“Lord, Teach Us To Pray: Forgive Us As We Forgive” by Rev Cody Sandahl – March 6, 2016
Introduction
We are still making our way through the Lord’s Prayer. Last week we talked about praying for our daily bread as a daily shopper prayer, not a once-a-week Costco run. But we were also encouraged not to get to bread too soon in our prayers – it’s in the middle for a reason.
To get us into the next part of Jesus’ prayer, let me tell you a story. In middle and high school, there was another boy in our youth group who rubbed me the wrong way. Every time I was around him alarm bells were going off in my head. Over the years, my instinct was proven correct. I won’t go into the details, but there were complaints from most of the female members of the youth group. When I think about this boy – and now he’s a man somewhere – alarm bells still go off in my head. I can still get worked up thinking about it.
And so, thinking of this boy, I really wish I could change the Lord’s Prayer. More of a tweak really. Jesus probably wouldn’t even notice. I’d much prefer “forgive us our debts but don’t forgive our debtors.” Just a small change. Doesn’t that sound better? We should start a petition.
Unfortunately that’s not what Jesus said. Listen to why the ancient theologian Augustine called this, “the terrible petition.”
Matthew 6:9-12
9“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Debts, Sins, Trespasses
One of the common questions pastors get about the Lord’s Prayer is: “should we use forgive us our debts, forgive us our trespasses, or forgive us our sins?” The answer is, of course, “Yes!” All three can make a pretty good case for themselves.
I mentioned last week that the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew is slightly different than the version in Luke. Let me read you Luke 11:4: “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
I don’t know about you, but I dislike that version even more than Matthew’s version. If I pray Matthew’s version – “God forgive me as I forgive” – then I’m nervous that God will actually do that. I’m afraid he’ll use my own record of forgiveness to determine how much to forgive me. Scary.
But if I pray Luke’s version – “God forgive me because I forgive everyone” – well then I’m lying to God in prayer. I don’t think that’s an especially good idea. In fact, I think lying is covered by one of the Ten Commandments.
But did you notice that Luke says both “sins” and “debts?” Archaeologists have discovered a lot of letters from early Christianity, and many of them have the Lord’s Prayer on them. And some of the letters say “debts.” Some of the letters say “trespasses.” And some of the letters say “sins.” All three were in use. The early Christians were emphasizing three different aspects of our need to forgive and our need for forgiveness.
Sins = Damaging Relationship with God OR Pointed People Away from God
So let’s look at sins first. Sin is anything that separates us from God. Which is only almost everything we do, so we have that going for us. But sin is also any way that we point people away from God through our actions, inactions, words, and attitudes. And when others do that to us, that’s when we need to “forgive those who have sinned against us.”
Now I know that no one here has been un-Christ-like to others, but has anyone been un-Christ-like to you? Have they had no patience, sapped your joy, destroyed your sense of peace, been impatient, been unkind, done wrong or unjust things, been harsh, or simply lacked self-control toward you? Then they’ve sinned against you.
The first text we read today is interesting in this regard. The king forgives the slave his 10,000 talents worth of debt until the slave refuses to forgive a 100 denarii debt. To put that into scale, a denarii was one day’s wage for a laborer – minimum wage if you will. So if someone owed you 100 days’ worth of minimum wage, that’s like $12,000. That’s a considerable sum!
But a single talent is worth 20 years of minimum wage labor, and the slave owes 10,000 talents. The math is a little fuzzy, but that’s somewhere between two and seven BILLION dollars’ worth of debt. So he’s not going to be able to pay that back no matter how hard he works.
So the point of Jesus’ story is that it’s good to be the king. Oh wait, no.
The point of Jesus’ story is that we owe such a debt to God it is incomprehensibly bigger than what anyone else could possibly do to us. Again, $12,000 is no joke – I think most people would notice if they had loaned $12,000 to someone and it wasn’t paid back. Other people can really and truly do us harm. But the weight of our sins toward God – against whom we can sin without saying a word, without anyone else noticing – makes any sins against us pale in comparison.
Jesus is saying – if God can forgive you $4 billion, can’t you forgive your $12,000? If God can forgive you for everything you’ve thought and said and done, can’t you forgive someone else for what they’ve said and done against you?
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Trespasses = Damaging Relationship with Neighbors
The next version – trespasses – really focuses in on those $12,000 damages. Trespassing primarily means to enter another person’s property without permission. It’s primarily about damaging our relationships with our neighbors.
