SERMONS
Sean Gilbert – 14/9/08
The Flamboyance of Forgiveness Matthew 18:21-35
During the week, a number of folk commented very positively on John’s ‘Spring’ readingof last Sunday, and it’s with a small section of it that I want to begintoday.
“Springin its fullness is not easy to write about. Late Spring is so flamboyant thatit caricatures itself, which is why it has long been the province of poets withmore passion than skill. But perhaps those poets have a point. Perhaps we aremeant to yield to this flamboyance, to understand that life is not always tobe measured and meted out as winter compels us to do, but to be spent from timeto time in a riot of colour and growth...” The gift of life, which seemedto be withdrawn in winter, has been given once again, and nature, rather thanhoarding it, gives it all away. There is another paradox here, known inall the wisdom traditions: if you receive a gift, you keep it alive not by hoardingit, but by passing it along.
(Parker J. Palmer)
Now my hopeis that you can hear echoes of Jesus’ parable through the more contemporarywriting of Parker J Palmer. For whilst not addressing the subject of forgivenessper se, Parker is, nevertheless speaking about the very same life principle – aflamboyance of grace that changes everything; that even takes offence, hurt,indignation, bitterness and pain – the score sheets in other words – andholds them up to another window of possibility, to another way of thinking andacting.
For it is true to suggest that the forgiveness Jesus is illustrating in the parableis not at all interested in ledgers, figures, facts, balance sheets and the like.And it is not as though such forgiveness cares little for justice, it simplyseeks the freedom and the generosity of the human heart; As much for the victimas the perpetrator. Only then can the world be changed for the better. Forthis is a forgiveness offered through yielding to grace and compassion, not claimedby yet more calculation and design.
I doubt ifI’m alone in this, for one of the great personal barriers I face in thisregard, is the re-winding and the re-running of the so-called video-tape. Keepingthe offence or debt alive in my mind, my heart. And then there is the crazy imaginationgame as to what I’d say to that person(s) next time around, just to geteven, to set them straight. Vindication, victory even!
Well, you know, I’ve never known that mind exercise to bring about oneiota of satisfaction or peace, surely never resolution to the problem. It merelyreinforces the bind, both out there, but just as importantly, in here. And tobe frank, Jesus’ teaching on this matter is pointedly directed to in here.Forgive from the heart, he says, allow the (often) latent capacity that lieswithin each and every one of you to have its way and then overflow, as challengingand as scary as that act of yielding or letting go may be.
Critically, I think, a non-forgiving heart severely limits the personwe are fully able to become. It limits perspective, possibility, trust and intimacyin relationships. To pick up again the on the 4 seasons scheme, non-forgivenessis but a perpetual winter; the latent human seed unwilling to be planted forfear of the shedding, the dying to old habits and attitudes that underneath itall are crying out to be let go of. It’s all a bit like the poet Dante’sword picture of hell – not flames, forks and devils – but a thicklake of ice wherein souls are frozen in tormented shapes and poses, unable totouch another, unable to feel themselves; an alienation, distance, the very antithesisof Christ’s vision of a renewed heart and a renewed world. A world or anexperience in his mind that is born of - and shaped by - the flamboyance of God’sgrace. Never calculated, never given so as to achieve a needed result, nevermeasured out in neat 5ml portions, but merciful, overflowing, unnecessary atpoints, wild in its profusion.
You know,it is remarkable how we have made a systematic theology of such things. Or howwe have been so careful to get the theory of grace just right, thatwe still end up thinking or acting that it is only they that deserve it,who will eventually receive it, including ourselves. And so the cycle of naturegoes on around us reminding us daily of how things really are,and yet we still gather in religious groupings, pretending life is not like thatat all; some are in, many are out; some are worthy of our love, others are simplyto be avoided.
I don’tthink it’s too big a call to suggest that the whole of the Christian lifeand its potential for good and creativity pivots on this one teaching of Christabout forgiveness. For the question it poses, over and over again, is will webe a conduit, a channel, an over-flowing reservoir of God’s grace and mercyby passing such a life-giving spirit and energy along to others, often at personalcost, or will we try to cling to something that simply cannot be tamed or controlled,and in the process have a depth and richness of life pass us by?
In other words,Christianity or a life of faith is not a cautious, calculated and manageablething. It is a movement and flow of life-changing grace, into which we are alwaysinvited to plunge. The destination is never fully known, but the quality of theride is always guaranteed.
Not unlikePalmer’s description of Spring, the essence of this potential for lifeis a great ‘giveaway of blooming beyond all necessity and reason – given,it would appear, for no other reason than the sheer joy of it.’
Well, thanks be to God for that.
Let us takea few moments...
