Seventh Sunday After The Epiphany
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle C
The Church Year Theological Clue
This is one of three Sundays which did not exist as part of the Epiphany season and for which there were no Epiphany propers prepared and assigned in the previous version of the church year and lectionary; whenever there were seven, eight, or nine Sundays after the Epiphany, the last three Sundays were automatically the pre-Lent "gesima" Sundays. Actually, the three Sundays before Ash Wednesday - Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima - were always oriented toward Easter. Septuagesima signified 70 days until Easter, Sexagesima signaled 60 days until Easter; and Quinquagesima suggested 50 days until Easter; they were "heralds" of the celebration of, and pointed to, Easter and Jesus' resurrection. In the revised Christian/church year, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Sundays after the Epiphany, when they surface in the "longer" Epiphany seasons, simply announce that the Epiphany season is coming to a close and that Lent is about to begin. This reminds pastors and people that they should continue to reflect on the manifestation and ministry of Jesus for up to three more weeks, and by doing so prepare for the spiritual discipline of the "season of ashes."
The Prayer Of The Day
The contemporary collect for this Sunday in The Book Of Common Prayer is most appropriate for the approaching end of Epiphany: "O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."
The Lutheran Book Of Worship contains two prayers for this day, both oriented to Jesus' love. The first speaks to our hope, the second to our ministry. The first asks: "Lord God, we ask you to keep your family, the church, always faithful to you, that all who lean on the hope of your promises may gain strength from the power of your love; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Psalm 37:3-10 (E) - The Book Of Common Prayer has a liturgical "corner" on this psalm, because it is the only one of the churches to use it in its Sunday liturgy (Could it be that the length of the psalm "scares off" people from using it?). Actually, the BCP appoints it twice in Epiphany (Fourth Epiphany, Year A, is the other time), and another time in Year C, in Proper 2 in Pentecost. The psalm begins with a description of a sinner after the Fall; he is a person who loves evil and is spiritually out of control before God. Even in bed at night, this person is busy making plans to go through life throwing mud in the face of God. God, on the other hand, is a God of goodness and grace, whose love "covers" heaven and earth. The people of God turn to him for refuge and spiritual sustenance and God never fails them; in him is life and light. A one-verse prayer, asking God's continued mercy and kindness, concludes the psalmody.
Psalm 103:1-4, 8-10, 12-13 (RC); 103:1-13 (L) - This psalm finds multiple use in the worship services of most churches, as well as the liturgies and the lectionaries of the several liturgical churches. It is one of the best-known and most-loved of the psalms; it sets one's heart to singing:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all his benefits.
The psalmist proceeds to enumerate the blessings of God bestowed upon his people: Forgiveness, healing, redeeming people from the grave, mercy and loving-kindness, good things in abundance, righteousness and judgment for those who are oppressed. Moses knew God's "ways," and the children of Israel his "works." He is a compassionate and merciful God, "slow to anger and of great kindness." And the psalmist knows that he is a forgiving God whose anger flags before he might move to destroy the human race in view of humanity's sins. His mercy is unbounded, and he has "taken away" our sins, because he is a loving Father as well as our God: "As a father cares for his children, so far has he removed our sins from us." That God taught Joseph how to act toward his brothers, showing God-like mercy to them, when he might easily have killed them. The psalm is echoed in the Gospel for the Day with its, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who abuse you ..." It affirms the harmony between the first reading and the Gospel for the Day.
Psalm prayer (37 - LBW) - "Lord Jesus, you bless the poor with the kingdom of heaven. Teach us to put our trust in the Father and to seek his kingdom rather than to imitate the powerful or envy the rich; so may we serve you now and forever."
Psalm prayer (103 - LBW) - "Lord Jesus, you have compassion for the sinner, as a father has compassion for his children. Heal the weakness of your people and save us from everlasting death, that with the saints and angels we may praise and glorify you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever."
