Genesis 18:20-33
Colossians 2:6-15
Luke 11:1-13
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Have any of you ever felt mad before? How come? Did you ever feel mad because someone did something that hurt your feelings? Or because someone was mean to you? So have I. Sometimes I have felt so mad that I just wanted to stay mad forever and ever. Does anyone know what Jesus wants us to do about our mad feelings? He wants us to let go of the mad feelings and to forgive the people who have hurt our feelings or been mean to us. Now I think that is a very hard thing to do. And once when I was little and I was very, very mad I just didn't want to forgive the person I was mad at. It's really, really hard to stop being mad and to forgive someone who's hurt you isn't it? Well, that time when I was little, my Uncle Dick showed me a way to get rid of the mad so I could forgive the little boy that I was mad at. Do you see this rock? It's just an ordinary rock isn't it? Well, what my Uncle Dick told me to do was to talk to Jesus and ask him to help me put all of my mad feelings into the rock. And then that night when I went to bed, he told me to put the rock on my window sill and ask Jesus to please ask the angels to take the mad away. And you know what? The very next morning when I woke up I wasn't very mad anymore - and I felt a whole lot better too, cuz that mad had gotten very big and icky inside of my heart. So here is a rock for each of you - and when you are sooo..... mad that you don't know how to get rid of it and forgive someone, you can ask Jesus to help you put your mad in your rock so that the angels can take it away |
Luke's version of the Lord's prayer is the shortest of the two forms we read in the Gospels. Matthew's version is longer and more like the one we pray together every Sunday before the Eucharist. But Luke's version has all the essential elements.
First, acknowledging and honoring the God who created us.
And then asking for some things ...
for God's kingdom to come ...
for our daily needs to be taken care of - so we needn't worry about them ...
for forgiveness of our sins.
And finally he says to ask God to be with us at those times of trial that will inevitably come along.
Now that seems like a lot of asking... and I don't know about you, but I often find myself having a great deal of trouble asking for things. Yet God really does want us to ask for the remarkable gifts that God so much wants to give us - heaven on earth, sustenance, freedom from worry and fear, merciful forgiveness of our sins, and God's faithful presence when the going gets tough.
And all we have to do is to acknowledge the holiness of our God. After we do that, we can ask for whatever we want and it will be given us. That's what Jesus says in today's Gospel - we don't even have to be all that persistent, like that poor fellow trying to get his neighbor out of bed. All we have to do is ask:
Ask, and it will be given you;
search, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened for you.
God's there, always has been, always will be... no beginning, no end...ever faithful. So why aren't things working out better?
I don't think that most of us have too much trouble with recognizing that God is holy...but it sure doesn't seem like God's kingdom is much closer than it was 2000 years ago when Jesus walked the earth... and a whole lot of people in this world go to bed hungry and cold and homeless every night... and hard as I might try, seems to me that when I ask for God's forgiveness, I still keep right on sinning - doing all those things that I know darn well I shouldn't do, and not doing those things I know I should.
And, by the way, just where is God when things get really tough? If God were around, wouldn't the tough times be going away? Wouldn't we have heaven on earth - God's kingdom in all of its glory...?
Well, I'm sure that you all have noticed that I left something out of the Lord's prayer... That part about us forgiving those who have sinned against us. Ah...there's the catch. We're supposed to be forgiving too. In fact, Jesus is pretty darn clear about that ... we're not to hold grudges and resentments...we're to pray for our enemies and to forgive them - those who have taken advantage of us, those who have hurt us or our loved ones; those who have lied, cheated, and stolen.... We're supposed to forgive them all...
But how do we do that?
But thankfully, most of us don't have to face the task of forgiving someone who has destroyed someone we love. Most of us are faced with far less devastating situations. And yet, how do we forgive? How do we do it?
How do we forgive the receptionist at the doctor's office who says - loudly enough for everyone in the waiting room to hear - "are you ever going to pay your overdue bill?" Or the Secretary of the Rotary Club who always seems to get the minutes down accurately, except when it's about the project that you want to get started? Or the person at church who doesn't like how things are being done, who complains, but isn't willing to help out or do anything to make things different.
How many resentments do we allow to linger on - never resolved, never forgiven, until they almost seem to become a part of the very air we breathe? The bickering and petty things that we allow to cloud our vision, and our hopes for the future... The turf battles that result in feelings being hurt, and people leaving the church... The back biting and gossiping that spreads rumors and half-truths...creating tension and friction that stifles energy and enthusiasm...
Oh, I'd love to say that I am above being small and petty...that I can easily forgive those who slight me, or who accuse me of being biased about something, or who suggest that I'm just really trying to feather my own nest... I'd love to say that I don't hold grudges, that I am free of resentments about old hurts and wounds. But I can't say that... I struggle every day with these feelings... And sometimes I just don't want to give them up. There's a certain energy about nursing a grudge - it can become almost like a companion that's familiar and comfortable - and keeps me clear about just what's what.
And yet, there are amazing accounts of forgiveness throughout history and throughout the world.
I've been reading Desmond Tutu's book, No Future Without Forgiveness. It's the remarkable account of how an entire country is working to change from despotism, hatred, an
d horrifying violence against it's own people to a democracy based upon compassion, honesty, and forgiveness. It‘s the account of a nation that's intentionally seeking to embrace God's commandment to love and forgive one another - rather than to seek revenge... rather than to nurse bitterness... rather than to extract so-called justice. The path South Africa has chosen to reach this goal is certainly not Minnesota Nice. They aren't pushing the past under the rug as though it never happened, pretending that all is just fine now, refusing to acknowledge the still festering wounds. Nor are they demanding retribution, often called justice in today's world.
Through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that was chaired by Desmond Tutu, they have offered those who were brutalized and nearly destroyed under apartheid, the opportunity to tell their stories - to share their truth for the entire country and world to hear. They have also offered the perpetrators of the violence of apartheid the opportunity to receive amnesty by sharing honestly the entire extent of their appalling actions,.
When they began, many people scoffed at this effort to find the via media - the middle way - between national amnesia on one hand - and trials for crimes against humanity that seek to punish and brand people as outcast - on the other hand. The book is filled with amazing accounts of forgiveness and more importantly - of what follows forgiveness - reconciliation and restoration - the meeting of victim and perpetrator in the context of God's love ...
In the book, the Rev. Tutu quotes the statement of the wife of a man who was tortured and murdered by the police during the time of apartheid:
This man's daughter also spoke to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She knew the details of her father's brutal murder. She had lived through all the harassment and humiliation that her mother suffered at the hands of the Security Police. She told her story as the child of an activist, what it meant in the warm support and affirmation of the township community, as well as having to run the gauntlet of police oppression.
When she had finished telling her story, she said that she wanted to know who had killed her father. She spoke quietly and with dignity...Tutu writes that you could have heard a pin drop in that hushed City Hall when she said, "We do want to forgive, but we don't know whom to forgive."
The perpetrators of this man's murder did eventually apply for amnesty and appeared before the commission to confess the full extent of what they had done to kill this man. Both wife and daughter of the murdered man listened to the gruesome details.... After their testimony, mother and daughter went up to the men and extended their hands as an offering of forgiveness. It was at that moment that these men broke into tears, and victims and perpetrators embraced as they began the road to reconciliation... trusting in God to show them the way.
Since I've been reading Rev. Tutu's book, I find myself looking more often at my rock here - and it's getting easier to ask Jesus to help me put all of my mad - all of my grudges and resentments - all of it into this rock.
I think tonight I'll put it on my window sill and ask the angels to take it away.
AMEN.