“Above and Beyond”
Original sermon given October 2, 2022, written and delivered by Pastor Gregg Ramirez at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church
Watch the sermon live here
“Above and Beyond"
Luke 17:1-10
Luke 17:1-10
Back in the 1980s Gordon MacDonald was the pastor of a mega-church in Boston. However, he stepped down because of some personal issues, and then became influential through the writing of books. To me one of his most significant insights had to do with what makes our faith stand out in our world. He said that the world can do almost anything better than the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace. Moreover, when it comes to this world, grace is made most evident in our sharing the gift of forgiving others.
The Italian writer Ignazi Silone tells the story about a revolutionary hunted by police. In order to hide him, his comrades dressed him in the garb of a priest and sent him to a remote village in the foothills of the Alps. Word got out and soon a long line of peasants appeared at his door, full of stories of their sins and broken lives. The priest protested and tried to turn them away, but to no avail. He had no recourse but to sit and listen to the stories of people starving for the grace of forgiveness.
Why is that? The law of nature admits no forgiveness. Do squirrels forgive cats for chasing them up trees or dolphins forgive sharks for eating their playmates? It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, not dog forgive dog! As for us humans, our major institutions – financial, political, even athletic run on the same unrelenting principles. An umpire never says, “you were really out, but because of your exemplary spirit I’ll call you safe.” Or what nation these days responds to its hostile neighbors with the proclamation: “You are right, we did wrong. Will you please forgive us?”
So, how precious is that gift of the grace of forgiveness that we, God’s people in the church, have to offer a world starving for grace. Yet, isn’t it so hard? The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis lamented in his book Mere Christianity: “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” In truth, we all have something to forgive, for human beings will let you down. Parents who made mistakes rearing you, those who intimidated and bullied you, a close friend who said something that stabbed you in the back, or church members who judge you. No one loves perfectly. Every lasting relationship includes time of disappointment and sometimes betrayal. So, you’d think that being Christians would enable us to cut these people a little slack. Yet, despite a hundred sermons on forgiveness, we do not forgive easily, nor find ourselves easily forgiven. One writer observed that forgiveness is always harder than the sermons make it out to be.
Why is that? The very taste of forgiveness seems somehow wrong – the scandal of forgiveness causes us to nurse sores while going to elaborate lengths to rationalize our behavior. When I feel wronged, I can contrive a hundred reasons against forgiveness. “He needs to learn a lesson. I don’t want to encourage irresponsible behavior. I’ll let her stew for a while. It’ll do her good to learn that actions have consequences.” And the result of such unforgiveness? We perpetuate family feuds, punish ourselves, punish others – all to avoid this most unnatural act. Some years ago, I was at my 50thhigh school reunion. It should have been enjoyable but when I saw a big football player that had bullied me, it triggered back those old feelings of resentment. I couldn’t wait to get out of there because of my ungrace. That was a real eye-opener for me.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that forgiveness is to be the life and breath of the Christian. No wonder then that when Jesus shared with us the Lord’s Prayer, afterwards the only petition that he reiterates is the fifth when He says: “But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your trespasses.” And in the parable of the unforgiving servant Jesus warns of torment accorded to those who don’t forgive their brother or sister from their heart. Forgiveness is critically important to our Lord, and to further get his point across, our Lord in today’s Gospel lesson presents four object lessons. It’s the critical importance of the grace of forgiveness which is the thread that unites them. Indeed, those four object lessons I believe are what Jesus uses to spell out the saying of our Lord which provides the first climax of St. Mark’s Gospel. “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” To follow Jesus in cross-bearing requires self-denial, complete dedication, and willing obedience. That’s what the four object lessons exemplify. They are a radical challenge to maturing disciples, and again, the thread that unites them is the call to give what the world can’t give – the above and beyond of the grace of forgiveness.
This is so extremely important to Jesus’ efforts to bring about Kingdom living that He powerfully warns His disciples not to commit offenses (in the Greek, it’s skandalos) against the little ones – those people young and old who are new in the faith. To cross over the line, they are in grave danger of getting bound to a slab of concrete and thrown into the sea. But what a tall order? I can only imagine how frustrating, exasperating it was back then for the disciples as they ministered to the hungry and homeless people with a lot of emotional baggage and become very trying to one’s patience. I thought of Moses who snapped in anger and then was forbidden by God to enter the Promised Land. But it caused me to remember my confirmation class from hell back in 1995 and how I lost it with them. What was it like for the disciples when the church grew exponentially—and how easy in a time of stress and fatigue to blurt out to the contentious and dysfunctional, so damaged by their life experiences, “You stupid people!” O how could you survive such a ministry and so avoid a millstone around your neck without a forgiving spirit of grace? Talk about going above and beyond—and Jesus doesn’t stop there. I think of those with addictive behaviors as Jesus commands His disciples to forgive the repentant even if they mess up 7 times a day. Likewise, how vital it is for us to keep a short account of offenses and walk in forgiveness and so avoid scandalizing someone by our ungrace and hear them say: “and you call yourself a Christian?”