The Readings
Genesis 45:3-8a, 15 (L); 45:3-11, 15 (C); 45:3-11, 21-28 (E) - The average person, who has read the story about Joseph and his brothers, probably would not have expected the story to turn out the way it did; it couldn't have been better if Joseph had found some way to trap them into coming to Egypt, hungry and desperate, to beg for mercy and assistance in their emergency. Joseph had his treacherous brothers where he should have wanted them; now he had an opportunity to get even with them and repay them for selling him into slavery. Were this a motion picture or a television presentation, Joseph probably would have made them pay dearly for their dastardly deed. Hence, few people will understand Joseph's action after he broke down and then revealed himself to his brothers: "I am Joseph," immediately asking, "Is my father still alive?" So many years had passed without a word from his family, but he had never forgotten any of them and, his subsequent actions reveal, he loved all of them. In a way, he blamed God for what they did to him, telling them that it was God's plan that he should be instrumental in preserving them and the people during the seven "lean years" of the famine. He might have imprisoned them, tortured them, and had them executed, but instead he forgave them!
That's a Godly action, and it is exactly what God has done to all of us in Jesus Christ. Human beings rejected him and killed him, but God raised him up in order to save the whole human race when he probably should have destroyed humanity and, if he had the courage, start all over again or just give up on what he had planned for the earth as a bad job. Forgiveness of others, especially of those who have offended and hurt us, is an attribute of God Almighty. Forgiveness is divine, because it is generated by God himself.
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 (RC) - Just as Joseph had his brothers at his mercy, so centuries later, David had King Saul, who had been out to get him with a hand-picked army, helpless at his feet. Saul and his entire army had been "anesthetized" into a deep sleep by God, so that David and Abishai could walk right through the camp and stand over the sleeping king, whose spear was sticking in the ground by his head. When Abishai sought permission to pin King Saul to the ground, David refused him because he believed that the Lord's "anointed" should not be killed in retaliation for his wicked actions. King Saul was allowed to live, and because David and Abishai took his spear and his water jug, he knew the predicament that he had been in while he slept and responded graciously to David's "peace overture" by blessing him. This reading, too, emphasizes, in a different manner, that forgiveness of others, especially of one's enemies, is crucial and critical for those who wish to maintain a right relationship with God. As does the first reading, it harmonizes with Jesus' teaching about forgiveness in his "sermon on the plain."
1 Corinthians 15:35-39, 42-50 (E, C); 15:35-38a, 42-50 (L); 15:45-49 (RC) - Portions of this 15th chapter of First Corinthians have been omitted in the readings of last Sunday and this Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany. For one thing, Paul told the Corinthians that if their faith in Christ were for this life only, they should be the most miserable people on the face of the earth. He winds up this chapter on the resurrection with a summary statement about the true nature of the resurrection, which functions as a strong stance against the gnosticism that many of these people had come to believe. They apparently believed that resurrection is really the recovery of that which was lost in the fall. Paul teaches them that it is something new; God will give the faithful new "bodies" in the resurrection and this is not the recovery of innocence in this life; it is a glorification of the body that can only occur after death. Then God will lift up his own and bless them forever.
There is an unexpected bonus in a longer Epiphany season that allows the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, this great "resurrection chapter," to be read and proclaimed for these two Sundays. This means that the centrality of the Easter event is declared, and the "mind" of the church is informed about the purpose of keeping Lent and celebrating Easter, depending on what the preacher does with this reading. Without the resurrection, there would be no faith, no church, no hope, no Living Lord, and all people would have only darkness in this life and a permanent death at its conclusion.
