Back to Sermon Index Great House of Prayer... Forgive us March 9, 2008 Over the last few weeks we have been looking at the Lord's Prayer, using as our focus point the image of a House, a great house of prayer. We began with the foundation...a building can only go as high as the foundation will support. In order to grow tall, you must dig deep. The foundation Jesus lays for our life of prayer is Who God Is. Jesus said when we pray, begin by saying Our Father. But the word he used for Father is not formal, but very informal and intimate. It might be Pop, or Dad, or even Daddy. The Jews at the time of Jesus felt that God was so holy and lifted up, and that we were so insignificant that we could not even address God by the word used for GOD. Jesus invites us to come to know a God who loves us, who cares about us and knows us better than we know ourselves. It is incredulous for many to believe that the God of the universe, who set the galaxies spinning and is beyond time...knows your name, knows your favorite fruit and the very number of hairs on your head! He is your ABBA, your father...your Pop. The foundation for our faith is knowing who God is. Jesus' outline of prayer for us, the Lord's Pray, takes us to the family room...where the will of God is lived out. This is how we choose to live our lives...in dependence and obedience...or not. Thy will be done, thy kingdom come, on Earth as it is in heaven. Really, in my life as it is in heaven is more accurate. The great family room of faith is where we seek to live out the will of our Father...to love one another, to bear each others burdens, to be full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. To follow the example of Jesus and to live in the power of his Holy Spirit...to enables and empowers us. The house, of course, has a kitchen...where we receive our daily bread. This simple line is full of significance...to pray for what we need, not just what we want...our daily bread, and occasional cake! To remember that we pray not just for our individual lives and needs, but that we in Christ belong to a family who's creed is love. And one of the most loving things we can do for one another is to pray. We pray for our collective needs...for peace, and health and joy and love... We live in the kitchen, live in the presence of Christ in our lives and in our church...here is where the family receives it bread, a loaf given and broken for us, a cup of forgiveness poured out on behalf of us and the whole world. And that brings us to today's image, the roof. It is that which is over all, and under which we find shelter from the storms of life a-raging. Here is where the rain is channeled away and where the sun does not beat down...here is the roof. Grace. We live under the Grace of God...it is that which covers us all. It is expressed here in the simple line: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. As an aside, you may wonder why some folks say debts and some trespasses...some are wrong and some are right! No, just kidding. The Lord's pray is shared for us in two Gospels and this one word tells us that he Gospels, although inspired by the Holy Spirit, still have the fingerprints of their writers upon them. As each writer shares the pray, they use a word that expresses the meaning implied but with their own experience and life history present. Luke was a doctor, who saw much suffering. He uses the term Trespass...thinking of how people abused themselves and each other, going over the line so to speak...and he sees forgiveness and grace in relational terms. Whereas Matthew was a tax collector by trade, a person who always made a list and who kept a ledger. When he thinks of forgiveness and grace, he thinks of our debts to God and to others and how those debts might be forgiven. Whichever language used, debts or trespasses, the language speaks of seeking God's forgiveness and giving God's forgiveness. We ask for God's forgiveness. We don't earn it or deserve it, but it is rather a gift that God gives our of love for us. When we ask for God's forgiveness, we are acknowledging our sins and sinfulness. It is important that we acknowledge this. John writes in his first letter: "If we claim that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." He goes on, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word has no place in our lives." (1 John 1:8-10). When we ask for forgiveness, we seek Mercy and Grace. Mercy is when we are stopped by the Highway patrol for going 85 on 280. Mercy is when the cop decides to give us a warning instead of the ticket we deserve. There is no point in making excuses. We might say that there were lots of other people going 85, why stop me? We would, of course, be correct. 