Sunday 09/07/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Do we really love and forgive each other?”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 149
New Testament Scripture Lesson: Romans 13:8-14
Gospel Lesson: Mathew 18:15-20
Welcome
once again on this morning, my brothers and sisters. This day we find ourselves
in the Thirteenth Sunday after the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, that day so
long ago that Holy fire moved among the disciples and the early followers of
Jesus Christ. On this day the Christian Church was born.
This morning
though, we find that Jesus is teaching his disciples and his followers, and is
teaching us even here today, a tough and a hard lesson. It’s a lesson on love,
humility, and forgiveness.
With this
said, how many of you have ever offended someone or sinned against someone?
While it would be hard to consider every single sin that we have ever committed
in our lives, and while all sin is damaging to us, sometimes our sins cause
massive collateral damage to other people.
For those of
us who have committed sins like that, which could be connected to
relationships, to work, to our friends, to our family, and etc., have we asked
for forgiveness? Or do we have more of an attitude of, “Can you believe what he
said to me! I’m never speaking to him again!” Do we have forgiveness, or do we
have anger, resentment, and brokenness?
Perhaps we all
on some level wrestle with having some unforgiveness in our hearts towards what
others have done to us? Or perhaps we have not fully forgiven ourselves for our
own past sins and transgressions?
Imagine if we were
all to put on white robes, like the one I am wearing this morning. Imagine if
our sins became like dirt, clothing dyes, and general filth. How many of us
could truly say that our robes would look this white, as the one that I am
wearing this morning.
I think for
me, I attribute the whiteness of this robe many Sundays to Clorox Bleach, not to
my own perfection.
To me though,
I consider Jesus Christ to be the “Clorox” that makes the white robe of my soul
clean, because through Jesus Christ all I have done is forgiven, if I but ask.
All of my past transgressions are wiped clean, if I but just ask.
Brothers
and sisters, our sins bind us like a disease, a disease that we can never fully
recover from. Like a dirty robe, we are covered in it. Through Jesus Christ
though, we can obtain true freedom, true forgiveness, if we but ask for it. The
real question I have for us then, and for me personally, is do we ask Jesus for
forgiveness, and “Do we really love and forgive each other?”
Perhaps we
mean it when we say it to God, or perhaps we mean it when we say it to the
person or persons that sinned have against us. Yet I have found that
unforgiveness can be something that cripples our joy, something that cripples our
faith, and something that can put a barrier between us and the living God.
Brothers and
sisters, I myself for example, believe that perhaps I have sinned against you.
For while I will be here a year as of tomorrow, when I came to this church appointment
I was so focused on what I could do to “grow” the church. I was focused on the
programs we could implement, the ways in which we could draw people in, and how
we could get this church back to a full-time glorious church. In fact, I was so
motivated and so focused on this, it might have seemed like at the time that
you had just hired the “Tasmanian Devil” to lead your church.
In my businesses,
in my exhaustion from seminary and other things, I might not have always been
the best listener this past year. I might not have spent enough time with all
of you getting to know you, and for all of this I ask your forgiveness. I have
forgiven myself, and I hope that you will forgive me.
So, maybe I had it a little wrong my
brothers and sisters. For before we can grow our church, we must continue to
let God grow us from within. We must constantly seek our own spiritual
transformations, so that we can help to transform others. To truly grow even
deeper and larger as a church, I would assert that we truly must “love and
forgive each other.” For there is no such thing as perfect church, but there is
a perfect God.
Now that I am
off my soap box though, what unforgiveness do we all have? What strongholds in
our hearts have we built up? What anger, what frustration, or what unrepentance
do we bear within ourselves? Further, what is our unforgiveness doing to us,
and doing to our relationships?
In our reading
from Psalm 149 from this morning, the Psalmist tells us, “Praise the LORD! Sing
to the LORD a new song; sing God’s praise in the assembly of the faithful!” How
many of us at times don’t really feel like praising the Lord, or don’t really
at times feel like singing “to the LORD a new song?” Perhaps we come to this
place this morning with burdened hearts, with sin, with anger. Jesus tells us “My
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” “Do we really love and forgive each
other?”