Luke 6:27-38 (RC, E, L, C) - Tennyson's reading of this chapter of St. Luke, particularly of verse 36, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful," must have put words on King Arthur's lips when he confronted his adulterous queen in the nunnery, "Lo, I forgive thee, as eternal God forgives." That is what Jesus is talking about in this passage; people who count themselves children of God, and who know God to be merciful, kind and forgiving, simply have to be merciful and forgiving toward others, if they expect to continue to receive and retain God's blessings. His sentiment carries over to the Lord's Prayer in the petition, "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." Forgiveness from God is in jeopardy when we judge and condemn other people instead of forgiving them as God has forgiven us. Of course, love is the foundation for responding to God's mercy by forgiving other people of their offenses toward us, and that's the tough part of this business; we can't just "mouth" our forgiveness - it must be from the heart, the very heart of God, and then it means something and is pleasing to God himself.
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
Luke 6:27-38 (RC, E, L, C) - "Forgiveness." - "Forgiveness of Sins" is the title of a famous sermon preached by Harry Emerson Fosdick in Riverside Church four and a half decades ago. At the beginning of it, he said, "The only persons to whom this message is addressed are those conscious of moral wrongdoing. If there is any hearer with no uneasy stirrings of conscience about his attitude toward anything or his relationship with anybody, then this sermon is not for him. For we are going to talk about forgiveness of sins." Before anyone excused himself from listening to the sermon, Dr. Fosdick said that sin needs to be defined. He proceeded to list four categories of sin - "sins of the flesh, sins of temper, sins of social attitude, sins of neglect. I suppose there must be others, but this ought to take in most of us and make us wonder whether, after all, we may not have a share in the need of the gospel of forgiveness." That was one way of preaching the law and telling his listeners that everyone is a sinner and needs forgiveness. But, he told his listeners, it is not easy to forgive sin, not even for Jesus. Fosdick was preaching about sin, and why it is difficult to forgive sin. As for Jesus, Dr. Fosdick said it was difficult for Jesus to forgive sin because he took sin seriously. Sin was very real for Jesus. Secondly, it was difficult for Jesus to forgive sin because he loved people. He knew that sin hurt people. Third, he says that it was difficult for Jesus to forgive sin because it is such a tremendous experience for the (person) who is forgiven. He says to be forgiven by someone you have wronged is the "most humiliating experience that a proud (person) can go through.... For, you see, there is just one thing that forgiveness does - one thing only. Forgiveness does not take away the fact of sin ... Forgiveness does not take away the memory of sin.... Forgiveness does not and cannot take away the consequences of sin ... But one thing forgiveness does: it reestablishes the old personal relationships that have been broken by sin, and makes them deeper and sweeter ... by awakened love and responsive gratitude." And Fosdick adds, "behind all the explanations and theories of atonement that have arisen and taken form and faded away in the history of Christian thought, this conviction has lain deep - the cross means that it was not easy even for God to forgive."
In this gospel, Jesus takes us a step farther when he says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." He is actually directing people to return good for evil with his, "And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them." I know one man who always attempted to live by this "Golden Rule." It had been burned deep into his heart, mind, and soul; it was part of him, and in the nearly 50 years that I knew him, I never heard him judge another person or condemn someone for what that person had done. He sought an explanation, and might even offer some excuse, for the misdeeds of others. You see, he also believed in Jesus' other saying about our attitude toward others, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."
It is one thing to know that we are sinners - and we really are, you know - but it is quite another thing to know that we are forgiven sinners, that God has forgiven all of our sins at the cross of Jesus Christ. It cost Christ his life to gain forgiveness of sins for us and we had better remember that when we hear this gospel. It is not simply about high standards of morality and ethics, of doing good works in the world; it is about showing real mercy, especially in forgiveness, to people who have done us harm, have hated us, and sought our downfall, even our demise. That's where this gospel hits home and comes into our every day experiences and lives. Those who know that God has forgiven them their sins - at the cost of the cross - will forgive others no matter what their sins because they know God has forgiven them.