Above and beyond. That’s what the disciples recognize Jesus is requiring of them as He sought to put the holy fear of God into them. No wonder they plead: “Increase our faith!” Isn’t He asking the impossible of us mere mortals? And what is Jesus’ response? I’m sure it made them incredulous as He declared, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
What is Jesus trying to instill into their faith life? Some have used it to teach a name-it-claim-it theology – like capricious prayers to win the lottery. For many years, I would look at that promise to move mountains or a mulberry tree and take it literally. That’s only for super believers, but as of late I recognize that Jesus was assuring His disciples that it’s not the power of their believing, but in the power of God in whom they believe. It’s available through a sincere prayer of a believer living under the grace of God – the grace that would prevent them from being demoralized by the grind of ministry to the point of giving up on prayer. Truly, when doing the thankless work of ministry how easy it is for cynicism and self-pity to arise, and the only remedy for this is a right attitude and sense of duty and devotion only made possible by a spirit of grace.
Back in 1994 the world was shocked by the genocide in Rwanda. Pictures showed graphic scenes of thousands of bodies floating down a river scarlet with blood. Hutu tribesmen hacked to death with machete almost a million Tutsis – their neighbors. One of those forever haunted by the atrocities was a lady, Berta, who had to go above and beyond in the way of grace as she sought to forgive Manasseh, the man who killed her husband and some of her children. Reflecting on the process Berta said, “My forgiving is based on what Jesus did. He took the punishment for every evil act throughout all of time. His cross is the place where we find victory – the only place.” Manasseh had written to Berta from prison more than once begging her – and God – for forgiveness as he detailed the regular nightmares that plagued him. At first, she could extend no mercy saying she hated him for killing her family. But then she went on to say that, “Jesus intruded into her thoughts” and with God’s help, some two years later, she forgave him. In this way, Berta followed Jesus’ instruction to his disciples to forgive those who repent. Even if they come back to you seven times a day saying, “I repent,” you must forgive them. Like the disciples’ “increase our faith,” no doubt she wrestled in prayer over her inability to forgive – to the point that it was more like a 70 x 7 process to forgive. Through it all she recognized that she had to forgive. With her typical bluntness, author Anne LaMott reflected: “Not forgiving is like taking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die." She went on to say, "Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You’re done with it all, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to have lunch with that person.”
Going above and beyond in the way of grace and forgiveness. How extremely important it is for all of our lives! Again, why do we do it? Jesus explained it so well in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant where the servant is forgiven a 10,000 talent – 15-million-dollar — debt, but has a fellow servant thrown in prison who owes him 100 denarii – about 3 months wages. In the parable, the forgiving Master is God, and the point of it is to develop within us an attitude of humble awareness that God has forgiven us a debt so mountainous that, beside it, any person’s wrongs against us shrink to the size of molehills.
How can we not forgive each other in light of all God has forgiven? But frankly, we’re not doing very well. Christian counselor David Seamands summed up his career by saying that many years ago he was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of the emotional problems of most evangelical Christians were first, the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness, and second, the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people. We hear about the good theology of grace, he says, but it has not penetrated to the level of our emotions.
Why is that? Isn’t it easy for us to start out our day with grace, but then circumstances—or maybe it’s something that triggers us into addictive negative thinking and we can quickly revert to the law – being more critical and judging ourselves by performance-based acceptance and not by grace? Then it’s the world’s spirit of ungrace that takes over our disposition. So, with this in mind, because it goes against our human nature, forgiveness must be stressed and practiced in our lives, as one would practice any difficult craft. Jesus is adamant in our lesson with its four object lessons. Forgiveness is the key to our spiritual survival. I like the way Martin Luther King Jr. put it: Forgiveness is not just an occasional act: It is a permanent attitude.
How does it happen? C.S. Lewis put it so well: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” Jesus has paid the huge debt of our sin. As a result, we follow out of our inner love for our Redeemer, and in this way, grace flows forth from our lives. What greater gift could Christians give to the world than the forming of a culture that upholds grace and forgiveness? It’s the grace of forgiveness this dog-eat-dog world so desperately needs.