The Apostle
Paul in his Epistle or Letter to the Romans from this morning tells the church
in Rome to not have any debt to anyone, except for the debt which is our “obligation
to love each other.”
You see this
church, and the people in it have done a lot for me and for my wife. Yet you
don’t want me to pay for this love, you just want to be loved in returned. You
just want God to be glorified in return. For then the Apostle Paul says, “Whoever
loves another person has fulfilled the Law.” Love and forgiveness, they are not
an option, they are a requirement.
The Apostle
Paul then says, “Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love
is what fulfills the Law.” The Apostle Paul then tells us that God’s Kingdom is
near, and that we must awake from our sin and our blindness. Specifically, the
Apostle Paul says, “So let’s get rid of the actions that belong to the darkness
and put on the weapons of light.” He then finishes by telling us to live for
others, to live for Jesus Christ.
My brothers
and sisters, we all have sin, but “Do we really love and forgive each other?”
Here was I
would ask you to do right now, turn to the person who sitting to the right of
you right now, and say “I love you and forgive you.” Now turn to the person to
the left of you and say, “I love you and forgive you.” Brothers and sisters,
this is gospel, this is why he came, this is why he hung on a cross, and this
is why he loves us so much. He came to love, heal, and forgive. “Do we really
love and forgive each other?”
In looking
more closely at our reading from the Gospel of Matthew from this morning, Jesus
says to his disciples and followers, “If your brother or sister sins against
you, go and correct them when are you are alone together.” How many of you just
love to be told when you are screwing up and sinning against someone else? You
to huh?
Jesus then
says, “If they listen to you, then you’ve won over your brother or sister.” Jesus
then says, if this doesn’t work though, then take one or two other brothers or
sisters with you, and make sure you have witnesses to what happens. If this
fails, Jesus then says to have the whole church address it. If the person still
won’t listen to the whole church, and if there sin is still causing untold
damage, Jesus said, “treat them as you would a Gentile and tax collector.”
Jesus says this because, if we don’t
love each other and forgive each other, than we could very well be causing the
collateral damage of sin. When our hearts are hard and unforgiving, we do
damage, and unfortunately sometimes churches have to tell a person, “brother or
sister you are causing so much harm, will you not repent, will you not forgive?”
Jesus then
tell us that “whatever you fasten on earth will be fastened in heaven. And whatever
you loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven.” To if your heart is hard on
earth, Jesus said you will have to account for this, but if you repent,
forgive, and love, and in turn loosen your heart, your reward in heaven will be
great.
Jesus then
tells us to ask God for what we need, and that if two or more are gathered in
his name, He will be present. How can we truly feel the presence of Jesus
though, if we have a hardened and a “fastened” heart that is unforgiving and
unrepentant?
I would like to close this message by
telling you a story called “Shoes on the Mantlepiece,” by author unknown. Here
is how it goes: “There was once a very poor orphan who wanted nothing more in
the world than to belong to a family. Finally, his opportunity came. He was
eight years old and a family wanted to adopt him! Introductions were made,
papers were signed, and just 6 days after his eighth birthday he left for his
new home. He took with him his hope and his possessions – the old worn and torn
clothes he was wearing and a single soft toy. His new parents were excited to
have him with them, and wanted him to feel like one of the family. A special
celebration dinner was held, he was given his own room, and he was introduced
to the other kids in the street. His new parents took those old clothes, threw
them away and bought him beautiful new clothes. They bought him a bike and more
toys, and pretty soon he began to feel just like all the other kids in the
neighborhood, loved and part of a family. One thing however was curious. The
young boy’s old shoes, the ones with the big holes in them, weren’t tossed out
with the rest of his clothes. His new father placed them on the mantelpiece. It
wasn’t long before the newly adopted son found out why. Every time that boy did
something wrong his father would go and get those shoes and say “Look at all
we’ve done for you. We took you in when you had nothing, but look at how you’ve
behaved”
“Unfortunately we do the same thing
all too often in our relationships. We dredge up the past and throw it back in
someone’s face, never letting them forget how much they’re in our debt.
Forgiveness means throwing out the shoes as well as the clothes, refusing to
dredge up the past and make it a reason for action in the present.”
My brothers and sisters, “Do we truly
love and forgive each other?” Amen.
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