Pathways to Grace
Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts
Ex. 14:19-31
Mt. 18:21-35
Can you imagine how the Jewish people must have felt--enslaved for years in a foreign country--Egypt? It would be like having your whole life hemmed in on all sides. Then finally God opened a pathway through the Red Sea, while protecting them from behind-- so they could escape. No longer closed in all sides but with a clear and open pathway to new life!
In many ways that's what God's grace --God's all-forgiving, all-accepting love does for us . . in many situations where you and I may feel hemmed in. God opens a pathway to new life with forgiving, renewing, accepting love. When we have done wrong and feel weighed down by guilt, and come to God with confession and a desire to start again, God's grace is there for us--a forgiving love, that frees us and shows us a pathway to new life.
In our gospel reading today we heard about those pathways to grace. In Jesus parable--we heard the story of a king, who out of pity for a slave who could not pay his debt--forgave that debt. And indeed, Jesus is telling us that God is like that for everyone of us, when we have done wrong--failed in our obli-gations perhaps, hurt someone we loved, gone against the loving ways God expects of us--if we fail, and everything seems to go in the wrong direction in our lives, the message here is, "Fear not! For God is forgiving, and will give you another chance!" Yes, will open a pathway through those seas that seem to trap you in your present circumstances. God is not one who desires to punish anyone who messes up from time to time. Rather God always is ready to open a pathway for us to new life--with forgiveness and a new chance to start again. You know, one of the unfortunate mistakes we often make as Christians, is to think that because Christ was so loving and forgiving, that we should be extra hard on ourselves and others when we are not loving. Somehow we forget the forgiving part--forget to forgive yes, ourselves--for God's grace is available to us, and tragically we also far too often I think, take a judgmental stance toward others who we think are going astray in the faith. Instead, God, calls all of us, as Christians, to be an open and accepting community for all, recognizing that we all mess up from time to time--we all sin. For we're human. We're mortal. So rather than excluding some for misbehavior, we need to turn to each other, and help each other be the loving people God calls us to be. Simply put--by ourselves we're imperfect--but when we come together in loving community, we're accepted as we are, faults and all, and find, indeed a pathway to new life--forgiven and accepted.
In a way, as Christians, we're called, as a people, to be, I think, like the way our neighborhood full of kids were for each other, at least as I remember it now, when we were growing up in my neighborhood. For example, the way we used to chose up sides for a game of softball or touch football at the vacant lot in back of our house with all those neighborhood kids. What a good feeling it was to be one of the first ones chosen for a team--and conversely what a bummer it was if you were one of the last one's chosen? But you know what the best part was about those informal neighborhood games--everyone of us always got to play, regardless of our age or how good were. Everyone was chosen. And what fun we had, as a result! Oh yes, many of us were not very good players at all. Little ones seldom caught those pop-ups, and had a tough time running fast enough to beat out a throw at first base, but the older shortstop or second baseman always seemed to drop the grounder, or take just long enough to make a throw to first so that the little one could have at least one or two hits every game.
Well God's grace is like that for you and me, don't you see. We may sin, mess up, do wrong, make mistakes, or not have the energy on a given day to be the person we know God wants us to be. Yet, if we're trying, and sincerely want to be the people Christ has called us to be, God will always give us another chance, find a way to help our small, imperfect efforts get to first base.
And then we need to emphasize that God's grace is freely given! Some-where along the line in learning our faith, there is often a mistaken notion that some of us gain that getting into heaven, or being accepted by God, depends on our chalking up enough good works to earn our way through the golden gates. But sorry folks! That's not the way it works! Instead our God is a god who is forgiving and loving for all of us--and in fact that's the way it has to be, because, think about it! As good a person as most everyone here in this Christian community is, still everyone of us has faults, none of us is perfect--so we all need God's forgiving love. If our salvation depended on the number of perfect days we put in, in the course of our lives, I doubt if any of us could make the grade.
But then I know what you're thinking. If that's the case, (you're saying to yourself, perhaps), what about the way the King treated the servant in Jesus parable in the end? Even though that slave was forgiven his debt, in the end, he was given over to be tortured? Why? Because, though given a second chance, he in turn would not give the same forgiving, accepting, grace-filled love to others who owed him. The implication of the parable of course is that God is like the king. So does that make God a cruel God. I don't think so. The king was very willing to be full of grace and acceptance for that slave--it was the slave who then didn't learn his lesson and turned around and hurt himself with this greed and hard heart toward others.
God is always willing to show us a pathway to grace you see. But guess what, if we don't follow that path then, and love as we have been so loved by God, we only hurt ourselves--even though God is still trying to show us that pathway, that we've refused to take, to receive God's forgiving love.
