[Sermon for St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Phoenix, Arizona, on Sexagesima Sunday, February 20, 2022 (https://stmarysphoenix.org)]
✠ In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Whom do YOU hate?
Come, now, let us be honest with ourselves if with no one else, there must be at least one person who causes each of us either to want to commit murder most foul, or who makes each of us feel so dirty just to be in the same room as them, or whom each of us would not trust with our kitchen refuse. No? Then let us beware, for that person is coming into the life of each and every one of us SOON!
The truth of the matter is that we are fallen beings who have corrupt passions that flare up from time to time. St. Thomas Aquinas refers at length in his Summa Theologiae about the irascible passion, which drives multiple vices. We all suffer this impulse and at various times in our lives it gets triggered to one degree or another. It is a natural reaction to a perceived injustice, whether real or not, whether it was committed against one’s self or against someone else.
Some of you may have figured out by now that I’m going to tie this in to our Gospel reading.[1] I guarantee, when we heard it read some of us might even have said in the silence of our hearts, “Oh, no, not that person, anybody but that person; surely God doesn’t mean for me to ENABLE that person.” Oh yes, so did I. I have those people on my little list. I too ask, “Do I have to forgive that person?”
We can see why this passage is one of the “hard sayings” of Jesus. If you are not familiar with the term, this describes several passages in the Gospels where Jesus makes an absolute statement that so goes against nature as to seem insurmountably impossible, or at least bleeding difficult. In this case, Our Lord offers up several examples (and the list is not exhaustive):
People who hate us;
People who curse us (that is, they actually pray that we die or at least suffer);
People who abuse us (mentally, physically, socially, financially);
People who assault us;
People who rob us;
People who beg from us (yes, apparently many people have issues with them).
Now let us look at what Jesus tells us to do about these people:
Love them;
Bless them;
Pray for them;
Do good for them;
Expect nothing from them;
Be generous to them.
Oh no, there is nothing difficult about that at all, is there???
Remember, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us?” What Our Lord has done here is give us hard, difficult, and practical instruction on that petition. Note that in the prayer and in this Gospel passage He has made our forgiveness a natural outflow of forgiveness of others. “But wait,” we say, “I thought the love of God was free and unconditional!” Well, yes, but no. God is nothing if not fair to each and every one of us. The standard we ourselves apply to those around us are the standards God holds up to us. My standards must be just, and even, and applicable to all, even and especially to myself, and if I hold people to them, I must be held to them, and if I show mercy and forgive trespasses against those standards, then that mercy is by extension applicable to me. God applies no double standard, and neither should we.
But then, Our Lord expects us to do more than that. We all know the saying, “Go the extra mile” which is derived from this very Gospel passage. It is a generosity on top of forgiveness for the issue at hand. Is this not what God did for us? Did not Jesus Our Lord suffer, die, and rise again because we were hapless innocent victims in a cosmic tragedy? No, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”[2] Beyond that, however, not only does He forgive us, but He gives us His Holy Spirit and a share in the Kingdom of God.
Let us dig into a practical case study of forgiveness. In this case study, we look at a man in a very harsh cultural environment that is not known to esteem forgiveness as a virtue. He was part of a big, polygamous family where he was the eldest son of the patriarch’s favoured wife. He did not get along that well with his brothers, and they did him a nasty turn by roughing him up. They considered killing him outright, but then decided they could turn a profit on the deal by selling him to human traffickers. These people dragged him to a foreign country where he was sold off to the highest bidder. He then fell afoul of his captor and his lot went downhill. These were all reasons for him to absolutely despise his family; were the opportunity to arise, we would expect him to wreak revenge on not just the human traffickers and his captors, but on the brothers who put him in that spot.
In this case study, this man did have a reversal of fortune. Once he escaped his circumstances, he eventually became a very influential man with much power and many resources. Some years later, because of his position, he found himself face to face with the very brothers to both his and their surprise. He was in a position to turn them away, he was even in a position to levy trumped up charges that could even drop them into the darkest hole he could find, or even to have them killed outright. In that society, he could do so with impunity.
As we see in our Old Testament reading today,[3] however, he did not. He forgave them, and not only forgave them, he went beyond his normal authority not only to resolve their current crisis, but to provide for the entire clan’s current and future needs. In so doing, Joseph ben Jacob, the man in our case study, preserved the whole of the nation of Israel. In fact, if you follow it logically, his forgiveness of his brothers paved the way for the advent of the One who procured forgiveness for us all.
Now, I will not be delusional and say that all will be sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes despite our best efforts our forgiveness will not have the same effect Joseph’s did. We may forgive seventy times seventy times, but to no avail. Are we simply to go back for more abuse? Not really. Our Lord does give us the discretion to approach someone who does us wrong to talk it out, and if they persist to withdraw ourselves from the situation:
“If your brother sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have regained your brother. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”[4]
Jesus Our Lord expects us to take every step to preserve relationships, to heal, not to burn bridges, but He does also let us step back when someone is obstinate, but only when they are obstinate. Here is where grace can and often does work. We offer forgiveness, we make every effort to heal, but we also provide the freedom for them to accept the forgiveness, or to reject it, just as God offers us His forgiveness, to accept it, or reject it. Just as God gives us freedom to accept or reject, so should we, but in all cases, the offer is there. How else can our relationship with God heal if He does not offer it and we accept it? How else can we understand it and comprehend it if we do not in turn practice it as He does?
This Gospel is one of the hardest sayings Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has ever handed down to us, His Church. It is also one of the most powerful. The potential for it to transform, if accepted, is great, but it cannot transform if it is not offered. If it is not offered, then how will we expect any miracles if we do not make room for them? God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
✠ Through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, Saviour save us. Amen.
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