We have a neighbor who is incredibly kind and gracious. And whenever the snow is very deep he will bring his heavy-duty snowblower and help out five out of the six houses around him – luckily we’re one of the five he helps. But it’s fascinating to see him clear off the sidewalk of one house, turn off the blower, and then turn it back on after he crosses the property line of that other house. Clearly there’s some major hurt, major damage between those neighbors. And clearly there hasn’t been any forgiveness in either direction yet.
Contrast that with two neighbors when we lived in Bethlehem. One neighbor had a basketball goal. The other had a swimming pool. And in between them was a pretty high, maybe five or six foot wooden fence. But they had installed a ladder that straddled the fence from one side to the other, and whenever I walked by I would often see the families playing together on one side of the fence or the other. Even when the other family wasn’t there, it wasn’t uncommon to see them playing in the neighbor’s yard.
How’s your own neighborhood? How’s your relationship with your neighbors? Is it closer to the snowblower story or the ladder story? Any trespasses you’ve committed or that have been committed against you? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Debts = Obligations
In our own back yard in Bethlehem some prior owner had installed a much smaller fence. But curiously there was a gate at the very back going from our yard to the house behind us. I’m guessing that at some point our two houses had a similar relationship – families going back and forth between the yards using that gate. But that wasn’t the case for us. The neighbor behind us only spoke to us once in over six years – and that was because the tree pruning company wouldn’t trim the tree that started in our yard and stretched into his without permission from us.
So there wasn’t any damage there – no trespassing to forgive. But I wonder if forgiveness is still needed in that case. Do we need to ask for forgiveness if we never get to know our neighbors? Do we, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city on a hill that cannot be hidden – that’s how Jesus describes the church – do we have some kind of obligation to do better than that?
And that brings us to debts. Because a debt is really an obligation. It is a weight, a burden, it can even be a form of bondage. So what are our obligations – especially with our neighbors? What do we owe our neighborhood? Our community? What can they expect of us? If you watched the sermon teaser video this week you know these three stories.
This past week one of Charlie’s teachers figured out that I’m the pastor here, and she said, “Oh that’s such a beautiful building!” And you know what? She’s right! We do have a beautiful building. Thanks to our Properties and Renovation Committees for making sure that’s the case. In fact, when people figure out where our church is I hear two statements more than any others – “That’s such a beautiful building” and “Oh, I park there when I eat at Romano’s.”
But is beautiful architecture what we owe to our community? Is that enough for us to feel like we’ve met our obligations, our debt, to our community?
A couple of months ago I talked with a man who had visited our church and he told me how much he enjoyed the music. He liked that it was traditional but still very alive. He loved that we sang the hymns he knew. And you know what? He’s right! We do have great music. Thanks to Mary and Susan and Karen and everyone in our various choirs and thanks to the Worship Committee for making sure that’s the case. In fact, many people who visit our church or become new members at our church say they came here because we have traditional music done very well.
But is good music what we owe to our community? Is that enough for us to feel like we’ve met our obligations, our debt, to our community?
About a month ago a man walked in on one of my night meetings and said, “I heard this is a place where I could get some help. I don’t have a place to stay tonight, but I also just need to talk to someone.” And you know what? He’s right! He was able to get some help – not as much as I would have liked, but enough for a night. And we were able to talk a little about Jesus Christ and how he can change the trajectory of someone’s life.
And I wonder if THAT’S what we owe to our community. Do we owe it to our community to be a place where people can get help? Do we owe it to our community to be a place where you can hear about Jesus Christ and how faith in him can change whatever trajectory you’re on?
That’s how the prophet Micah summarized the nation of Israel’s obligation in Micah 6:8 – “What does the Lord REQUIRE of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
God was a little more confrontational when he spoke through the prophet Amos in chapter 5: “21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 24 BUT let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
In other words, God said – “You’ve got a beautiful Temple, but that’s not what you owe me. You’ve got great worship and great music, but that’s not what you owe me. You owe me a concern for justice and a concern for people’s relationship with God.”
So, God, forgive us our debts – forgive us for wherever we’ve ignored our community’s need for justice. Forgive us for wherever we’ve ignored people who need to know Jesus. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Summary
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. God clearly cares about our relationships with our neighbors and our community. So God, I pray that we – as people and as a church – would let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
