Introduction
I understand that you [Grace Mennonite Church] are taking four Sundays to consider
the Lord’s Prayer as it appears in Luke’s Gospel. That means that my focus this
morning is on Jesus’ words here, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive
everyone who sins against us.” I will begin by setting the context of the
prayer in Luke, comment briefly on the prayer and the saying on prayer that
follows, and then consider the idea of forgiveness as we have it here.
Luke’s Gospel
Luke’s Gospel divides naturally into the following sections:
the first four chapters, culminating in Jesus’ beginning sermon in Nazareth
(Luke 4); Jesus’ ministry in Galilee (chapters 4-9), which has miracles
interspersed with some teaching; Jesus on the road to Jerusalem (chapters 9-19),
which consists mostly of teaching, with some dramatic action; and finally the
climax in Jerusalem (chapters 19-24), with the crucifixion, resurrection, and
ascension.
This passage, then, comes near the beginning of “the road to
Jerusalem”. Luke structures the Gospel so as to present much of Jesus’ teaching
as a walk to Jerusalem. I am reminded of an Anglican catechism class described
by Tom Sine in Mustardseed vs. McWorld.
The class chose to do their instruction, leading up to confirmation, as they
walked from London to Canterbury—a distance of about 70 miles. As they walked,
they learned the catechism and concluded their instruction with the
confirmation ceremony in the Canterbury Cathedral. A Japanese theologian (Kosuke
Koyama) uses the phrase, “the three-mile an hour God”, God who walks with us at
the ordinary pace of daily life. This is the God to whom we pray in this
prayer.
The Context of the
Prayer
Luke reminds us that Jesus prayed regularly and gave his
disciples a pattern for prayer. Since this prayer (which we call the Lord’s
Prayer) is that pattern, we can expect that he told them more than once. In
Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives the prayer as part of the Sermon on the Mount
talking about how to pray. Here, Jesus gives the prayer as a response to one of
the larger group of disciples who were walking with him from Galilee to
Jerusalem.
In Matthew Jesus introduces the prayer thus: “This, then, is
how you should pray.” Here he says, “When you pray, say.” The difference in
wording is unimportant, reflecting Luke and Matthew’s memories as well as the
different occasions on which Jesus taught them to pray. The disciple’s question
reminds me of how often we have to say the same things before everyone hears
them—which is not the point of this prayer, but a daily reality in community
life.
The saying after the prayer has to do with praying for
results, so that you might say the prayer focusses on spiritual power, where
Matthew’s context focusses more on the relationship that the disciples have
with God. In this context, then, Jesus tells his disciples—and us—to pray
persistently and thus also to receive God’s blessing.
The Prayer
Luke’s version of the prayer is quite brief, compared to
Matthew’s account: “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us
each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who
sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.” The prayer begins with
acknowledgment that God is God, and that our lives depend on God. Then follow
three simple requests: 1) Meet our physical needs; 2) Meet our spiritual needs;
3) Protect us in a dangerous world.” We focus on the spiritual need for
forgiveness.
Forgive, for we also
forgive
We are more familiar with the prayer in Matthew, where Jesus
says, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” There
God’s forgiveness appears to depend on our response of forgiving others. Here our
attitude of forgiveness appears to be the grounds that somehow require God also
to forgive us: “Forgive us, because we are people who forgive.” The difference
is again unimportant. We are sometimes inclined to read a real difference where
we have simply a way of expressing oneself. This morning I use both forms of
the prayer interchangeably, as the prayer speaks about forgiveness.
A couple of rabbit trails:
1) You notice that Luke records the
prayers as “forgive us our sins; we forgive others what they owe us.” The idea
of debt (here and in Matthew) is of a moral obligation, but it is interesting
that Jesus calls what we do against God “sin”, and what others do against us a
failure to meet an obligation. Another sermon might explore the concept of sin
more fully. Here I note only that the basic idea of “sin” is that it is
rebellion against God. To pray “Your kingdom come” while insisting on being in
charge of our own lives is the essence of rebellion.
2) Matthew records the prayer as,
“Forgive us … as we forgive others.” Luke records the prayer as, “Forgive us …
for we forgive others.” The difference is not to suggest that we earn forgiveness,
but rather to remind us that the refusal to forgive others can become the
obstacle to receiving God’s forgiveness. Alan Kreider has observed that the
early church insisted that people wanting to become Christians had to show the
“fruit of repentance” before they were allowed to hear the gospel. A curious
fact! (See
“Forgive us,” we pray: God extends mercy. “For we also
forgive”: We in turn are to extend mercy. One might express more fully thus: God
treats us with kindness and mercy, which leads to a new life flowing in us and
through us—expressed by treating those around us also with kindness and mercy. To
put it more bluntly: God will treat us the way that we treat each other. I find
this thought to be somewhat disturbing, because we often do not treat each
other well.
Some Illustrations
Consider the following examples. I wonder what our world
would be like, following the destruction of the World Trade Center on September
11, 2001, if George Bush would have prayed this prayer before each strategy
meeting determining the American response: “Forgive us our sins, because we
forgive others their sins.” Could we have found a response to Al Qaeda that
pursued justice (for example, through the World Court in Hague), but did not
embrace vengeance? Treating even our enemies with kindness and mercy would lead
to a very different world.
