A Sermon by Pastor Boettner

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 15, 2002

Leonia United Methodist Church, NJ

In the Name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier

           Just a few years back, a man in Hardeeville, South Carolina went down to the Jasper County Courthouse. There he filed a deed restriction. The restriction barred the sale of any part of his 1,688 acre plantation to anyone north of the Mason-Dixon Line and anyone named Sherman.

          More than a century before, General William T. Sherman’s troops burned every building on this man’s property and Mr. Ingram vowed never to let his plantation fall into Yankee hands again.

          Now there’s a man who knows how to hold a grudge. Unfortunately, he’s not alone.

          According to people who have been there, the country of Albania is one of the most backward countries in the world. It is on the fringe of Europe, but it has none of the advantages enjoyed by Western nations. One of the reasons may be Albania’s culture of revenge. It is unlike anything seen elsewhere in the modern world.

          It is common in Albania to have blood feuds that date back many generations. In each family the men of the family bear a solemn obligation to avenge any harm done not only to their families, but also to their ancestors’ families, and this obligation is passed down to each son as soon as he reaches the age of responsibility. If one man kills another man, the family of the victim is required to seek vengeance on any male members of the killer’s family, even decades later if necessary.

          James Pettifer, author of the Blue Guide to Albania, reports that there are “some 2,000 blood feuds going on in Albania and that as many as 60,000 people are involved.” What a tragic loss of life!

          An integral part of the Christian ethic is forgiveness. Our Lord taught us that before we can be forgiven, we must forgive others. This emphasis on forgiveness distinguishes us from every other religion on earth.

          We are rightly cautious about holding up Western values as being superior to those of other cultures. But I wonder if the Marshall Plan whereby Western nations helped our former enemies rebuild their economies after the end of the Second World War could have happened except in nations influenced by the teachings of Jesus? Imagine how different our world would be today if after the Second World War people living in Allied countries could not have forgiven the peoples of Germany, Japan and Italy. Think how broken our world would be. In fact, those countries are some of our closest allies today. The inability to put the past behind is one of the key hindrances to peace in the Mid-east in the modern world.

          Many years ago, Colonel Jeff O’Leary served as part of the UN peacekeeping forces in the Sinai Peninsula region. While there, he encountered a number of Bedouin people, a nomadic people who travel this desert region. One afternoon, Colonel O’Leary had tea with a group of Bedouin men. Colonel O’Leary couldn’t help but notice that his host kept staring at a man who was tending his camels. The host pointed out the man and hissed at Colonel O’Leary, “Do you see that man? He is a camel thief.”           Colonel O’Leary wanted to know why his host would hire a camel thief to tend his camels, so he began asking questions. Turns out that in his host’s eyes this man was a camel thief because he came from a family of camel thieves. Why were they a family of camel thieves? Because one of their ancestors had once stolen some camels from this man’s family. How long ago, O’Leary asked. Eight hundred years ago, the Bedouin host replied. For eight hundred years, the hosts’ family and this man’s family had hated each other, because one man had stolen the other man’s camels. For eight hundred years, the host’s family had passed down the story of the camel thief. Forgiveness was not an option for them. In the Bedouin host’s mind, the crime was just as horrible as if it had occurred yesterday, and this man was just as much a thief as his ancestor who had actually stolen the camel.

          Imagine how difficult it would be to build a better world if all the peoples of the world operated on this same principle. The world would be without hope, indeed. There are many people who have been deluded by the idea that all the world’s religions are the same. Friends, this world needs Jesus. And one of the reasons the world needs Jesus is that people need to know how to forgive their neighbor.

          Of course, this is not only true of the world in general. It is also true of individual people--people like you and me.

          Penelope J. Stokes tells about her reaction to a scene in the motion picture, Waiting to Exhale. A woman, victimized by her husband’s infidelity, gathers up his clothes, his shoes, his personal belongings, and stuffs them into his expensive Mercedes. When the closets and drawers are empty, she returns to the car, sets a torch to the contents, and stands there with tears streaming down her cheeks as the evidence of her marriage goes up in flames.