Genesis 45:3-8a, 15 (L); 45:3-11, 15 (C); 45:3-11, 21-28 (E) and 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 (RC) - Note: I would probably incorporate these two stories into any sermon I preached today from Luke 6:27-38. I might begin this way: "The operative element in this gospel (just read in most liturgies) is forgiveness, especially the knowledge that we know we have been forgiven by God in the death of Jesus Christ. Joseph, who had the power to destroy his once-evil brothers, forgave them when, if many of us were in his place, we would have destroyed them. (I would retell the story, briefly.) And David, who could have eliminated King Saul forever, when he and Abishai invaded the king's camp and stood over him while he slept, instead, forgave him. Why didn't Joseph punish his brothers, who had sold him into slavery? Why didn't David let Abishai kill Saul? Why forgive him when he could have had his revenge on the man who was making his life miserable? Living before Christ, Joseph and David knew the mind of God, and that he is a God of mercy, who had shown his mercy upon them. They knew something of the gospel of our Lord, and what it has to do with forgiveness and mercy.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38a, 42-50 (L); 15:35-38, 42-50 (E, C); 15:45-49 (RC) - "Heaven And Hubble." - With the placement of the Hubble telescope in orbit in April of 1990, and with the expectation that if it works as it should, human beings will be able to peer farther into the universe and see more clearly than ever before what lies out there; one wonders what new visions will be seen. This much is certain: astronomers who get to use the Hubble telescope will not see God, and no one will say, as Yuri Gagarin did more than 30 years ago, as he orbited the earth, "I don't see God out here." Nor will they see heaven, or people who have experienced the resurrection in Jesus Christ. (Since "Hubble" hasn't worked properly, all the astronomers are seeing are "blurred" images in space.)
1. But resurrection is real and it is the hope of those who believe that Jesus rose from the grave. It is not part of an "idle tale." It enables believers to see life and death in focus.
2. Resurrection means entering into a whole new realm of existence - with a "spiritual body," Paul declares - at the end of this life. And there is no way to experience resurrection before death.
3. Without any hope of the resurrection, life has little or no meaning. We might as well be modern stoics, as some people are becoming, and "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."
4. We begin the resurrection experience now through faith in Jesus Christ. He is our hope, a living hope, who creates faith through his word and the Holy Spirit, and we believe that death as "dust to dust" is not the end, but a new beginning for true believers.
This is one of three Sundays which did not exist as part of the Epiphany season and for which there were no Epiphany propers prepared and assigned in the previous version of the church year and lectionary; whenever there were seven, eight, or nine Sundays after the Epiphany, the last three Sundays were automatically the pre-Lent "gesima" Sundays. Actually, the three Sundays before Ash Wednesday - Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima - were always oriented toward Easter. Septuagesima signified 70 days until Easter, Sexagesima signaled 60 days until Easter; and Quinquagesima suggested 50 days until Easter; they were "heralds" of the celebration of, and pointed to, Easter and Jesus' resurrection. In the revised Christian/church year, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Sundays after the Epiphany, when they surface in the "longer" Epiphany seasons, simply announce that the Epiphany season is coming to a close and that Lent is about to begin. This reminds pastors and people that they should continue to reflect on the manifestation and ministry of Jesus for up to three more weeks, and by doing so prepare for the spiritual discipline of the "season of ashes."
The Prayer Of The Day
The contemporary collect for this Sunday in The Book Of Common Prayer is most appropriate for the approaching end of Epiphany: "O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."
The Lutheran Book Of Worship contains two prayers for this day, both oriented to Jesus' love. The first speaks to our hope, the second to our ministry. The first asks: "Lord God, we ask you to keep your family, the church, always faithful to you, that all who lean on the hope of your promises may gain strength from the power of your love; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Psalm 37:3-10 (E) - The Book Of Common Prayer has a liturgical "corner" on this psalm, because it is the only one of the churches to use it in its Sunday liturgy (Could it be that the length of the psalm "scares off" people from using it?). Actually, the BCP appoints it twice in Epiphany (Fourth Epiphany, Year A, is the other time), and another time in Year C, in Proper 2 in Pentecost. The psalm begins with a description of a sinner after the Fall; he is a person who loves evil and is spiritually out of control before God. Even in bed at night, this person is busy making plans to go through life throwing mud in the face of God. God, on the other hand, is a God of goodness and grace, whose love "covers" heaven and earth. The people of God turn to him for refuge and spiritual sustenance and God never fails them; in him is life and light. A one-verse prayer, asking God's continued mercy and kindness, concludes the psalmody.
