Sermon and Service September 6th 2020 Leighmoor Uniting Church
-Rev Barbara Allen
Suggested hymns:
TIS 156: Morning has broken
TIS 693: Come as you are, that’s how I want you
TIS 635: Forgive our sins, as we forgive
TIS 699: A new commandment
TIS 650: Brother, sister, let me serve you
TIS 598: Dear Father, Lord of humankind
Prayers of Adoration, Thanksgiving, and Confession
(we begin with words from today’s Psalm-had to include it because of the use of the word couch-appropriate for worship from home!)
‘Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Let us praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
He adorns the humble with victory.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
Let them sing for joy on their couches.’ (Psalm 149)
Lord of life, and love, and hope, and peace, we praise you and thank you for all your blessings,
for church family, for our own families, for friends, and children, and pets.
We thank you for a new day, with opportunities to reach out to people via technology. We give you thanks for the inventors of this means of communication, knowing it has made a difference during these past months.
May our hearts and minds be open to your presence in our lives and to trust your guiding hand.
Do not let anxieties and fear overcome us, but help us to continue to be instruments of your love and peace, even in the midst of a pandemic.
Loving God,
often we forget to notice, or to acknowledge, your many blessings in our lives.
Forgive us.
We sometimes neglect to tell others how much we love them, or appreciate them, or how proud we are of them.
Forgive us.
As we become over critical, perhaps due to lockdown, help us to be forgiving-of ourselves-and of others.
You showed us how to forgive in the death of Jesus,
help us to be more Christ-like in our behaviour.
Help us to be less judgmental and more forgiving.
The tongue is indeed a powerful instrument. Let us use it to bless you and others, rather than as a sword to hurt others, by the cutting things we say.
In a time of silence, we bring before you other things for which we seek forgiveness.
(silence)
God is love!
Through Christ our sins are forgiven
(thanks be to God!)
Take hold of this forgiveness, and live your life in the power of the Spirit, as forgiven people, being free to forgive others.
Amen
Bible Readings
Exodus 12: 1-14
Psalm 149
Romans 13: 8-14
Matthew 18: 15-20
Sermon
In the book Why Forgive? the story is told of Steven McDonald , a young police officer who was shot in 1986 by a teenager in New York’s Central Park, an incident that left him paralyzed. “I forgave [the shooter] because I believe the only thing worse than receiving a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart,” McDonald wrote.
Another story about forgiveness:
After a long shift at the fire department, Matt Swatzell fell asleep while driving, and crashed into another vehicle, killing June Fitzgerald and injuring her 19-month-old daughter. Fitzgerald’s husband, a pastor, asked for the man’s diminished sentence, and began meeting with him for coffee and conversation. Many years later, the two men remain close. “You forgive as you’ve been forgiven,” Fitzgerald said.
And another:
In May 2014, Peter Hiogo began a photo essay project in Rwanda to demonstrate the forgiveness between the Hutus and Tutsis—the two cultures involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that took millions of lives. In the photos, members from both cultures stand by side illustrating a story of forgiveness and how their lives are now connected in a positive, forgiving way.
How do we feel after hearing those stories? Could we forgive in a similar situation? Forgiveness is tied to love.
“If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.” —Mother Teresa,
‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.’
(Matthew 18: 15)
‘forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.’
‘forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.’
People often say that religious people are idealistic, unrealistic.
Religious people walk around with their heads in the clouds, never touching the earth, never in the ‘real world.’
I am sure you have all heard that before-and I must admit, most church people I have met over the years DO NOT FIT this category! We are part of the world, the community…not apart from it.
But for many secular folk they think we are sweet, idealistic, having fluffy notions and not concerned about what is happening in the world.
Reality.
What is reality?
Who defines what is real?
The gospel doesn’t just want us to reach out and speak to our present situation, it wants us to CHANGE it!
And sometimes that means changing ourselves!
Today’s passage from Matthew is not idealistic, indeed, it is painfully practical.
This is a text which is simple, clear, specific, practical-real.
And isn’t that just the problem?
Jesus says, ‘When someone [in the church] sins against you, tell the offender. You, as victim, must take charge and attempt to work it out. If that fails, tell the church and let the church take charge and try to work it out. Failing that-the church takes the extreme step of excommunication.
Sounds like something from a previous era,
And of course there would be none of those problems in Leighmoor Uniting Church, or at Heatherton-Dingley Uniting Church.
I was only with you for two weeks before lockdown, and I didn’t see any disharmony-so I can still picture in my mind two congregations of angels, never a harsh word said.
Am I correct? Or has lockdown saved me from reality?
We know that, in the past, the church took these exhortations seriously.
This text-urging us to go and confront, face-to-face-the one who has wronged us-and then-if that doesn’t work-confront the issue in public in the church-sounds archaic.
Surely we have moved beyond such primitive rules.
Or have we?
Too often, our usual way to treat conflict and division in the church is to ignore it.
-ignore it.
Wounds are swallowed and never mentioned.
Cruelties go unchecked.
If you ask why we ignore the wrongs, perhaps we will say that it is because “I don’t want to make a big deal out of it”
BUT
Maybe,
just maybe,
the problem is that we may have lost the resources and the ability to forgive.
This best we can do is to attempt to forget.
So the church is reduced to being nice.
Everything is kept superficial, polite.
Today’s gospel comes from a church which was convinced that division in the church was deadly, that rifts between Christian and Christian were a life-and –death matter, that reconciliation was too important to be left to chance. So specific, practical step-by-step direction is given to achieve reconciliation.