I think of another situation. During his undergraduate work
at a school I won’t name, one of my students at Providence rented rooms in the
basement of a house owned by a professor of “peace and conflict studies”. There
were three rooms in the basement, which shared a common eating and sitting
area. He told me how he and the other two students renting the basement would
sit there listening to the professor and his wife fighting upstairs. The irony:
that someone who could teach others how to move towards peace could not live at
peace himself in his own house.
Please note: the fact of strong
disagreements is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes we must speak up,
wherever or whatever the situation. But one can fight well, in ways that move
towards peace and in ways that reflect the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.
I think of other situations that most people here are fully
familiar with. Following the gathering of MC Canada in Saskatoon, we know of
strong disagreements across the conference to which we belong. Again, as with
the peace and conflict professor and his wife, it is not bad that we
disagree—even disagree strongly. But the principle stated in the Lord’s Prayer
holds true: God will treat us the way that we treat each other.
Our forebears knew this truth well. Some years ago I sang in
a choir with Rudy Schellenburg directing. Our concert consisted of Low German
folk songs, including one, “Mein Noba Klassen.” The basic idea of the song was
a complaint about my neighbour, Klassen, who kept borrowing things from me and
breaking them. We sang fervently that we could never forgive this thoughtless,
careless neighbour.
“Our neighbor is angry at me
because I did not lend him my new ax.
He borrows all kinds of things from
me, there doesn't seem to be any purpose in it.
The other day he borrowed my wagon,
Then immediately broke the axle in
two.”
The sting in the song came in the tune, a well-known hymn
tune. The hymn appears in our own Mennonite Hymnal as #524, “What mercy and
divine compassion has God in Christ revealed to me.” We sang our bitterness and
unforgiveness to a tune that reminded us of God’s undeserved mercy. And the
principle holds true: God will treat us the way that we treat each other.
Judgment and Grace
I find this truth to be more than a little disconcerting. If
God treats me the way that I treat my brothers and sisters, I may be in
trouble. I pray the Lord’s Prayer every morning as a part of preparing to live
each day. I have focussed on different aspects of the prayer at different
times—sometimes the beginning formula, “Your name, Your reign, Your will.” Sometimes
I focus on this morning’s verse: “Forgive us (me) as we (I) forgive.” I have
tried to live faithfully by this principle, not holding others’ faults against
them and lifting them up to God for God’s blessing. But of course I fail
sometimes, as I suspect all of us do. A critical spirit creeps in. I begin to
judge others and I get angry with them for their blindness. Perhaps the most
obvious place I experience this spirit is when I argue with my American friends
who inexplicably (to me) support Donald Trump. I can understand supporting
some, even many, of his policies; but to support the man himself? And as I
argue, I hear the Spirit quietly reminding me, “The way you treat these friends is the
way God will treat you.”
Such a difficult standard then stands in judgment on us. We
all fail to extend forgiveness freely, to extend mercy and kindness to each
other. If God judges us as we judge others (Matthew 7:1), we are in trouble! At
that point the prayer becomes a plea for God to remake us and show greater
grace than we have any right to ask for—grace that not only pardons and cleanses,
but grace that transforms and remakes us as God’s children.
Some Closing Thoughts
As we continue to learn the path of forgiveness, a path we
can walk only by God’s great grace, I offer a few closing thoughts about how we
might act in times of conflict:
1. There are times we do disagree.
This is not bad. We should practice a basic honesty that honours our own
integrity as well as respects those around us. Nothing in the practice of
forgiveness says that we should avoid conflict.
2. How we disagree is critical. We
should not fight dirty. We should not tear the other person down. We seek the
other person’s good, even as we disagree. The disagreement may be so strong as
to say that we must separate, but even in the hardest times, we fight fair and
act in love and respect.
3. To disagree well and treat the
other person kindly, we assume the best about the person. I have heard people
speak clearly in arguments—and then move on to judge the other person’s
motives. Assume the best of the other person. Assume they also are seeking to
follow Christ faithfully. If we assume the worst about others, we invite God to
find the worst in us.
4. Act in good faith and in love
for the other at all times—even when separating. I think of a congregation I
know who divided down the middle over whether they wanted a pastor-led
congregation, or a lay-led congregation. It was hard. Such separations are
bitter, and there were many broken relationships. Those people who acted in
love and good faith throughout found it easiest to forgive at the end. Those
who were convinced that the others were trying to destroy the church and spoke
most strongly found it hardest to forgive.
Remember, God will treat us the way that we treat each
other. In this prayer, we not only recognize this truth, we go further and ask
God to make this truth alive in our hearts and minds.
What Mercy and divine compassion
has God in Christ revealed to me!
My haughty spirit would not ask it,
yet he bestowed it full and free.
In God my heart does now rejoice. I
praise his grace with grateful voice,
I praise his grace with grateful
voice.
Your bounteous grace is my
assurance, the blood of Christ my only plea,
Your heart of love my consolation
until your glorious face I see.
My theme, through never-ending
days, shall be your great redeeming grace,
Shall be your great redeeming
grace.
Text, Luke 11: 1-11 (Jesus’ teaching on prayer)
11 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of
his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his
disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father, hallowed be your name, your
kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive
us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not
into temptation.’
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to
him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a
friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer
him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t
bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I
can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you,
even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship,
yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you
as much as you need. 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you
will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For
everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks,
the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if
your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or
if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If
you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him!”
28 August 2016
Grace Mennonite
Church
