s love for him was shown in so many ways, but outwardly signaled in the coat of many colors he was given to wear. His older brothers were tired of it, tired of not being the favorite. So they took him out into the wilderness, they put him in a pit, they sold him into slavery, and brought the beautiful coat home to tell their father a story of great woe about the death of his youngest son. Many years passed. That youngest son sold into slavery worked his way up in the world until he was a trusted advisor of the ruler of a nation. When famine came in his homeland, his brothers came to seek resources and compassion from that ruler, and came face to face with their brother, now the advisor, now the one to decide if they ate or didn’t, if they lived or died. It was a moment where retribution was possible, but forgiveness and mercy were chosen instead. Family was reunited, but the older brothers didn’t trust it. When their father died, they thought they needed to renegotiate forgiveness. But the youngest son held firm, forgiveness was theirs. “Do not be afraid! Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good. So have no fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” This is the story of Joseph and his forgiveness and mercy.
It was an outrage, the shooting of 9 people gathered for Bible Study in a church in Charleston. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Lee Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson were murdered by a self-professed white supremacist on June 17, 2015. The accused stood in the courtroom. The families of the victims were gathered there as well. The daughter of 70 year old Ethel Lance stood and spoke. “I forgive you,” she said. One by one the relatives of the Emmanuel church victims each stood up and said the same. I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you. A powerful story of forgiveness and mercy.
In October of 2006 a gunman entered a one room Amish school house in Pennsylvania and opened fire. 10 girls tragically lost their lives. One would expect their families might point fingers, cast blame. But something different occurred. The Amish community reached out with grace and compassion to the family of the gunman, who had taken his own life after killing the others.
The very afternoon of the shooting the grandfather of one of the girls who was killed expressed forgiveness toward the killer. That same day Amish neighbors visited the Roberts family to comfort them in their sorrow and pain. Forgiveness and mercy.
“‘He had many wounds.’ She spoke with the precision of a coroner. ‘In the upper abdomen were five wounds. These wounds indicated that different weapons were used to stab him, or a group of people stabbed him.’ Mrs. Mhlawuli continued her harrowing testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She spoke about the disappearance and murder of her husband, Sicelo.” After recounting the brutality, “it was nineteen-year-old Babalwa’s turn to speak. She was eight when her father died. Her brother was only three. She described the grief, police harassment, and hardship in the years since her father’s death. And then she said, ‘I would love to know who killed my father. So would my brother. We want to forgive them. We want to forgive, but we don’t know who to forgive.” (The Book of Forgiving by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, pgs 1-2) This is mercy, this is forgiveness, just one example of many in post-apartheid South Africa, where instead of revenge and retaliation the people chose another future. Desmond and Mpho Tutu write: “We chose forgiveness. At the time, we knew that telling the truth and healing our history was the only way to save our country from certain destruction.”
These are stories of great, amazing forgiveness, and yet, I struggle sometimes to forgive simple things, like the person who cut me off in traffic, or more complicated things, like people who hurt me by their actions, whether they intended to or not. Just this past week in fact, a previous hurt reared back up, one I thought I had left behind, forgiven enough. But as I experienced frustration and anger beyond what was reasonable, I had to admit to myself that I have work to do in forgiveness.
Desmond Tutu writes in The Book of Forgiving, “I would like to share with you two simple truths: there is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no one undeserving of forgiveness.”
There is nothing that cannot be forgiven.
There is no one undeserving of forgiveness.
When I’m in need of being forgiven, I long for these things to be true. When it's me who is to do the forgiving, well, I resent their truth.
In our gospel text today Peter asks Jesus: “how many times must we forgive? Is 7 enough?” And Jesus says, “Not quite. Seventy seven times.” Or it could be 70 times 7. Which is to say–Stop keeping count! The parable that comes next reminds us that we who are greatly forgiven by God are called to offer that same forgiveness to others. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Forgiveness is part of our DNA as Christians. It is a very unique part of our tradition, at the heart of who we are. We regularly confess our sins and receive forgiveness. And we are grateful for it. But, I know I’m not alone when I say, offering forgiveness is hard. It is Hard Work. We don’t always know how to do it.
But there are answers for that, paths for that. In fact, Desmond and Mpho Tutu outline a Fourfold Path in their book The Book of Forgiving. First we tell the story as an act of getting our dignity back after being harmed, and as a way to begin to understand and make meaning out of our hurting. Second, we name the hurt, so that we can begin to heal. Third we grant forgiveness, because choosing forgiveness is how we find our freedom, recognize our shared humanity and begin to tell a new story. Finally, we renew or release the relationship.
Friends, while I was delving into this text this week, a deep longing came upon me. I want to have within me the ability to live the big forgiveness stories I shared at the beginning of this sermon, and smaller ones as well. But to do that I need to work on forgiveness, learn more about it, practice it intentionally. I suspect there are others among us who need to do that work too. I’m inviting you all into exploring with me. On 3 Tuesday evenings at the beginning of October we will do a book study on The Book of Forgiving. It is available on Amazon. It is available as an audio book on Audible. If you are a Santa Monica Public Library user, it is available on Hoopla. Get the book. Read part one, do the exercises and then meet us on Tuesday, October 3 for our first discussion. Look for details to come.
The truth is God is a God of mercy and forgiveness. And because of God, we too are called to be a people of mercy and forgiveness. God is at work in us, calling us to the act of forgiveness. Join me in walking ever more into the path of forgiving.
Amen.
The Rev. Christie Webb
Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
September 16 & 17, 2023