Psalm 103:1-4, 8-10, 12-13 (RC); 103:1-13 (L) - This psalm finds multiple use in the worship services of most churches, as well as the liturgies and the lectionaries of the several liturgical churches. It is one of the best-known and most-loved of the psalms; it sets one's heart to singing:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all his benefits.
The psalmist proceeds to enumerate the blessings of God bestowed upon his people: Forgiveness, healing, redeeming people from the grave, mercy and loving-kindness, good things in abundance, righteousness and judgment for those who are oppressed. Moses knew God's "ways," and the children of Israel his "works." He is a compassionate and merciful God, "slow to anger and of great kindness." And the psalmist knows that he is a forgiving God whose anger flags before he might move to destroy the human race in view of humanity's sins. His mercy is unbounded, and he has "taken away" our sins, because he is a loving Father as well as our God: "As a father cares for his children, so far has he removed our sins from us." That God taught Joseph how to act toward his brothers, showing God-like mercy to them, when he might easily have killed them. The psalm is echoed in the Gospel for the Day with its, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who abuse you ..." It affirms the harmony between the first reading and the Gospel for the Day.
Psalm prayer (37 - LBW) - "Lord Jesus, you bless the poor with the kingdom of heaven. Teach us to put our trust in the Father and to seek his kingdom rather than to imitate the powerful or envy the rich; so may we serve you now and forever."
Psalm prayer (103 - LBW) - "Lord Jesus, you have compassion for the sinner, as a father has compassion for his children. Heal the weakness of your people and save us from everlasting death, that with the saints and angels we may praise and glorify you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever."
The Readings
Genesis 45:3-8a, 15 (L); 45:3-11, 15 (C); 45:3-11, 21-28 (E) - The average person, who has read the story about Joseph and his brothers, probably would not have expected the story to turn out the way it did; it couldn't have been better if Joseph had found some way to trap them into coming to Egypt, hungry and desperate, to beg for mercy and assistance in their emergency. Joseph had his treacherous brothers where he should have wanted them; now he had an opportunity to get even with them and repay them for selling him into slavery. Were this a motion picture or a television presentation, Joseph probably would have made them pay dearly for their dastardly deed. Hence, few people will understand Joseph's action after he broke down and then revealed himself to his brothers: "I am Joseph," immediately asking, "Is my father still alive?" So many years had passed without a word from his family, but he had never forgotten any of them and, his subsequent actions reveal, he loved all of them. In a way, he blamed God for what they did to him, telling them that it was God's plan that he should be instrumental in preserving them and the people during the seven "lean years" of the famine. He might have imprisoned them, tortured them, and had them executed, but instead he forgave them!
That's a Godly action, and it is exactly what God has done to all of us in Jesus Christ. Human beings rejected him and killed him, but God raised him up in order to save the whole human race when he probably should have destroyed humanity and, if he had the courage, start all over again or just give up on what he had planned for the earth as a bad job. Forgiveness of others, especially of those who have offended and hurt us, is an attribute of God Almighty. Forgiveness is divine, because it is generated by God himself.
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 (RC) - Just as Joseph had his brothers at his mercy, so centuries later, David had King Saul, who had been out to get him with a hand-picked army, helpless at his feet. Saul and his entire army had been "anesthetized" into a deep sleep by God, so that David and Abishai could walk right through the camp and stand over the sleeping king, whose spear was sticking in the ground by his head. When Abishai sought permission to pin King Saul to the ground, David refused him because he believed that the Lord's "anointed" should not be killed in retaliation for his wicked actions. King Saul was allowed to live, and because David and Abishai took his spear and his water jug, he knew the predicament that he had been in while he slept and responded graciously to David's "peace overture" by blessing him. This reading, too, emphasizes, in a different manner, that forgiveness of others, especially of one's enemies, is crucial and critical for those who wish to maintain a right relationship with God. As does the first reading, it harmonizes with Jesus' teaching about forgiveness in his "sermon on the plain."