Is it God , for example, who has hurt so many in the wars of the Middle East in recent years? Or is it people, on both sides who think that the way to solving human problems is through violence and war, and so keep up that violence, over and over? Yes even though God has given us plenty of chances to see how tragically futile that violence is? The pathway to Grace, doesn't come through being judgmental or wrathful toward others. But Grace and peace can be known, when we follow that pathway Christ laid out for us--the path of love, forgiveness, acceptance of all persons. We have been loved. We've been shown the path. So we only bring trouble on ourselves (it's not God's doing) when we fail to follow those paths of love and forgiveness---i grace toward others, as God, in Christ has shown us.
According to an article in the Washington Post, a few years ago, when then President George Bush--the first President Bush, encountered a homeless man outside of St. John's Episcopal Church one day in April of 1989, it seemed for a moment that nothing good could come of it. "Will you pray for me?" the homeless one, William Wallace Brown, Jr. asked Bush as he and his wife Barbara were about to enter the church. "No," Bush replied. But the 41st President of the United States then politely added, "Come inside and pray for yourself." So began an odyssey of sorts that would transform Mr. Brown. He would go on to become a member of that "Church of the Presidents," as St. John's is called. And through his fellowship, St. John's, the bright yellow church across Lafayette Square from the White House, would be transformed as well.
"Mr. Brown dressed in old clothes--you could tell he was a street person." recalled Virginia Jones, an assistant head usher at the church. "When the time came to take up collections, I was going to skip him. But he stopped me and gave me a wadded up dollar bill. He gave one every Sunday. Now some of our more well-to-do members" said Jones, "only put in a dollar, and many of them were humbled by Mr. Brown's spirit of generosity."
Yes, you see how important it is that we reach out to others and help them to feel accepted, as they are. For when we do, it makes them feel important and loved, and then they love too--and show us once more, pathways we ought to be following.
Who do we exclude, instead of inviting them into our church. Who do we exclude by hurting others, even though God has been loving and forgiving toward us. Who are the ones, we are called to include in our love, and in our efforts for God's important work, as God has included and loved us. It's so important that we do extend an accepting grace to others, too, don't you see--so they too will feel loved by God, just as they are.
And finally we need to note that according to our gospel reading, we are to have that loving and accepting grace toward others over and over again. It isn't that we give someone another chance to be good, but if they mess up once, they're out--excluded from our love and our community. Rather we are to forgive someone even seventy-times seven times, says Jesus. Now why is that? Well think about it. Being judgmental instead, and excluding someone, will never change their behavior, will it? It just makes them say," well, I'm glad I wronged that person, if that's the way their going to treat me"; and the behavior and exclusion of that person only gets worse. But when we continually reach out to someone with love and forgiveness--follow that pathway of grace, we also keep open a pathway for them to turn around and change their ways, and learn to love us. But if we exclude them, that pathway's cut off --perhaps for good.
According to a legend about a certain Brother Angelo of the order of Saint Francis of Assisi, on a certain Christmas Eve, Brother Angelo cleans his simple mountain hut and decorates it for mass. He says his prayers, sweeps the hearth and hangs a kettle over the fire, and then sits back to wait for Brother Francis, whom he expects later in the day. Just then three outlaws appear at the door begging for food. Frightened and angry, Brother Angelo sends them away empty-handed, scolding and warning them that thieves are damned to hell fire.
When Francis arrives, he senses that something is not right. Brother Angelo then tells him about his visitors, and Francis sends him up into the mountains with a jug of wine and a loaf, to find them, and ask their forgiveness. Well, Brother Angelo is indignant. Unlike Francis, he can't see the wild men as brothers--only as outlaws. He sets out obediently, however, and by nightfall (having followed the men's footsteps in the snow), he finds them and makes amends. Some time later, the legend goes, they leave their cave and what do they do? They ask to join the order--to become monks along with Brother Angelo. Experiencing mercy in their own lives from the monk, you see, becomes the turning around moment for their own lives. Knowing that kind of forgiving love for the first time, they are attracted to it, and make the decision to become monks themselves, that they might share the same love, with others.
God, you see, has opened a pathway of grace for us, a forgiving, loving chance for new life, and expects us to open up the same kinds of pathways for others. That monk made a trail through the snow to go and make amends and welcome those men, though they had been outlaws, and indeed made it possible for the outlaws to turn their lives around and follow a new path to the monastery.
For you and me, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to rejoice, over and over again at the pathway of Grace Christ laid out for us. We are forgiven, accepted, in spite of our faults. And we are thus also called to open the same pathways of grace for others. Even to forgive seventy times seven times, if that's what it takes to show others the freeing, new-life-making paths of Gods grace and love through Jesus Christ our Lord. The path is there for us--all we need to do is follow, and then behold, others will too--and think what a difference that creates for our far too often troubled world! Amen.