18 PENTECOST, PROPER 19, YEAR A
SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE
THE REV. ANNE G. STANLEY
14 SEPTEMBER 2008
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Exodus 14:19-31; Psalm 114; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35
Today we hear the parable of the king who wished to settle his accounts. And the whole complicated matter of forgiveness.
If the disciples expected a steady dose of soothing, easy words from Jesus, they were surely disappointed a lot of the time.
If our preaching the gospel is to be faithful and true to Jesus, then we mustn’t preach a diet of mush, either.
Moreover, if we are to hear the gospel as Jesus intends us to hear it, we should read ourselves right into the story itself. And that can sometimes be very painful!
Author and theologian Jim Douglass has done that for us, with today’s parable. Listen to my paraphrase of his retelling, updated:
Compare the reign of God to a financial lord who wished to settle accounts with his debtor nations. When he began the reckoning, they brought to him one who was the president of a country that owed him $5 TRILLION, the United States. And as the country could not pay, the lord ordered that austerity measures be adopted by its government. Henceforth, all government services were to be canceled, millions of employees were to be fired, and all health, welfare and social security payments were to be cut off until the debt owed by the United States was paid. Every available resource was to go toward mounting debt-service payments.
So the president of the United States fell on his knees before the financial lord, imploring him, “Lord, have patience with us, and we will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him and his people, the lord of that president released him and forgave the debt.
But that very same president, as he went out, came upon the president of a tiny African country that owed the United States 1 Million dollars. Seizing him by the lapel, the US president said, “Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow president fell to his knees and besought him, “Have patience with us, and we will pay you everything.” No luck. The US economic advisors forced austerity measure on that tiny African country, whose people then died of malnutrition while their own resources were used up to service the debt.
When the presidents of other debtor nations saw what had taken place, because of their great distress they were moved to solidarity. And they went and reported to the financial lord all that had happened and their resolve to stand together. “We shall NOT pay our foreign debt with the hunger of our people.”
Then the lord summoned the United States president and said to him, “You stupid man, I forgave you and your people all that debt because you besought me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow president, as I had mercy on you? And look what you have done now! Those nations are in solidarity, and all of us who have held them in debt will be ruined!”
And in anger his lord delivered him and his nation to austerity measures and a great depression, and both president and lord then fell from wealth and power,
Forgiveness involves change—and transformation. Change and transformation usually produce upheaval, even chaos, whether forgiveness is between individuals or nations. It is not easy.
We are hearing a lot about change this election season. Both presidential candidates are talking about it.
Some of the changes, could be significant. But most of them will no doubt involve merely tweaking things a bit, so that after a period of settling in, life will go back to moving along pretty much as it had before.
So I have a proposal for our candidates. What if we could read them the two versions of today’s parable: Jesus’ version from Matthew’s gospel and Jim Douglass’ version with us moderns in it. Then, after we let all that sink in, what if we were to challenge the candidates to see who would be the first to stand up and announce a new campaign promise, an entirely new goal? A real change? What if we were to inspire them to come up with an actual, radical change along the lines of the gospel transformation Jesus calls for? With plenty of help from all of us to make it work. Change involving money and debt and forgiveness because Jesus’ parable today, like much of Jesus’ teaching, is about money and forgiveness of debt. For Jesus, it was grinding poverty that inspired his mission, and oppression that was at the root of his gospel: masters and slaves, kings and servants, the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, we hear of them all, over and over again in the gospels.
Many of today’s poorest are those African nations that have paid principal on loans to international monetary organizations many times over. Now these poor countries are paying as much as one-fourth of their national budgets on the interest of debt service.
Forgiveness is a complicated thing. The stories of the indebted slaves and the indebted nations and the unforgiving, unmerciful leaders are unfinished stories; although Jesus makes it clear what needs to be done next. Forgiveness, if it is truly forgiveness, must become a way of life. For each of us, for groups of us, for nations of us. Forgiveness, to be real, must be unconditional, more than a mere shrug of the shoulders. Real forgiveness for Jesus is a radical act, resulting in change, transformation. So that nothing is ever the same again. Today’s parable demands radical acts as a way of life.
These parables leave us hanging. Jesus did that a lot. It’s not a good feeling. The stories have no endings. The endings, of course, are up to us. You, me, all of us. The endings are up to us to imagine. What would our world be like if we were to lead the community of nations in the radical acts of debt forgiveness that Jesus called for? A thought for the day. What would the repercussions of that drastic act of forgiveness bring about? These parables are raw and unfinished, without neat endings. Jesus leaves the endings up to us, not merely to imagine but to help bring into being, with God’s help.