Think about some undeserved wrong you have suffered at the hands of a friend. Remember how unjust it was, and how it hurt!
Now imagine yourself forgiving that person.
It’s tough to forgive, isn’t it? Tough to ask for it too.
Whenever someone asks me: “What are the hardest words to say?” and, knowing they are wanting to hear as the answer, “I love you” I say, instead, “I am sorry.”
Much harder to say ‘sorry’ than to say you love someone.
Forgiveness.
That is what Jesus commands us to do here.
We are not told to do it IF or WHEN we feel like it.
We are told to take the initiative and attempt to work at reconciliation, to sort out the important task of forgiveness.
How is that possible?
I think it is only possible for those who know what it is like to be forgiven.
We have to know what it is like to be forgiven…to realize how important it is…before we can forgive someone.
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” —Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
All of this practical advice about forgiving a brother or sister in the church occurs against the backdrop of God’s forgiveness of us.
When we say the Lord’s Prayer (which we would say collectively on Sundays in church-difficult now, but I do hope you are continuing to pray that prayer)
We pray ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.’
This can be difficult-can be the most difficult part of the Lord’s Prayer to pray.
Sometimes ministers are guilty of presenting the gospel as if Christians are eager to forgive, and as if this comes naturally and easily.
But it doesn’t.
What is the part in the Lord’s Prayer, before forgiving others?
We ask for forgiveness…for ourselves!
‘Forgive us our sins…as we forgive those who sin against us.’
The Lord’s Prayer assumes, and rightly so-that we have sinned.
We have sinned.
BUT if we are to be forgiven-we must be able to forgive.
It isn’t easy.
BUT
in our forgiving and being forgiven-we are part of God’s vision for the new creation.
We imitate God.
We imitate God when we forgive.
Think back to a time when you forgave someone.
Afterwards, did you feel a sense of peace, a sense of freedom?
When we forgive, we participate in God’s work, in that divine energy that was released into the world when God in Christ forgave us for what we did to God’s son.
Deep theology…but it comes down to forgive…and be free.
There are many reasons why people don’t come to church, or believe in Christ. One of the reasons is because sometimes we don’t look very different from the world
-we operate the same as clubs
Divisions are found, arguments erupt, harsh words are said…
Brothers and sisters, this should not be so.
The church is NOT a social club, though we gather for fellowship. The church is not OUR church, though we make decisions about its running, and functions.
No, the church is not ours, Leighmoor Uniting Church, or Heatherton- Dingley, and every other church in the world, belongs to Christ.
Every church belongs to Christ
We make earthly decisions on behalf of Christ.
As a faith community, there will be times of great joy…and of great sorrow and hurt.
And…as a last resort:
vs 17: ‘If the member refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.’
Exiled?
OR…
How does Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors?
He called a tax collector to be a disciple-part of his inner circle.
-he healed the servant of a Roman centurion, and dined with ‘many tax collectors and sinners.’
He loved them. He called them. He embraced them.
He loves us.
Acceptance, repentance and forgiveness are to work together to restore community.
Jesus has called us to be the light in a darkened world.
In us, in our life together in the church, the world ought to be able to see God’s reign breaking through.
We have got to forgive
and we can…with God’s help.
For we can never be free, until we learn to forgive others…and forgive ourselves,
because
forgiveness is the key to action and freedom,
and because we are called to ‘love one another.’
Amen.
Let us pray:
Loving, forgiving Lord, teach us to deal with others as you have dealt with us.
Forgiveness is not easy.
Sometimes we prefer to nurture our wounds, dwelling on our hurts, focusing on the injustices we have endured.
Deep within are gnawing resentments, memories of old offenses.
As you have welcomed each of us, despite our sins, help us to welcome others too.
You love us, despite our faults. Help us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Amen.
(the opening stories were from this website: https://www.rd.com/list/inspiring-forgiveness-stories/)
Prayers of the People
Almighty God, we acknowledge that it is sometimes hard to always know what is right and proper, and what the church’s role is in the wider world.
We bring before you all who serve in isolation and danger. We pray for those who lack basic resources with which to do their work.
We remember those who face hostility daily, especially those who work in countries where they are under constant surveillance and are in danger.
We ask that they may be blessed through our prayers.
We continue to pray for those suffering or dying from covid-19. We pray for their friends and families.
We pray for our faith community, for those who are sick-for Alan and Fredrica, for Rohini and Jaya, for John. For the families with children at home, for Elijah, Erica, Adrian and Sherine, Hayden, Kaitlin and Peter, for Chloe, Lauren, Erica and Adam, for Noah, Harvey, Leanne and Brendan, for Noah and Zoe, Gavin and Radhika, for Sarah, Tom and Shireen, and for others we know, and grandparents who are helping to home school their grandchildren. Be with them. Give them patience, understanding and little blessings each day.
We pray for an end to racial conflict, especially in the United States, and here in Australia. We are all your children, made in your image.
Hear the prayers we offer, those we have read and said, and those written deep upon our hearts.
And in the words our Saviour taught us, we are confident when we pray to say:
‘Our Father in heaven…
Amen.
Blessing
May the love of Jesus Christ
bring us wholeness,
the grace of God the Father
grant us peace,
the breath of the Holy Spirit
instill passion,
and the unity among them
give us strength
for this and every day.
Amen
(Blessing adapted from John Birch, 2016)
