The Lord's Prayer Part 5-Forgiveness

Mt. 6:12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. If there’s one thing that I need it’s forgiveness. We all need it. Lots of it. All the time. Forgiveness is the only way to maintain relationships. It’s the only way to maintain sanity. We’re not perfect and we will fail. And when we do someone will get hurt. And if the hurt is not forgiven it will not heal. Forgiveness is what we really need. Interesting that of all the things that are covered in the Lord’s Prayer, the one thing that Jesus comments on after the prayer is forgiveness. And His comment bothers me. I don’t like to think of God in these terms. My guess is that you don’t either. If we do not forgive men their sins God won’t forgive us ours. Pardon me? That was my bad ear. God forgives everyone who prays a sinner’s prayer, right? However, the sinner’s prayer is not in the Bible. The requirement that we forgive one another is in the Bible, on the lips of Jesus no less. I suggest that when someone wants to begin a journey with Jesus we turn to this verse. And I suggest we turn to it many times again and again with an open and honest heart, ready to forgive the hurt we bear because of the imperfections and character flaws of others. Why won’t God forgive us if we don’t forgive others? In Matthew 18, Jesus makes the same point in the form of a parable…a story that would have been hilarious to its original hearers because of the ridiculous amount of debt owed by the unmerciful (read ‘unforgiving’) servant. The answer to the ‘why’ question may not be given, but the insanity of not forgiving when we’ve been forgiven so much is clear as a bell. But why does Jesus instruct us to ask for something that He came to provide anyway? Perhaps because it reminds us that we must forgive others in order to receive from Him the forgiveness we really need. Perhaps the heart condition required to forgive others is the same heart condition needed to experience and live in His forgiveness. In the equivalent passage in Luke, it is trespasses that are to be forgiven, not debts as here. Debts are good things left undone. Sins of omission. Trespasses are evil deeds we have done. Sins of commission. Both Greek and English have separate words for debts and trespasses. Aramaic, which is the original language of the prayer has only one word for both. Both debts and trespasses are included. Certainly we are guilty of both, and thus must extend forgiveness for both as well. God is so willing to forgive us ours. May we be also be willing. One final thought. If you step on my foot I will likely be able to forgive you quickly. This is forgiveness as an event. If you permanently injure someone in my immediate family, I cannot forgive you so quickly. I have a process to go through. If I pretend to forgive quickly I am being dishonest and covering up the hurt rather than forgiving it. If we are to release the hurt we must first own it. We must experience it fully. It is only then that we can make a decision to forgive. In fact, forgiveness can only be as thorough as our experience of the pain. And for a serious offense this can take months or years. But God meets us in the process of forgiveness and will lead us through it by His gentle but firm hand. He will lead us step by step. For further reading on the subject of forgiveness, I suggest reading one of Lewis Smedes excellent books, ‘The Art of Forgiving’, and ‘Forgive and Forget.’ "You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well."- Smedes

The Lord's Prayer Part 4-Oh, Manna.

Matthew 6:11 Give us today our daily bread. Jesus was not a wealthy man. And He habitually spoke against greed and the abuse of wealth. He said later in this sermon not to store up treasures on earth. But He did understand the need for provision and here instructs His disciples to ask God to give them what they need. For today. Enough for today, not enough for the year. This idea is beautifully illustrated in Exodus 16, the story of God giving the Israelites bread from heaven. It is highly likely that Jesus was nodding to this story in his request for daily bread. The story talks about the Israelites complaining about being in the desert without what they considered to be adequate provision. These guys had already forgotten that they were in an abusive and inhumane situation in which they were slaves to a cruel dictator. Their grumbling against Moses and Aaron was actually grumbling against a compassionate and merciful God who is all too ready to help. The good ole days are usually not what we remember them to be. The bad stuff we simply choose to forget. Just like Barbara Streisand. Anyway… God promises to “rain down bread for heaven” and He does just that. The Israelites saw the substance, which was “thin flakes like frost on the ground,” and exclaimed, “Manna!” which means “What is it?” They had never seen frosted flakes before. The name stuck and the Israelites had breakfast. Lunch and dinner to boot. And even quail meat as a main course for dinner. God gave them enough for today, but not enough for tomorrow. If they were greedy and gathered too much it would spoil (except on Friday night, when they could also gather enough for all day Saturday, the day of rest.) A story about frosted flakes and a prayer about days and bread speaks strongly to us. I went to school in a town where I heard a lot of preachers say that Jesus wants us rich. Once I was actually in a Bible study led by a guy who taught that we should have faith for everything we want. Piles of money, cars, TV’s, etc. This type of biblical interpretation could only be birthed in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. The good ole U.S. of A. Jesus does tell us to pray for provision. Don’t be satisfied that less than what you need. But we may need much less than what we think. But He never instructs to pray for what we do not need. Bread for today, not for the whole year. Not even for next week. Today. Further, He instructs us to pray for bread. Not cake. We are to pray for sustenance, not luxury. No place for extravagance and greed in the kingdom of God. And let us not forget the bread is a gift. We think that we work for our money and that we deserve it because we’ve earned it. Wrong. What an arrogant and thankless way to think! Those who gather manna didn’t produce it. Didn’t supply it. They just went and got it. God gave it from a heart of caring for His children. If you build houses (sorry that work is slow for you right now) you didn’t grow the trees that make the lumber, or create the clay that the bricks are made of. And it is God that gave you the strength and the ability to acquire the appropriate skills. All you’re doing is gathering manna. The farmer plants the seed but God supplies the growth. The hunter seeks the prey but God provides it. If you work on computers or are in a helping profession it may be a bit less obvious. But we have no materials to create that did not come from God’s creation, and no knowledge and skill that didn’t come from His generosity. When my wife and I spent a decade on the mission field we saw this demonstrated clearly. Our support came from gifts, not a salary. And though we worked hard, our finances were in no way connected to the work we did. We did what God called us to do, and He provided for us. When we moved back to the states and ‘got jobs’ nothing really changed. We still must do what god calls us to do and trust Him (not ourselves) to provide. Nothing we do to provide for ourselves really provides for anything. It is all simply receiving a gift. And recognizing this fact changes everything. All our possessions and finances are suddenly meaningful. Even holy. We no longer have to worry because it is God who supplies everything. Pressure to perform and overachieve takes its proper place as sinful and anti-kingdom motivation. And we are free to give because we know that it is all from God in the first place. Asking God to give us daily bread is recognizing the way that the world really works. If our nation is facing hard economic times, we must trust God who gives us enough manna for today.