Matthew 18:21-35
Proper 19 (24) - Year A
One level of life is our positive response to nasty things we encounter.
Another is our ongoing nastiness (of course not seen by us, but reported by others).
This passage gives wisdom about the length of our patience in active forgiveness.
The flip side is to ask the question of how long we are going to try the patience of those who are in a position to forgive us.
So, are you going to string them out as long as possible. If you do a sin a day against someone you will give them about a year and a third of grief before the literal limit of forgiveness sets in. Do you really have to wait that long to stop?
Obviously, if you sin several times a day against someone that literal limit will come much sooner.
How do you respond to the question, "How many times can I get away with sinning against someone for what I consider good reason? Is seven times a reasonable number?"
I find I need to wrestle with both these questions and that they do help inform each other. The greatest help in being honest about these matters is to be in some form of a class meeting. Hie ye hence.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/september2002.html
I was struck by this graphic that shows the 7x.... conversation standing as background to all our interactions, whether individual or corporate. Sometimes we think this issue of forgiveness is one that only works on a personal level. The International Monetary Fund is only one of the places where a background of forgiveness needs to be seen. In fact its very work seems to set up the need for later forgiveness of debts.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina provides evidence of the underbelly of capitalism that constantly stands in need of forgiveness for what it does to the poorest and loneliest of people and to the environment in which they live.
Where else would it be helpful in your context to carry a mental image of Jesus' conversation with Peter about forgiveness? To keep this as the background against which our foregrounds are measured would both relieve us of burdens we accumulated as we moved through the past and direct our decisions toward a better future for all.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html
By what criterion will you decide that it is time to shift gears from forgiveness to punishment for particular behaviors? How close to you does it have to be before this shift from the ideal to the actual becomes evident?
In Matthew things shift all too quickly from steadfast love to gnashing of teeth. Is this a model we find to be helpful, practical, real? Are some behaviors worth 491 forgivenesses in a nanosecond and then out comes the retribution?
It is this shift away from forgiveness to that which pushes folks back into an exile intended to separate forever that is worth meditating on. Is the king here King Herod or King Jesus? How has the church used this over the years to shun individuals and crusade against infidels?
A modern midrash on this passage may be found in the dismissal of FEMA over the New Orleans relief effort. At first loyalty issues (you can read it merciful issues, if you want) take priority but when the king's policies are revealed (an intention to get as much material/power as possible) at a secondary level it doesn't take long for the king to persecute the one modeling the intention/behavior at the top. This shift insulates the king and scapegoats the underling.
This reading shifts the behavior from forgiving from the heart to finding leverage over another to have them do your bidding. I find this all too easy a reading. We live as though GOD were petulant and ready to stomp us, and this story may help reveal our ambivalence about GOD. Read with care.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html
Welcome those who are differently oriented in faith. Paul uses Sabbath and Eating Rituals as examples of how those who condense the week into one Sabbath and those who spread it through the week might both do so as an honor to G*D. Likewise with those who honor G*D through their choice of food.
Unfortunately these differences are described as "weaknesses" (as see through the eyes of someone making a choice they think everyone ought to hew to now). Seemingly both could be seen as sources of honor and weakness. An example of bothness gone awry is found in Jesus' story when asked about a persistence of forgiveness. Here the honoring of G*D gives way to entitlement for self.
When a servant is still received (forgiven) in respect to their weakness, this same servant does not participate in such a welcoming when faced with another in a respectively "weak" position.
How radical is my welcoming? - who is included in it?
- - -
transgressions removed ahead
a welcome road signhope for myself rises
to return to
an original blessing of gooddisgust that it might be
for every Jane and Jack
or my favorite enemy
rises even quickerand quick as a wink
my special welcome sign
becomes a road closed detour
onto winding rutted paths
leading 70x7 times back to this marker
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
To reveal what is going on in the church it is helpful to take a look at another system and reflect it back into the church setting. A part of the reason this is so helpful is the lack of perspective we so often have on our own junk.
When it comes to forgiveness, Jesus looks at a most unforgiving system – the power system of the day. This is still a good thing to do in our day. In the United States of America the political season is nearing the championship game (and as long as we frame it athletically it will continue to devolve). Many a speech has said no more than, "My Friends . . . God bless America" [kudos to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart for this observation] and it is this lack of standards that allows power to do what power wants to do - it is not even held accountable to its own words, which it changes to get what it wants because most folks don't pay attention enough to remember how the opposite was just posited and then denied.
Forgiveness, as simply forgiveness, is, on its own merits alone, eternally elusive. Our resistance to forgiveness and desire for power seem to require a punishment if forgiveness is not forthcoming. Without the extra motivation of fear of retribution, we don't seem to engage forgiveness with our lives and the lives of others. We keep missing the essential simplicity of, "forgive." Our resistance to receiving and/or giving forgiveness leads to forever parsing out when forgiveness is appropriate. The best question that can be asked at this point is, "when is forgiveness not appropriate?"
If you respond that forgiveness is not appropriate for those who have been forgiven and then don't forgive, you've missed the point.
- - - - - - -
Una (reader) said...
Have you seen this website about forgiveness?
- - -
Wesley (author) said...
Una -
Yes, I have seen it when the film first came out. I was glad for the reminder.
I particularly like the question about talking mercy as a social reality, not just personal.
Wesley
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
In today’s world, with slavery gone underground and been institutionalized in economic policy, it is be important to review that forgiveness is not a one-way street.
The very beginning of Jesus’ story telling about the Presence of G*D makes us wonder about what would lead a king to even begin to consider forgiveness unless it is to remind folks how much they are dependent upon the king.
Eventually we see a king that will forgive some things but not others. An alternative is a king who requires emulation and will torture to see that their image, their slave, reflects themself back to themself.
Of course, these stories are not intended to be one-to-one correspondences to life. Nonetheless, we wish more had been revealed here about the initial forgiveness of financial debt racked up in every company-store setting and what mercy/forgiveness is needed for the king/CEO. If mercy is the category of the day, what are the limits of that mercy by the end of the story? Do we need some provisional ways of describing mercy?
This mercy is to make me look good, thank me.
This mercy is instructional, repeat it.
This mercy is time-bound, be thankful for little things.
This mercy is a set up, beware.
This mercy is to be translated into other settings, learn from it.
This mercy is to further indebt you, serve better.
This mercy is to . . . .
Having thought of a few of the ways mercy is circumscribed and kept from being an underlying understanding of a creative impulse, what might have to change the next time you use the word? Is this a primary word (way we live toward or in response to life experiences)? Is this a secondary word (a useful tool to arrive at a self-defined destination)?