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<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><a
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:23.25pt'><b><font size=5
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:19.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Deciding
to Forgive<br>
<br>
</span></font></b><i><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;
font-style:italic'>Proper 19 | Ordinary Time 24</span></font></i><b><font
size=5><span style='font-size:19.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
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<br>
<a
href="http://www.sermonsuite.com/content.php?i=788031305&key=anwagbXjmZ52bxdo">Dean
Feldmeyer</a><br>
<a
href="http://www.sermonsuite.com/content.php?i=788031305&key=anwagbXjmZ52bxdo">Ronald
H. Love</a><br>
<a
href="http://www.sermonsuite.com/content.php?i=788031305&key=anwagbXjmZ52bxdo">George
Reed</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p style='line-height:17.25pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:13.5pt'>This coming Sunday offers a big challenge, as it will
be impossible to avoid the fact that it will be the tenth anniversary of the
9/11 attacks. Knowing that this event will be on the minds of everyone in the
pews, should we take the bull by the horns and directly address it from the
pulpit? Or should we deal with it primarily through prayers, litanies, and
other worship material? Or perhaps we should leave the commemoration to civic
gatherings and media specials, aware that it's still such a sensitive topic
that any missteps could easily create serious issues within the congregation?
As team member Dean Feldmeyer notes in this installment of<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> The Immediate Word</span></b>, the wounds remain
fresh -- even after a decade has passed and Osama bin Laden has been eliminated.
(Indeed, the controversy over building a proposed Islamic community center in
the vicinity of "Ground Zero" revealed the depth of resentment that
still lingers.) Choosing how to approach the day will be a delicate task that
calls for respecting and honoring the raw feelings many people still have about
9/11 while having the courage and dedication to share the biblical witness. But
as Dean points out, the lectionary's assigned texts for this Sunday give us
some tools for fruitfully responding to this seminal event. In particular, the
gospel parable with its emphasis on forgiveness beyond our capacity to imagine
("Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times") offers us a
clear roadmap on how to process our grief and anger and begin to leave behind the
valley of despair. The path of forgiveness is not an easy choice, Dean
acknowledges, but it is the one that we as Christians are called to follow.<br>
<br>
Team member Ron Love offers some additional thoughts on the waterfalls being
built as an essential part of the 9/11 memorial on the World Trade Center site
and how we in the church have much to learn from their purpose to remove the
noise and distraction of a busy metropolis in order to focus meditation. Ron
notes that Paul's purpose in this week's epistle passage was much the same: to
draw the congregation away from their focus on the noise and distraction of
petty squabbling over unimportant side issues and instead to bring them
together in unity of purpose. However, as Ron points out, the only way the Romans
-- and we too -- can achieve that objective is by attempting to avoid the
judgmentalism that inevitably arises from overconfidence in the righteousness
of our own opinions. Rather, we ought to focus on harmonious fellowship and let
God pass judgment... for, as Paul aptly puts it, "each of us will be
accountable to God."<br>
<br>
In addition to our usual worship resources, this installment also includes a
litany of remembrance suitable for use in community events (and that you may
wish to adapt for worship purposes) as well as a children's message and several
illustrations related to 9/11, forgiveness, and judgmentalism.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Deciding to Forgive<br>
</span></b>by Dean Feldmeyer<br>
<i><span style='font-style:italic'>Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21; Matthew 18:21-35</span></i><br>
<br>
In less than four years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> had bombed, defeated, crushed,
humiliated, occupied, and begun the process of rebuilding <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> in our
own image. V-J Day was a celebration. The troops came home; it was finished.<br>
<br>
Ten years after the September 11, 2001, attack on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> by Islamist extremists from
various parts of the Arab world, we are still at war, our hearts are still
wounded, and the monuments we said we would build are still unfinished.<br>
<br>
On the tenth anniversary of that terrible day, "unfinished" may be
the operative word for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
We are not finished reliving that nightmare. We are not finished grieving for
our lost brothers and sisters, our lost innocence, our lost sense of security.