1 Corinthians 15:35-39, 42-50 (E, C); 15:35-38a, 42-50 (L); 15:45-49 (RC) - Portions of this 15th chapter of First Corinthians have been omitted in the readings of last Sunday and this Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany. For one thing, Paul told the Corinthians that if their faith in Christ were for this life only, they should be the most miserable people on the face of the earth. He winds up this chapter on the resurrection with a summary statement about the true nature of the resurrection, which functions as a strong stance against the gnosticism that many of these people had come to believe. They apparently believed that resurrection is really the recovery of that which was lost in the fall. Paul teaches them that it is something new; God will give the faithful new "bodies" in the resurrection and this is not the recovery of innocence in this life; it is a glorification of the body that can only occur after death. Then God will lift up his own and bless them forever.
There is an unexpected bonus in a longer Epiphany season that allows the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, this great "resurrection chapter," to be read and proclaimed for these two Sundays. This means that the centrality of the Easter event is declared, and the "mind" of the church is informed about the purpose of keeping Lent and celebrating Easter, depending on what the preacher does with this reading. Without the resurrection, there would be no faith, no church, no hope, no Living Lord, and all people would have only darkness in this life and a permanent death at its conclusion.
Luke 6:27-38 (RC, E, L, C) - Tennyson's reading of this chapter of St. Luke, particularly of verse 36, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful," must have put words on King Arthur's lips when he confronted his adulterous queen in the nunnery, "Lo, I forgive thee, as eternal God forgives." That is what Jesus is talking about in this passage; people who count themselves children of God, and who know God to be merciful, kind and forgiving, simply have to be merciful and forgiving toward others, if they expect to continue to receive and retain God's blessings. His sentiment carries over to the Lord's Prayer in the petition, "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." Forgiveness from God is in jeopardy when we judge and condemn other people instead of forgiving them as God has forgiven us. Of course, love is the foundation for responding to God's mercy by forgiving other people of their offenses toward us, and that's the tough part of this business; we can't just "mouth" our forgiveness - it must be from the heart, the very heart of God, and then it means something and is pleasing to God himself.
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
Luke 6:27-38 (RC, E, L, C) - "Forgiveness." - "Forgiveness of Sins" is the title of a famous sermon preached by Harry Emerson Fosdick in Riverside Church four and a half decades ago. At the beginning of it, he said, "The only persons to whom this message is addressed are those conscious of moral wrongdoing. If there is any hearer with no uneasy stirrings of conscience about his attitude toward anything or his relationship with anybody, then this sermon is not for him. For we are going to talk about forgiveness of sins." Before anyone excused himself from listening to the sermon, Dr. Fosdick said that sin needs to be defined. He proceeded to list four categories of sin - "sins of the flesh, sins of temper, sins of social attitude, sins of neglect. I suppose there must be others, but this ought to take in most of us and make us wonder whether, after all, we may not have a share in the need of the gospel of forgiveness." That was one way of preaching the law and telling his listeners that everyone is a sinner and needs forgiveness. But, he told his listeners, it is not easy to forgive sin, not even for Jesus. Fosdick was preaching about sin, and why it is difficult to forgive sin. As for Jesus, Dr. Fosdick said it was difficult for Jesus to forgive sin because he took sin seriously. Sin was very real for Jesus. Secondly, it was difficult for Jesus to forgive sin because he loved people. He knew that sin hurt people. Third, he says that it was difficult for Jesus to forgive sin because it is such a tremendous experience for the (person) who is forgiven. He says to be forgiven by someone you have wronged is the "most humiliating experience that a proud (person) can go through.... For, you see, there is just one thing that forgiveness does - one thing only. Forgiveness does not take away the fact of sin ... Forgiveness does not take away the memory of sin.... Forgiveness does not and cannot take away the consequences of sin ... But one thing forgiveness does: it reestablishes the old personal relationships that have been broken by sin, and makes them deeper and sweeter ... by awakened love and responsive gratitude." And Fosdick adds, "behind all the explanations and theories of atonement that have arisen and taken form and faded away in the history of Christian thought, this conviction has lain deep - the cross means that it was not easy even for God to forgive."
