Monday, October 2, 2017

Sermon: Marching out of captivity (Sept 17, 2017)

Pentecost 15A
September 17, 2017
Exodus 14:19-31
Matthew 18:21-35

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
            The last couple weeks we have been hearing during worship the Moses story. Today is the most dramatic moment of that story – the crossing of the Red Sea – and the event for which the entire book of Exodus is named. But before we get into that, let’s look at how we got here.
            Back during the summer, we heard the story of Genesis – the creation of the first humans, the fall into sin, and the beginnings of the people who would become the Israelites, God’s chosen people. We had Abraham and Sarah, then Isaac and Rebecca, then Jacob and his four women, who would bear 12 sons, who would become the 12 tribes of Israel. But one of those sons, Joseph, was disliked by the other boys. So they sold him into slavery, and long story short, he ended up in Egypt, where he became an advisor to the Pharaoh. Because of Joseph’s visions and his wisdom, Joseph was able to save Egypt from the seven-year famine. Because Egypt was the only place around that had food, people traveled from all over to get food from Egypt – including, the very brothers who had sold Joseph into slavery! When Joseph sees his brothers in need, he is merciful and forgiving, and not only gives them what they need, but invites them to come live in Egypt, where they will have plenty of food to eat for the duration of the famine. Happy ending!
            But of course, that wasn’t the ending. Because many years pass, and a king arises who did not know Joseph and all he had done for Egypt, and who didn’t care one bit for Joseph’s family, the Israelites. In fact, the Israelites were by now so numerous that they had become a bit of a nuisance, so Pharaoh decided to make them his slaves. God’s chosen people now found themselves oppressed by the ruling power of this foreign country. But God had a plan. In fact, all of this was lead-up for the great plan God had to show His people in dramatic fashion just how far God would go for freedom.
            The past couple weeks, we have seen Moses arise as a key player in the plan. God called him from out of a burning bush, asking him to go tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go – go out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of oppression, and into new life. Well, Pharaoh wasn’t too keen on that idea – having the Hebrews as slaves was essential to the operation of his kingdom, after all! But God, through Moses, was relentless, sending ten plagues upon Egypt until finally, after killing all the firstborns of Egypt except those of the Israelites, Pharaoh agrees to let them go. And that is where we find ourselves today.
            The next part of the story is known by Sunday School kids everywhere: the Israelites follow Moses out of Egypt and toward the Red Sea, but then Pharaoh changes his mind and sends his army after them. When they arrive at the sea, Moses parts the sea, and the Israelites walk safely across dry land between walls of water, but when Pharaoh’s army comes after them, the sea comes back together and the whole army is drowned. God has saved the Israelites from slavery! He has marched them right out of the hands of the oppressor, and into freedom! They are so taken by the event (and who wouldn’t be??) that they sing and dance right there on the shore.


            This would become the defining event for the Jewish faith. This is their Easter story. It is the story retold at the Passover festival, the story referred to as evidence of God’s care, God’s love, God’s desire that we would live lives of freedom.
            And freedom, of course, is also the goal and purpose of our Christian faith. That’s why Jesus died – to save us and free us from our sins. That said, I think that phrase could use some unpacking, because it is kind of a weird phrase, isn’t it? Free us from our sins? What does that even mean?
            Today’s Gospel text can shed some light on this. It begins with this question from Peter, “Jesus, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” I bet he was expecting some kudos for that – seven times is a lot of times to forgive someone! Of course Jesus blows it out of the water, suggesting instead a ridiculous number of times one should forgive: 77 times! Maybe you’re like me, in that when you hear that you imagine it means you should forgive someone every time they do something, as many as 77 times (or really, that number implies more, so many times you lose count).
But this week a different meaning occurred to me. Sometimes people do things that are fairly easy to forgive. So you forgive them, and move on. But sometimes, an offense is so deeply wounding, that you have to forgive it again and again, every day. Or, maybe you think you have forgiven it, and you go weeks without thinking about it, but suddenly it comes up to bite you and you have to do that hard work of forgiving again. What I’m saying is that, like a recovering addict who every day has to make the decision not to drink or smoke or overeat or whatever, sometimes you have to wake up every day and decide to forgive, the same offense, over and over again, 77 times or more.
It’s a lot of work. Is it worth it? In the parable Jesus tells, he shows us that it absolutely is. Because when we are unable to forgive, it can be torture. Holding onto a grudge can eat away at you, poison your closest relationships, affect your mood and even your physical health. We read this last line in Jesus’ parable about how our Heavenly Father will torture us until we are willing to forgive, and squirm at just how ungodly that seems – but really, isn’t it true? Not forgiving is indeed torturous! Like that Anne Lamott quote, “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison, and waiting for the rat to die.” Maybe it hurts the offender a little bit, to know you have not forgiven them, but ultimately, the one withholding forgiveness bears a much heavier burden.
In fact, we could call that a certain sort of captivity. “We are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves,” we pray. Our unforgiveness holds us hostage, oppresses us, makes us a slave to its torment. It plagues us, over and over.
Until… Until God comes and says, “I want freedom for you.” And to the one who holds us captive, God says, “Let my people go – away from you and into freedom!” And God marches us out of slavery, away from the oppressor. God parts the sea that would have trapped us and let the enemy overcome us, and then leads the way through the waters of baptism, and behind us drowns our sin and all that had oppressed us.
In Christ, God shows us the way of forgiveness. God shows us what it means to be forgiven, how it feels, how it brings freedom… so that we, in turn would be equipped to live into that life of freedom by forgiving others: forgiving others for small offenses that are once and done, forgiving them for that nagging behavior that doesn’t seem to stop, and yes, even forgiving them for those offenses that cut us so deeply that every day requires a decision to forgive them again. And we do it, because not to thrusts us right back into that place of slavery and oppression, and because of Christ, we simply cannot go back there. Christ died so that we would not have to be stuck there. Christ rose so that we could see that ours is a God who is free – from sin, from death – and wants us, too, to be free from those things. And Christ continues to walk with us – emboldening and strengthening us for the difficult but life-restoring work of forgiving “those who trespass against us,” just as have been forgiven.
            Let us pray… God of freedom, you marched the Israelites away from that which enslaved them, and you promise to lead us, too, away from the sin that would enslave us. Teach us to forgive, as you have forgiven us, so that we would live into the life of freedom that you promise us, again and again. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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