“Set
Free Through Forgiveness”
St. Matthew 18:21-22
A
children's Sermon by Pastor Boettner
The
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September
15, 2002
Object:
A bone or a dog biscuit
Boys
and girls:
Last
week we talked about a fable from Aesop about four bulls. Another of my
favorite fables by Aesop is about a dog that was given a delicious bone
by a neighbor. On his way, home the dog held the bone firmly in his
teeth while he crossed a bridge over a river. Looking down into the
river he saw his own reflection and thought it was another dog with a
bone that was larger than his. He leaned over and snapped at the dog
that he saw in the river and dropped the bone he was carrying in his
teeth into the river below.
I
was reminded of this fable by the story in our lesson from the Bible
today. Jesus told a parable about a man who owed a king an enormous debt
which he could not pay. The king forgave him his debt so that he would
not have to go to jail. Another man owed this same man a very small debt
but instead of forgiving him, he had this other man thrown into jail.
This man was like Aesop’s dog that had been given the bone. They both
had received a gift of love, but they both were unwilling to share that
love with another. The most important message of the Bible is that we
are to love one another as God has loved us. That means that when
someone hurts us, we forgive them. That means that when we have
something good, we seek to share it. That is how Jesus means for us to
live--to show the love for others that God has shown for us.
Fourth
Sunday of Lent
March
30, 2003
Leonia
United Methodist Church
"Beginning
Again"
Ephesians 2:4-10
Object: a Pepper
Shaker and a Handkerchief
Boys and Girls,
I
have this pepper shaker and this handkerchief with me today because I
want you to think about sneezing. Pepper supposedly makes us sneeze. And
we use a handkerchief when we sneeze. Now what do we say when somebody
sneezes? Well, we could say, “God bless you.” but there’s a German
word that we often use, “Gezundheit!” Gezundheit is an unusual word.
It means “Good Health.” Now why would you say to someone, “Good
Health” when they sneeze?
Well,
back in the old days, before they knew about bacteria and viruses, they
thought that sneezing was a way of getting rid of bad spirits. They
thought bad spirits caused diseases. So, when somebody sneezed, they
were getting rid of their bad spirits.
Of
course, we know that’s not true, don’t we? We know that there are
germs and viruses and that when a person sneezes, it’s a reflex
action. Wouldn’t it be great though, if we could sneeze out all of our
bad habits? All of our bad thoughts? All of our anger? All of our hatred
and all of our bitterness? Wouldn’t it be great if somebody was acting
in a way they shouldn’t, all we would have to do would be to sprinkle
a little bit of pepper on them and make them sneeze and they could get
rid of all their bad feelings and bad thoughts? We could go off to fight
wars and carry pepper shakers with us rather than rifles, and bombs, and
tanks. Of course, that’s silly isn’t it? It takes more than sneezing
to get rid of our bad thoughts and bad feelings.
The
Bible tells us that what we need to do when we’re having feelings of
anger, hatred, and bitterness, is to pray about them and to let Jesus
take them from us. That is the best solution. Pepper and a handkerchief
and Gezundheit won’t do it, but prayer will. So remember that the next
time you’re angry and bitter toward somebody else. Have a little
prayer for that person, and ask Jesus to take your bad feelings away.