Sixth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, July 7, 2013
Fr. Todd Bragg
St. Margaret Anglican Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
"First be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer thy gift." (St. Matthew 5:20 ff)
I don't watch much TV but when I do, I notice the commercials that have the "fine print." You know what I'm talking about, I'm quite sure. Car commercials have that "fine print" there at the end and also the commercials for the new medications, they're famous for trying to fit in the "fine print" there at the end as well. They do this in order for them to safely say that they told you everything even though they either speak so fast that you can't understand them or that the print is so small that you can't really read it anyway.
Now, Christianity has "fine print" as well. Look at today's Gospel passage as well from St. Matthew. Right from the beginning, we hear Our Blessed Lord telling the disciples: "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (St. Matthew 5:20). Now, don't get me wrong, Salvation is freely offered by God, so don't go and report me to the bishop when he is here next month. But we shouldn't really be surprised about the "fine print."
Can you think of another example where there is "fine print"? Think hard. OK, how about the Our Father. In the Our Father, we pray the following " . .. and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us . . ." Now, for those of us who have prayed the Our Father thousands of times over the course of our lifetime, it is entirely understandable that we pass over that very small two-letter word "A-S" when we pray that prayer. But that small word "as" when you think about it is very important. That small word "as" has really huge implications when you think about it. In St. Matthew's Gospel, we hear the following: " . . . and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors . .. ." (St. Matthew 6:12) In other words, this small word "as" becomes a qualifier. We are praying to God to be forgiven AS we forgive others. Thus, when you look at it in that sense, if we are not willing to forgive others who have committed wrongs against us, we really can not, in all fairness, expect God to forgive us.
In fact, to show how seriously Our Lord considered this fact, if you look at when Our Lord taught the Disciples the Lord's Prayer, immediately after He was finished praying, He stated: "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses." (St. Matthew 6:14-15) It really doesn't get more clear-cut than that. Our Lord is cutting straight to the point: Our Heavenly Father will forgive us . . . . but we have to be willing to forgive others as well. That is the "catch," if you will. That's the "fine print" to this forgiveness business, so to speak.
Now, think back to last week when we were talking about St. Peter. We stated that St. Peter was a wonderful, faithful Apostle but we also know that St. Peter's mouth got him in a lot of trouble sometimes. For example, remember the story where Our Blessed Lord was spending time when the Disciples and they were speaking about forgiveness and St. Peter thought that he would impress Our Lord when he responded that we should forgive "seven times." And Our Lord immediately responded that we should forgive "seventy times seven times." Then after that, He told the story of the servant who owed the king 100,000 Talents and this servant knew that there was no way that he could ever re-pay this huge amount and he went and ask the king for forgiveness and the king took pity and forgave the whole debt. Then this very same servant who had just been forgiven this huge, massive debt, when he saw a fellow servant that owed him a very small amount in comparison, this servant demanded him to be thrown into prison until he paid back the debt. Thus, the servant who was forgiven much did not himself show much forgiveness.
After Our Lord had spoke this parable, He stated: "So likewise shall My Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses." (St. Matthew 18:35)
We are told in the Good Book that we are made in the image and likeness of God. We know that God is not physical in the sense that human beings are, so logically speaking, we can only infer that being in God's likeness comes about through the way in which we show love and show forgiveness to those around us.
St. Luke tells us the following: "Be ye therefore merciful as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive and ye shall be forgiven. Give and it shall be given unto you . . . For with the same measure that ye mete withal shall it be measured to you again." (St. Luke 6:36-38) Again, Our Lord gets straight to the point: don't expect a cup full of forgiveness from God, if you yourself only give a thimble full to your brothers and sisters. In other words, we will be given from God what we have first given to others.
Please visit the St. Margaret Anglican Church website where you can learn more about our parish, find out how to visit us in person, and find out the latest news. Click on the following link:
No comments:
Post a Comment