85 is the real speed limit! But the fact that many others are doing it too does not count with the cop, nor with my mother! We know that the speed limit is 65...and we are going 85. We deserve the ticket. We can't argue that everyone is doing it, or that we are no worse than anyone else driving that day! As my mother would say, that is no excuse...if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do that too! Nor is it helpful to argue that not only were many going 85 along with us, there were some who were doing 95 or 100! Why not ticket them! The cop might say, If is see them, I will, but today I saw you. While the fine they pay will be more than the one for 85, both are still infractions. An argument that we are not as bad as someone else does not make us good, regardless of how hard we make the comparison. It might make our conscience feel somewhat better, but in regards to God, it does not work. God judges us each one on our own sin...what we have done that we ought not, and that which we should have done that we did not do. The Bible is clear, no one is perfect...we all are sinful and human and we fail occasionally. All fall short of the glory of God, we all need God's forgiveness. We stand before the Judge as willful sinners, in need of his mercy and desiring his grace. And it is there for the asking. God is rich in mercy...God is the Warren Buffet or Bill Gates of Mercy...rich in mercy and abundant in grace. God does not require that we do penance or in some way either pay for our sin or earn his Grace. It is given freely and completely. And God forgives completely. As far as east is from west, so far have I put your sins from me say the Lord, and I will remember them no more. This is the first part of the prayer. We live under the roof of Grace...it covers all we do and shelters us in love. But the second part of the prayer is harder..."As we forgive those who trespass against us". For some, it is hard to ask God to forgive their sins..to acknowledge their need for grace...but for most it is hard to forgive others when they sin against us! It is hard for us to live out the Gospel of Grace in connection with others. But it is important. So important that Jesus told a parable to illustrate it. Peter had asked how many times he must forgive someone who sins against him. When can I lower the boom, Jesus! Jesus told this parable: There once was a man who owed the king a huge sum of money...he owed a million dollars, and could not pay. He went about his life and tried his best to not be noticed by the king, but one day it a day of reckoning came. The man is dragged before the king, and he does the only thing he can....he begs for mercy. He does asks for time to pay the debt...and something extraordinary happens. The king is moved with compassion and forgives the debt. Did his ears hear right...your debt is FORGIVEN? Not restructured. The interest rate was not ratcheted down. The payments not extended...or even the balance reduced. No, the king forgave the debt completely. WOW. How happy the man must have been! He had his life back! Instead of having to work for the rest of his life to pay off the debt, he could start fresh...a new beginning. And how did the man make that beginning? By grabbing someone who owed him money. As he left the palace, he came across a person who owed him a few hundred dollars....not millions, not hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands but a few hundred dollars. The person falls to his knees and begs...using the exact same language the man himself used with the king... And what does the man do? He grabs him and shakes him and demands his money. He puts the man into the debtors prison until he can pay! What a cold and unmerciful scrooge this man was! BOO!! Well the story does not end there...the master hears of it and brings the guy in...and punishes him for his hard heartedness. The moral of the story...we are all the first man. We have received mercy and grace from God that is beyond your comprehension. Our debt, which was huge and overpowering and burdensome...is not restructured, he does not give us a payment plan where we work off our sins through good works and self sacrifice...NO. he forgives us completely, and restores us to new life. We are the man. We must understand this if we are to forgive others. As we experience and understand God's grace, that enables us to be people of grace towards others. How can we forgive others? It begins with understanding that we ourselves are forgiven...and not just a little. Jesus died for us, for me! And for this other person who has wronged me. They too are God's child, who is in need of grace. We must forgive, because we have been forgiven. But a word of caution. Forgiveness is often a process that takes time. We in the church want to forgive too quickly. There often needs to be a time of healing before their can be forgiveness. The wound inflicted must heal before we can truly put it behind us and then forgive completely. We might begin to forgive the other person, but as our wound continues to bleed and hurt...the feelings of anger and hurt continue to come and grow in us. So, forgiveness is a process at times, and it cannot be rushed. If we try to forgive too soon, then our forgiveness becomes trivialized and shallow. The deeper the hurt, the longer the healing and the longer it takes to truly forgive from the heart. And if the person continues to wound you and cut deeper and deeper...you can't forgive until you're out of danger and the wounding stops. And it is ok to be in process and say, I am trying to forgive God, help me forgive this person as you have forgiven me. That is the beginning of the process...forgiveness is born in prayer and grows as we continue to pray...until it becomes full blown. Help us forgive, Jesus, as you have forgiven us. The more we grow in Jesus' love and forgiveness, the more we can forgive others. And as we forgive others, the world sees the grace of God lived out in the real world. Back to Sermon Index