          “Most people in the audience cheered,” says Penelope Stokes. “I cried,” she says, “because her defiant gesture of closure did nothing to heal the woundedness of her heart.”

          A bit of revenge may have lifted that woman’s heart for a moment. But to move toward healing, she would have to learn--as we all must learn--how to forgive.

          Dr. Michael Brickley, a psychologist who studies successful aging in our culture, claims that most centenarians (people who make it to 100 years old, or more) have learned to get rid of “emotional baggage” from the past. Old hurts, past failures, unfinished business, unresolved relationships, regret --centenarians learn how to process these issues in a healthy manner and let them go.

          There are some things about forgiveness we ought to confess this day. First, we can never be free to be a whole person if we are unable to forgive. Past hurts become intolerable baggage as time goes on.

          When Bill Clinton met Nelson Mandela for the first time, he had a question on his mind: “When you were released from prison, Mr. Mandela,” the former President said, “I woke my daughter at three o’clock in the morning. I wanted her to see this historic event.” Then President Clinton zeroed in on his question: “As you marched from the cellblock across the yard to the gate of the prison, the camera focused in on your face. I have never seen such anger, and even hatred, in any man as was expressed on your face at that time. That’s not the Nelson Mandela I know today,” said Clinton. “What was that about?”

          Mandela answered, “I’m surprised that you saw that, and I regret that the cameras caught my anger. As I walked across the courtyard that day I thought to myself, ‘They’ve taken everything from you that matters. Your cause is dead. Your family is gone. Your friends have been killed. Now they’re releasing you, but there’s nothing left for you out there.’ And I hated them for what they had taken from me. Then, I sensed an inner voice saying to me, ‘Nelson! For twenty-seven years you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man! Don’t allow them to make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner!’”

          We can never be free to be a whole person if we are unable to forgive. We see that, don’t we? There are many people who are imprisoned by their own anger, their own hurt, their own inability to let go of the past and move on.

          Here’s the other thing we need to see about forgiveness: There is only one place we can find the ability to forgive. It is at the throne of God.

          We need God’s help. We need to ask God to forgive our sins, and then we need to ask God to give us the ability to forgive others.

          Corrie ten Boom often thought back over the horrors of the Ravensbruck concentration camp. How could she ever forgive the former Nazis who had been her jailers? Where was love, acceptance, and forgiveness in a horror camp where more than 95,000 women died? How could she ever forget the horrible cruelty of the guards and the smoke constantly coming from the chimney of the crematorium?

          Then in 1947 Corrie was speaking in a church in Munich, and when the meeting was over she saw one of the most cruel male guards of Ravensbruck coming forward to speak to her. He had his hand outstretched. “I have become a Christian,” he explained. “I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, will you forgive me?”

          A conflict raged in Corrie’s heart. The Spirit of God urged her to forgive. The spirit of bitterness and coldness urged her to turn away. “Jesus, help me,” she prayed. Then she knew what she must do. “I can lift my hand,” she thought to herself. “I can do that much.”

          As their hands met it was as if warmth and healing broke forth with tears and joy. ”I forgive you, brother, with all my heart,” she said. Later Corrie testified that “it was the power of the Holy Spirit” who had poured the love of God into her heart that day. I don’t know any other way true forgiveness can take place. We turn our hurt over to God. We ask God for the ability to forgive.

          St. Peter thought that he was bighearted: “How often should I forgive someone who sins against me,” he asked. “As many as seven times?”

          After all, he was being generous; seven times went beyond what the rabbis asked. “Forgive three times, but not the fourth,” taught the rabbis of his time. St. Peter multiplied what they asked by two and added one more time of forgiveness for good measure! But in Jesus’ eyes it was not enough.

          Jesus knew that unless forgiveness is total and unlimited, healing could not take place. Jesus knew that the person who cannot forgive remains a prisoner. And Jesus knew that there is only one place where forgiveness may be found. And that is as true today as it was then. Is there someone you need to forgive? A member of our own family perhaps? A spouse, a sibling, a parent? Perhaps it is someone we work with. Do not delay. Bring it to the throne of God today.

S H A L O M