Your Kingdom Come: Forgiveness

each week we pray the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

Hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come,

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

 

Your Kingdom come

 

This is the theme I am working through this Lent,

Your Kingdom come

 

As we read some of  the Parables of Jesus recorded by Matthew. and they are Kingdom parables.

they start ‘the kingdom of heaven is like..’

I wonder what it means for us to pray  Your Kingdom come

 

 

Now the first part of today’s reading is not part of the parable, but leads into the parable.  the disciples are asking about forgiveness, and Jesus does some teaching, and then tells a story – nothing new in that approach, we see it often from Jesus.

 

the teaching part is often referred to in matters of church discipline as a good model, if some sins against you, hurts you go and speak with them, if they don’t listen take a few others with you, etc.

it means no gossiping, no sorting people out as to whose side people are on. it also means trying to maintain a good relationship with the person who hurt you – now that is hard, and I am not sure it is always good news:)

and the bit about treating people as tax collector, look up how Jesus treats Tax collectors! and a hint – he doesn’t push them away or shun them!

 

moving now to the parable.

the kingdom of heaven is like a king …

a king who forgives a debt, a big debt, a debt so big the servant could never have paid it back. various people have tried calculating how much the debt was, in the translation we heard this morning in it ten thousand bags of God, other translations have ten thousand talents. it equates to 150 - 200,000 years of wages for a labourer. I wonder how the person was allowed to get into that kind of debt.

the king was merciful.

 

and we think what a lovely story.

we have sinned against God and God is merciful and forgives us.

well that is true,

but I think this story has a lot more happening in it.

 

we could look at the economic system that allows a person to get into such a  huge debt in the first place – a debt that they are never going to be able to repay.

 

but let’s stay with the forgiveness theme today.

 

the first servant is forgiven a ridiculously big debt.

then he refuses to forgive  a much smaller debt.

and he is thrown in prison.

 

in the Kingdom of Heaven, forgiveness is received and given.

 

earlier this week  at the Ash Wednesday service people had the opportunity to write down a hurt,  a burden, something they needed to be forgiven for, or something they needed to forgive; then we burnt the pieces of paper.

Some people commented that they wished it was so easy.

 

often forgiveness is not easy,

but:

 

forgiveness does not ask you to forget what happened

forgiveness does not ask that you stay in an abusive situation

forgiveness does not ask you to pretend it never happened

 

forgiveness means not letting the hurt dominate your life

forgiveness means letting go of the desire for revenge

forgiveness means  freedom for you to be yourself

 

when we hurt someone, we need to ask for forgiveness, but we also need to take responsibility for what we have done.

 

my experience is that some people don’t forgive – they hold onto hurts, they let the pain envelop their lives, and they become bitter.

 

the other pattern I have noticed is that some people won’t accept forgiveness.

each week, we pray a prayer of confession, and the forgiveness we have through Christ is announced. but I know some of you struggle with the idea that God does actually forgive your sins. so each week I will continue to declare to you, that God forgives our sins.

 

in the Lord’s prayer we pray  ‘ your Kingdom Come’ .

What does this parable tell us about the Kingdom of Heaven?

 

it is like another line on the Lord’s Prayer:

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

 

this parable is a warning of what happens when we don’t forgive others.

when we hold onto hurts,

when we hold onto judgement,

when we hold onto the desire for revenge,

we are not free to live in the forgiveness God offers us

when we don’t forgive others, they can be hurt by that, but so are we.

 

The person who holds onto the anger and resentment, is not at peace.

 

God offers mercy and grace, but we are expected to do the same.

 

the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of forgiveness.

 

do we really want to pray : your kingdom come?