Proper 19A 2020
Matthew 18:21-35
The Rev. Dr. Kathy Kelly
Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”
Last week during our Sunday morning Eucharist there was a ruckus that was somewhat disturbing for me and I think I may be the only one who noticed.
A Cooper’s Hawk was in the neighborhood and flew by just behind the congregation who were facing me out in the Memorial Garden. We were listening to the readings so I feel a bit guilty admitting I was watching the birds. But I am always watching birds.
In my amateur birding hobby I set up feeders on the back deck of the rectory and for nearly three years now I have been sitting just inside the back window which overlooks that deck. I watch the birds while I work at my computer.
The squirrels get into the feeders. I don’t mind. I like watching them too. They and some of the larger birds tend to spill seed onto the deck. This draws chipmunks and smaller birds who scurry across the desk and scavenge for these extras. I really enjoy watching all of this.
There is a certain echo system to the birds and small mammals in any suburban back yard which we tend to take for granted. Birds tend to stay to their breed. Mocking Birds are very defensive of their nests and make a lot of noise and will threaten other birds and humans and dogs and cats or whoever comes too near.
Then there’s the larger Blue Jay. Blue Jays are really pretty but they get very loud when being territorial. They are gregarious and mean. They will attack the nests of other birds and kill their young and sometimes decapitate other songbirds.
The largest population in these church grounds are Finches. These little birds are surprisingly loud when feeding with a high pitched song that is ear piercing but lovely.
What I learned while living in this particular neighborhood is that, while most birds of a feather tend to defend their own breed, the different breeds will come together to defend against a foreign invasion.
I’ve watched the Cat Birds and Mocking Birds and various smaller birds join forces to drive away crows, for instance.
A draw back for all of this drama is that the seed spilled onto the deck draws chipmunks and chipmunks draw raptors. So, the Cooper’s Hawk started coming around last year. I was thrilled to watch a hawk land just outside my window but sad when I stopped seeing the chipmunks for a few months. It took me a while to put that together and realize I was complicit in the demise of the chipmunks in feeding them. Echo systems are balanced by the food chain though. This is all just part of life.
So when the Cooper’s Hawk showed up last Sunday during our next to last Eucharist together, I was disturbed. So were the Blue Jays, whose number has tripled by a successful nesting season this year. And the Mocking Birds and Cat Birds and Finches. And they all joined forces in the hemlock branches above us and they caused a ruckus. And their noisy brigade chased away the raptor - for the time being.
All this reminded me of our own ways of tribalism, denominationalism, defensiveness and divisiveness. While there is a place in this broken world for defending one’s own, in this age we have become over zealous with our defensiveness, we are quick to judge, we are quick to hold on to grudges and quick to stick to our tribes and our bubbles.
Jesus understood echo systems and tribes. The Israelites and Romans and Gentiles and criminals all crammed into this melting pot of the First Century Middle East. But Jesus commands us to lay down our swords, love our enemies, and above all practice forgiveness. “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times,” you must forgive.
This is counter intuitive. It is counter to all that we know about survival and about law and order. What Jesus commands seems against our best code of ethics, defense department, safe living, security and common sense!
I served a church in South Georgia for several years when I was first ordained a deacon. The interior of this beautiful church has walnut paneling on the lower half of each wall and a hand carved crucifix out of the same walnut above the altar. This wood is so beautiful it competes with the stained glass.
The priest there at the time insisted on leaving the church unlocked so that we could go there to pray during the week. And we did.
We were careful to lock away any wine or silver and the like but the sanctuary was open 24/7. We did that for more than a decade until eventually someone vandalized the space.
I had moved away by then but saw some pictures. The vandals took black spray paint and painted swirls all over that walnut wainscoting. It was everywhere. It cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars to repair the damage.
Sadly, that church no longer stays unlocked and available for prayer between services. They never caught the vandals. We never found out who hurt us through this awful crime.
I remember wondering about who might do such a thing. Were they kids? Gang members completing a prank for admission to the gang? Were they bored or frustrated kids? Did they understand the value of the church building? Did they know anything about the people of the church, the faith, the symbols and the deep meaning we hold in that walnut paneling? Did they care?
I imagined all these possibilities and I decided that whoever did this could not possibly live with themselves if they knew about that deep meaning held in the very grain of that 150 year old walnut. They couldn’t possibly know about the sacrifice of Jesus or the beauty of the Holy Spirit moving in one’s heart. If they had any inkling about those things they would feel remorse, or not have acted in this destructive way in the first place.
Of course, it is possible they had a different sense of meaning attached to not only that walnut but the entire building. It may have seemed like a symbol to them of the elite and privileged people who worshiped there and didn’t notice the pain of their poor and oppressed neighbors.
