"A SWEETHEART SERMON" 

    Rev. Jim Petersen                                                                                                                        

1^st Congregational UCC- Great Falls, MT

2-17-08

Text: Psalm 130; Matthew 7:1-5

 

Rejected by his fellow countrymen, betrayed by his followers, abandoned by his family and friends, he was mocked, flogged and spat upon.

 

A crown of thorns was embedded in his forehead. Then they led him out and crucified him; nailing his hands and feet to a cross, so when placed erect his diaphragm would press upward against his collapsed body, causing his lungs to  slowly fill with fluids and his eventual death by  drowning from the inside out.

 

The Romans used this means of capital punishment not only to rid their society of dregs and degenerates, but to serve as deterrent for other potential wrong-doers.  Crucifixion was the slowest, meanest means of death they had in their arsenal of capital punishment. It was not about being humane.

 

Jesus, upon the cross, in the peak of his personal pain, on the doorstep of death, unjustly so, says of his persecutors, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."(Luke 23:34)   "Father, forgive them..."

 

Jesus forgives his fellow countrymen, who reject him;

Jesus forgives his beloved disciples, who betray him;

Jesus forgives his family and friends, who abandon him;

Jesus forgives the Romans who crucify him.

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

 

And in this moment, Christianity is born!

 

Had there been no forgiveness, there would be no Christian story.

If Jesus had died with bitterness in his heart, there would be no new beginning.

If Jesus had died with revenge on his mind, there would be no redemption.

If Jesus had died with anger in his soul, there would be no salvation.

If Jesus had died with love vanquished, there would be no Victory.

And there would be no Christian story.

 

But Jesus days, "Father, forgive them..."

   In his pain, he has compassion.

   In his sorrow, he expresses charity.

   In his suffering, he is understanding.

   In his defeat, he forgives, and the Christian story begins.

The love of God in living and dying flesh; the love of God in historical context; the love of God incarnate in a person.

 

My friends, I've got good news and I've got bad news.  The good news is: God wrote this story for us. The bad news is:  now that we have heard the story, we are supposed to participate and practice the message.  Make no mistake.  It is risky business.

 

Maskepetoon was an Indian chief from these here parts.  One evening he was deeply moved by a Methodist missionary (not Brother Van) telling the story of Jesus' crucifixion and Jesus' dying prayer..."Father, forgive them..."

 

Maskepetoon's own son had been killed by a jealous friend.  The friend claimed the death to be an accident.  But other eye witnesses reported it otherwise to the chief.

 

The day after hearing the Christ story, Maskepetoon came upon his son's murderer, both men on horseback.  Drawing his tomahawk from his belt, Maskepetoon   approached the criminal, saying:

 

"You deserve to die.  You betrayed my trust and cruelly killed my son.  You have done me and my tribe the greatest injury possible.  But for what I heard from the missionary at the campfire last night, I would have already buried this tomahawk in your brains!   "The missionary told us that if we expect the Great Spirit to forgive us, we must forgive the greatest wrongs.  You have done me the greatest wrong... (But) as I hope the Great Spirit will forgive me, I forgive you,"  whereupon the Indian chief broke down and gave way to tears of agony and grief, healing and relief.

 

This was the conversion experience of Chief Maskepetoon, who spent the rest of his life preaching Christianity to the Indians, going forth with no other weapon than what he called,   "The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

 

You should know, on one occasion the Chief was preaching the gospel of God's love and forgiveness to his tribe's enemy, the Blackfoot, when one of the enemy chieftains picked up a gun and shot Maskepetoon to death.  He died for his Christian cause.

 

Forgiveness is risky business.  "Loves ultimate daring," as Lewis Smedes calls it in his book on   forgiveness (Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve), which we read in book study once upon a time.

 

But if the Christian story is to be told, we must do the telling; and if the Christian story is to be lived out, we must dare to play the parts.

