The thought of an all-knowing God can be quite disturbing. If we really took seriously the words with which we begin each Eucharist, we might rush for the door: \u201cAlmighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a story told of an Irish priest who, on election day, began his sermon by saying: \u201cI\u2019ve been told that I may no longer tell you which candidates the Church wants you to vote for. But I can say that if you vote for the wrong people, your bishop won\u2019t know, I won\u2019t know, but God will know!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thought of an absent-minded God seems ridiculous. While we may take some comfort in a belief that God will overlook our personal failings, we are less likely to accept that God would forget the misdeeds of \u201creal sinners.\u201d Episcopalians don\u2019t really sin, do they? We may have failings, for after all, \u201cwe are only human.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Granted there are some Episcopalians, the High Church sorts, who \u201cgo to confession\u201d and get a priest to absolve them. There\u2019s even a liturgy for it in the Prayer Book. That liturgy even permits lay folk to listen to a confession and to ask God to forgive the \u201csinner.\u201d For many of us the idea of a human being, even if he or she wears a \u201cdog-collar,\u201d forgiving sins makes us uncomfortable. When prisoners on death row \u201cget religion\u201d we remain cynical. Surely God can\u2019t forget a cold-blooded killer? If God does, there\u2019s surely something wrong with God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gospel today is familiar to us all. Jesus is teaching in a courtyard within the walls of a house. Hearing that Jesus is a healer, the friends of a paralyzed man put him on a stretcher and attempt to fight their way through the crowd. When that doesn\u2019t work they go up on the roof, remove the courtyard covering, and lower the man down. That must have caused quite a stir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notice that it was the faith-the \u201cdetermination\u201d-of the man\u2019s friends that amazes Jesus. \u201cWhen Jesus saw their faith he said\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then Jesus says the wrong lines. Instead of saying, \u201cYou are healed,\u201d he says, \u201cSon, your sins are forgiven.\u201d Jesus calls the sick man \u201cSon\u201d. It\u2019s a young man. Young people have \u201cfailings\u201d. But \u201csins?\u201d What on earth had he done? How can paralysis be the result of \u201csin\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It all sounds so primitive. We could spend the next few minutes speculating on psychosomatic illnesses. Perhaps we could reach a conclusion that might bring the story into line with what we think about the mind and its effect on the body. If we did that, we would probably miss the \u201cpunch line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like many of us, the religious \u201cpolice\u201d in the crowd came out with the mantra, \u201cWho can forgive sins but God alone?\u201d They mutter: \u201cWhy does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus knows what they are thinking. He poses a difficult question and then gives a shocking answer. He asks whether it is \u201ceasier\u201d to say, \u201cYour sins are forgiven\u201d or to say, \u201cStand up, and take your mat and walk.\u201d Jesus claims authority to \u201cforgive sins\u201d in his capacity as \u201cThe Son of Man\u201d and then orders the sick man to stand up and walk. \u201c\u2026they were all amazed and glorified God, saying \u2018We have never seen anything like this!’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most modern scholars suggest that what we now call \u201cfaith healing\u201d was a reality in the ancient world as it can be today. It is so much easier for us to piously say that Mary was miraculously healed, even though the doctors gave her three months to live. It is much more difficult for us to believe that Mary has been forgiven, particularly if she had previously hurt us or offended us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We easily skip over the words in the Lord\u2019s Prayer, \u201d as we forgive those who trespass against us\u201d or \u201cas we forgive those who sin against us.\u201d It is the \u201cas\u201d which gives us trouble! After all, \u201cforgive us our sins\u201d ( trespasses ) means those minor failings we have as human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lessons today talk about a God who forgives and forgets. We\u2019ve heard one of the writers of the Book of Isaiah speak for God. \u201d Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old\u201d says God in the words of a prophet. Isaiah reminds the people of their neglect of God in very vivid terms\u2013do take these lessons home and read them again\u2013but the passage ends by God saying \u201cI am He who BLOTS out your transgressions for my own sake and I WILL NOT REMEMBER your sins.\u201d The writer of 2 Corinthians says, \u201cFor in him (Jesus) every one of God\u2019s promises is a \u2018Yes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The heart of the Christian faith is the \u201cforgiveness of sins.\u201d In the Creed we say that we believe in baptism \u201cfor the forgiveness of sins.\u201d God not only forgives our sins, he blots them out. God does not remember our sins. God is eternally absent-minded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a catch. There always is. We are to forgive those who sin against us. That means we are to forget all about \u201cjustice.\u201d Of course we can\u2019t erase from our memory what \u201cBill did to me\u201d or how \u201cFreda betrayed me.\u201d We are to grasp a very simple thing. If we remain angry and resentful and refuse to forgive sins done to us by others, we cripple ourselves. We become paralyzed and need to hear forgiveness. Only then can we get up and walk. Our poor Episcopal Church is divided in large part because people with different views can\u2019t stand each other, let alone forgive each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of us harbor resentment. We enshrine that hurt, as if it was a holy thing to be adored and visited much more often than we visit God and enter his shrine. We bore our friends to death with tales of betrayal. We hope the person or \u201cthing\u201d which hurt us will suffer in the end. We\u2019ll be damned rather than believe that forgiveness is for them from God, and certainly not from us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can we forgive and forget? So we cop out by saying that Jesus could forgive even those who crucified him \u201cbecause he\u2019s God.\u201d We can say that perhaps God can forgive those who have hurt us, but we hope God won\u2019t!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clue is in the collect for today. \u201cO Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing\u2026\u201d or \u201cO Lord, who has taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth,\u201d the prayer makes us say. Note what follows. The prayer doesn\u2019t suggest that we have to delve deep into ourselves to find enough love to be forgiven and forget. That would be a self-defeating quest. Face it, we can\u2019t find enough love in us to say to those we resent, \u201cYour sin is forgiven.\u201d We are not at all sure that would be right and proper. It might only encourage them to go on being the rotten people they are!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we pray, \u201cSend your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love.\u201d Notice that you have prayed that the Holy Spirit, the God who gets right into us, will POUR into our hearts a love which we don\u2019t have, and cannot have. In short we ask the God who blots out sins, who \u201cdoes not remember,\u201d to take over and do in us that which we can\u2019t manage to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is so important. That is why the Lord\u2019s Prayer makes such a big deal about our forgiving the sins of others. In a few minutes we will confess our sins together. A priest may forgive us our sins, or if there isn\u2019t a priest with us today we will pray that God will blot out all our forgetfulness of God. It is only when we forget that we are always walking in God\u2019s sight that we forget to love God and forget to love and forgive our neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who is this fellow who claims to forgive sins? This \u201cfellow,\u201d male or female, may be the priest who announces that God is forgetful. This \u201cfellow\u201d may be you or me who needs to \u201cforgive and forget.\u201d Why? In order to be whole, to stand up and walk. In order to be a convincing Christian and be God-like, Christ-like: in order that we, together, may amaze the watching world by being the Christian Community, the fellowship of forgetful, forgiving, baptized people. For if we can\u2019t be a communion of the forgiven and the forgiving folk, what on earth do we have to say about Jesus? Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by Anthony F.M. Clavier<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The thought of an all-knowing God can be quite disturbing. If we really took seriously the words with which we begin each Eucharist, we might rush for the door: \u201cAlmighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.\u201d There\u2019s a story told of an Irish priest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32,43,52,3],"tags":[474],"class_list":["post-511259","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epiphany","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-epiphany-7b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":32,"label":"Epiphany"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":474,"label":"Epiphany 7B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3473497,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511259\/revisions\/3473497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}