I tried to forgive them. But I kept coming back to the thought that my forgiveness didn’t matter. It didn’t make any difference to non-repentant vandals or it didn’t make any difference toward changing an oppressive and racist system. Whichever was the case.
Maybe none of my thoughts came close to the true reasons for this destruction.
Maybe I should forgive these strangers anyway.
I think we take forgiveness for granted in our day and time. We tend to think forgiveness is an attitude you take to relieve your own guilt over the desire to retaliate when we feel hurt or angry at someone. We think we need to forgive in order to get into heaven. We think forgiving and forgetting are the same.
We have much to learn about forgiveness.
In this Gospel lesson Jesus commands forgiveness and not just as a get-out-of-jail-free card but with sincerity - “from the heart.”
But there is a loophole.
Before telling the parable, in last week’s Gospel lesson from the first half of this chapter, Jesus spells out a formula for how the church should work on forgiveness. Try talking it out. If that doesn’t work try again with more involvement. If that doesn’t work try once more with the whole congregation. But at some point if the offender is unrepentant you have to sever ties and move on.
So, it might have been easy for me to chalk up those vandals who spray painted my most sacred space as unrepentant. If I thought of them as worthless I could stop worrying about the consequences for their bad behavior and just move on.
But Jesus commands us to love our enemies. Jesus commands us to forgive them too.
More importantly, and more specific to today’s lesson, Jesus commands that we forgive within the community. Forgive our own. Then forgive our enemies as if they were our family.
When I first came to Grace I had high hopes to lead us all in the forgiveness work we needed to do with our bishop and his staff. I don’t think we have been completely successful in that goal. I still hope you can forgive - from the heart - because our brothers and sisters in the diocesan office are in the same community of this church, this Episcopal church, this part of the Kingdom of God, this part of the Jesus movement. We’re all in this together.
Forgiveness is not an attitude. It is not even an action. Forgiveness is a transformation of the heart. It is deep work. It is difficult work. And it takes practice.
Well, I hope you can forgive me for leaving you at this time, too early in our ministry together. But I don’t want your forgiveness in order to ease my hard feelings. I don’t really have any hard feelings. I do want you to work on easing your hard feelings. I imagine you have now or have had in the past hard feelings toward someone and found it difficult to let go. This is the stuff of sin and the opportunity to practice forgiveness.
It is not sinful because it is breaking a rule. It is sinful because it is breaking a heart. It breaks, to some extent, your connection with God and with the communion of saints. That is the definition of sin - that which separates us from God. That which separates us from the community.
Like the unforgiving servant in the parable, we might as well be banished or tortured if we are to refuse to practice forgiveness. Actually, living an unforgiving life will leave us tortured on the inside. No need for prisons or tormentors.
Of course nothing can separate us from God but in our sinfulness we turn our back on God. And then we turn on each other too. That is why Jesus and Paul constantly call on us to repent - to turn around - to face God again. And to face God again takes softening hard feelings. It takes being practiced at forgiveness.
The best way to turn this sort of thing around is to celebrate the good we see in each other in stead of getting stuck with the bad we see.
Maybe I didn’t get everyone in the New River Valley to change their mind about Bishop Bourlakas in these two-and-a-half years. But look at what we did accomplish.
Since I have been here we came together as a parish and rebuilt much of what had gone either by the wayside or was lost to unforeseen and uncontrollable realities - like a pandemic!
We developed a new staff. Mason and Samantha and Roger have become so good at their jobs. They each have developed their skills and gifts during this time and Grace is so much better for having them join us in ministry.
We also strengthened our lay leadership. The vestry met the other night and went over who has been doing what. Sure, everyone participates in weekly roles and takes their turn with coffee hour and the like. But your leadership was challenged by the COVID quarantine and all of you flexed and pitched in and found new ways to serve. So, as hard as all these challenges have been, I think this need to step up to the plate has been very good for Grace.
And we grew a new ministry with the development of a Guiding Team for the Way of Love: Joining God missional effort. And that group started the mask ministry. And that ministry has not only provided a tangible difference in the lives of thousands of local people, it has brought new awareness to the New River Valley of just how much Grace Episcopal Church cares. It increased your already good reputation. It connected you anew with other ministries in the region.
You may feel anxious right now at facing another transition between priests, but Grace is on solid ground. Just keep praying and following your heart and Grace will flourish.
I have loved being a part of this parish and this community and I am deeply sad to leave. God calls us to difficult decisions and difficult work every day though. And I am up to the challenge of my next thing partly because of the love you have shown me. Partly because of what I have learned by my observance of the birds and and other echo systems around this parish. And you too are up for the challenge of the next phase for Grace.
Even when a Cooper’s Hawk occasionally flies into the mix.
I love you and will continue to pray for you and listen for those times you cause a ruckus and those times you let down your guard and practice forgiveness.
Amen.