 

Well, here we are already volleyed past Valentine's and leaning into Lent.  Let's approach "loves ultimate daring" with the win- win-win of forgiveness, in what we might call a "sweetheart sermon," for who better to forgive than your sweetheart.

 

I.  Win number one: FORGIVE FOR YOURSELF

Is this a stressful world in which we live? Do you know stress? We are all walking wounded, nursing gripes and grievances, and to one degree or another trying to get even.

 

Well, this world isn't even.  It is not a level playing field.   Hello, take note: the world is round!     We're going to have to shovel a lot of dirt to make it level.  And then we'll still lose.   For getting even is a loser's game.

 

It creates stress.  And it makes us sick.

 

We've all known people who were wronged years ago and who will not let go the pain of the perpetrator.  Their mother, or their brother, or their first husband, or their great aunt's second husband's step-daughter's son-in-law, someone, sometime, hurt them, and they won't let it go.

 

You see it eating up their lives, as plain as a tumor upon their personality, and you care enough to say something stupid like,  "Why don't you just forget it?  That was 37 years ago."

 

And they say, "Easy enough for you to say.  He didn't hurt you.  He has never apologized, he has never said he is sorry, he has never even shown remorse in the teensiest of ways.  So every time I think about it, it hurts all over again and it makes me angry."

 

Well, they are right.  They are absolutely right.  If justice is their thing, they are right and you have to agree with them.  They have been wronged, and the wrong has not been redressed.

 

But at what price?    They have become prisoners to their own past pain. Daily they re-run the tape of their rendezvous with the wrongdoing, hooked on it like some kind of pain-junky. 

 

They're right, but you have to feel sorry for them, for they have been twice victimized:

   1) by the original transgression against them;

   2) by their refusal to forgive, which I think you will agree, has a much longer and more deleterious effect.

 

The "wretched justice of not forgiving."(Smedes, 170)

 

We collect garbage and then refuse to take it to the dumps.  It's not healthy.  When we release the wrongdoer from the wrong, we cut a potential tumor out of our own person.  We set free a prisoner, and we experience our own freedom.  Said Jesus, "Father forgive them." Do it for yourself.

 

II. Second win: FORGIVE FOR OTHERS.  Do it for others.

 

If not for yourself, then forgive for others' sake.  Forgiveness is opening a door.  People get locked in the houses of their past sins and they can't get out by themselves.  They need help.  Open the door and invite them out.  This is what forgiveness does.

 

True, they might come out and commit the very same sin.  I've already told you, this is risky business.  Ask Maskepetoon.  But without forgiveness, there is no chance to begin anew.

 

We get the cart before the horse on the road to reconciliation.  We say the person must first repent, then we will forgive them - maybe.  "I won't forgive him until he apologizes;"  "she has to say she is sorry first before I'll forgive her."

 

Well, I'm sorry, but this is backwards.  We first forgive - opening the door. Then the transgressor has every good reason, and motivation, to walk through the door, to come on out and confess.

 

A woman caught in adultery is brought before Jesus.  The Pharisees are set to stone her to death.  This is justice; the letter of the Law at work.  The Pharisees are the keepers of the Law. They're right!

 

Jesus has come to fulfill the Law with the Spirit of God's love.

To the Pharisees Jesus says, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."  Silence, to their credit.  To the woman Jesus says, "You are forgiven.  Go and sin no more."

 

Gentleman Jesus opens the door for the sinful woman.  With no promise of repentance, Jesus invites the woman to new life.  Gracious, with no guarantees, the woman might walk right out the door and keep on sinning. But why would she, now that she has a choice?

 

The Pharisees are furious, as we might expect, "Who is he to forgive sinners before they repent." Catch it, that is what scripture says, "before they repent."

    

Jesus is not following due process:  first, the perpetrator must demonstrate remorse and make a pledge to repent, then, forgiveness might be considered with the sentence.

 

Jesus turns it around.   He doesn't say, "Cut me down from the cross, and I'll forgive you."  He freely forgives first, without condition.