In this gospel, Jesus takes us a step farther when he says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." He is actually directing people to return good for evil with his, "And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them." I know one man who always attempted to live by this "Golden Rule." It had been burned deep into his heart, mind, and soul; it was part of him, and in the nearly 50 years that I knew him, I never heard him judge another person or condemn someone for what that person had done. He sought an explanation, and might even offer some excuse, for the misdeeds of others. You see, he also believed in Jesus' other saying about our attitude toward others, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."
It is one thing to know that we are sinners - and we really are, you know - but it is quite another thing to know that we are forgiven sinners, that God has forgiven all of our sins at the cross of Jesus Christ. It cost Christ his life to gain forgiveness of sins for us and we had better remember that when we hear this gospel. It is not simply about high standards of morality and ethics, of doing good works in the world; it is about showing real mercy, especially in forgiveness, to people who have done us harm, have hated us, and sought our downfall, even our demise. That's where this gospel hits home and comes into our every day experiences and lives. Those who know that God has forgiven them their sins - at the cost of the cross - will forgive others no matter what their sins because they know God has forgiven them.
Genesis 45:3-8a, 15 (L); 45:3-11, 15 (C); 45:3-11, 21-28 (E) and 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 (RC) - Note: I would probably incorporate these two stories into any sermon I preached today from Luke 6:27-38. I might begin this way: "The operative element in this gospel (just read in most liturgies) is forgiveness, especially the knowledge that we know we have been forgiven by God in the death of Jesus Christ. Joseph, who had the power to destroy his once-evil brothers, forgave them when, if many of us were in his place, we would have destroyed them. (I would retell the story, briefly.) And David, who could have eliminated King Saul forever, when he and Abishai invaded the king's camp and stood over him while he slept, instead, forgave him. Why didn't Joseph punish his brothers, who had sold him into slavery? Why didn't David let Abishai kill Saul? Why forgive him when he could have had his revenge on the man who was making his life miserable? Living before Christ, Joseph and David knew the mind of God, and that he is a God of mercy, who had shown his mercy upon them. They knew something of the gospel of our Lord, and what it has to do with forgiveness and mercy.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38a, 42-50 (L); 15:35-38, 42-50 (E, C); 15:45-49 (RC) - "Heaven And Hubble." - With the placement of the Hubble telescope in orbit in April of 1990, and with the expectation that if it works as it should, human beings will be able to peer farther into the universe and see more clearly than ever before what lies out there; one wonders what new visions will be seen. This much is certain: astronomers who get to use the Hubble telescope will not see God, and no one will say, as Yuri Gagarin did more than 30 years ago, as he orbited the earth, "I don't see God out here." Nor will they see heaven, or people who have experienced the resurrection in Jesus Christ. (Since "Hubble" hasn't worked properly, all the astronomers are seeing are "blurred" images in space.)
1. But resurrection is real and it is the hope of those who believe that Jesus rose from the grave. It is not part of an "idle tale." It enables believers to see life and death in focus.
2. Resurrection means entering into a whole new realm of existence - with a "spiritual body," Paul declares - at the end of this life. And there is no way to experience resurrection before death.
3. Without any hope of the resurrection, life has little or no meaning. We might as well be modern stoics, as some people are becoming, and "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."
4. We begin the resurrection experience now through faith in Jesus Christ. He is our hope, a living hope, who creates faith through his word and the Holy Spirit, and we believe that death as "dust to dust" is not the end, but a new beginning for true believers.