We are not finished being angry.<br>
<br>
And yet, we are Christians. We call Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray daily that
God will "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us." We hear the call of Jesus to forgive those who have injured
us and pray for those who have done us wrong.<br>
<br>
How do we get from the valley of grief and anger to the mountaintop of love and
forgiveness to which Jesus calls us?<br>
<br>
<br>
THE WORLD<br>
<br>
On Sunday, September 11, church bells will toll. Silence will be kept. Prayers
will be prayed and hymns will be sung. The line between church and state will
be rendered invisible if only for a brief period while we remember the grief
and the pain of that horrible day.<br>
<br>
In the little county-seat community where I live, there will be three large
public gatherings at different times of the day. Church bells will be rung and
emergency sirens sounded across the county at 1:00 p.m. No doubt, worship
services in many of the churches will mention if not focus on the symbolic
importance of the day and our promise to "never forget."<br>
<br>
Like <st1:place w:st="on">Pearl Harbor</st1:place> and the assassination of
John F. Kennedy, many of us will remember where we were and what we were doing
when we first heard the news. People who were there will tell their stories and
the impact of that day will be felt one more time. Photographs and film from
that day will find their way onto our televisions and the pages of our
newspapers. The names of the dead will be read aloud. Their numbers will be
counted again. We will pause to revisit that sadness that has not yet
"flown away on the wings of time" (Jean de la Fontaine).<br>
<br>
Tragically, some among us will use the day as an opportunity to whip up
feelings of jingoism and religious prejudice. Patriotism will be confused with
violence, and justice with revenge.<br>
<br>
As Christians, many of us find ourselves mired in ambivalence. Our grieving is
still unfinished, our anger is not fully abated. Yet there is something at work
within us that wants to leave the anger behind and wants to heal the wounds
that were inflicted upon us these ten years ago.<br>
<br>
In our hearts, we know that healing begins with a most difficult and often
painful decision: the decision to forgive.<br>
<br>
<br>
THE WORD<br>
<br>
<b><i><span style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>Exodus 15<br>
</span></i></b>Scholars and historians tell us that it would have taken a long
time for the Children of Israel to cross through the divided <st1:place w:st="on">Red
Sea</st1:place>... days, maybe even weeks.<br>
<br>
Then they looked back and saw the sea collapse upon the army of Pharaoh. They
were safe, for the moment, but before them lay the wilderness, a vast desert
expanse full of mystery and danger with only their faith in God to lead and protect
them.<br>
<br>
It must have been scary.<br>
<br>
So they paused for a few moments by the seashore and they sang a song praising
God and giving thanks for their deliverance. But they did not make camp. They
did not decide to live there by the <st1:place w:st="on">Red Sea</st1:place>.
They did not decide to forgo the journey to which they were called and the
promise it entailed.<br>
<br>
They sang their song -- then they picked up their stuff and they moved out in
faith, following Moses, who himself followed the pillar and the cloud.<br>
<br>
<b><i><span style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>Matthew 18:21-35<br>
</span></i></b>Jesus and Paul have a lot to say on the topic of forgiveness. If
it is not their favorite topic, it is certainly on their "Top Ten
List." And it is not a prescription for national foreign policy. Jesus
does not speak to nations but to the hearts of those who dare to call
themselves the people of God. He speaks to us as Christians.<br>
<br>
* We are called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, to
turn the other cheek and to go the extra mile (Matthew 5:39ff).<br>
* If we want to be forgiven, we must first forgive (Matthew 6:14-15).<br>
* Our forgiveness is to be limitless (Luke 7:4).<br>
* Our forgiveness has the power to change lives (John 20:23).<br>
* We love and forgive because we were first loved and forgiven (Colossians
3:13).<br>
* Even as he is dying on the cross, Jesus prays for God to forgive his
tormentors.<br>
<br>
In this Sunday's lection, we are told in the parable of the wicked steward that
we are ourselves forgiven by God by the measure we use to forgive others.<br>
<br>
The ability to forgive is, according to scripture, not a gift of the Spirit,
available to some and not to others. It is, like other forms of love, an act of
the will. It is a decision.<br>
<br>
It is, to be sure, not a simple or easy decision, but it is a decision
nonetheless. It is something we do because as Christians we must, whether we
feel like it or not, because we were ourselves forgiven.<br>
<br>
<br>
CRAFTING THE SERMON<br>
<br>
If we preach forgiveness on this of all days, we dare not preach it from our
own authority but only from that of Jesus Christ as he comes to us in scripture.<br>
<br>
If we are ever to move from the valley of grief, anger, and despair to the
mountaintop of peace through faith, love, and forgiveness, it will not be by
our own vision or under our own power. That path can be successfully traversed
only by following that same pillar and cloud that Moses and Miriam followed and
by walking in the footsteps of the One from Galilee, those same footsteps
ultimately led to <st1:place w:st="on">Calvary</st1:place>.<br>
<br>
It is never permissible to proof-text from scripture -- to use passages out of
context to prove a personally made point. It is always permitted, however, to
illustrate a scriptural point with different passages from scripture.<br>
<br>
A survey of New Testament passages that deal with forgiveness may be a good
place to begin here. It will show that we are not speaking from our own
authority but from that of scripture, and it will lead us naturally to this
day's text -- that of the wicked steward who wants to be forgiven but who is
himself unwilling to forgive.<br>
<br>
Note that nowhere in the parable are we told that he is not <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>able</span></b> to forgive -- he simply chooses not
to. There is too much to be lost if he forgives those who owe him as he has
been forgiven.<br>
<br>
So it is with us. If we make the decision to forgive, we will have to give up
our anger. We'll have to give up our hatred, our resentment, our grief, and our
sadness. We'll have to give up that privileged place that victims hold in our
culture. We'll have to leave the seashore and turn toward the wilderness. We'll
have to allow ourselves to be led in faith to that promised land of which we
have heard but which we have not seen.<br>
<br>
This day calls for that most delicate of balancing acts, which is truly
responsible preaching. On the one hand, we must be sensitive enough to
acknowledge and honor the feelings of our flock. At the same time, we must be
sensitive and accountable to the text that calls them to begin reaching beyond
those feelings and stepping out in faith.<br>
<br>
My prayer is that you, as a preacher, will have the strength and insight
necessary to deliver such a message and that your congregation will have the
grace and openness of heart to hear it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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