Gospel
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had him put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
We get up every morning and are blessed with another day of living and for most of us another day of work.
We have food to nourish us and a secure place to lay our head at night and a place to raise our family safely.
We have enough money to buy clothing for ourselves and family and enough free time to worship the Lord.
We are blessed with so much and compared to most of the world are in the top of earners. It’s all relative of course. It is true that most peoples in the world live a totally different life with less money and less time to even worship God. Most wonder where food will come from. Some live in places that see conflict and their home or what they call home is not secure and their families are in danger.
At any given moment if we could see how all peoples life and daily struggle, we would know we are blessed and given so much.
And we are forgiven even more. For we are all sinners. We all have moments where we fail to love God as much as we should. We fail to love our neighbors. We talk about them. We yell at other drivers. In mind, if not in voice.
We wonder about the sanity of some we see driving down Mopac freeway .
Austin is a diverse city with people of all ideologies and diverse personalities. So what forms is common sense is often not that at all to another.
It can be frustrating and we can be impatient and easily snap at others. And how impatient we are. We have been given so much and God has been so generous with us, and yes patient with us…and he calls us today to remember how he has loved us and always forgave us. How even when we were acting like fools and not worshipping him and not loving our neighbor, he still loved us and gave us what we needed.
Today we are reminded that no one has done anything God cannot forgive. No one has been so extreme that we should show disdain or lash out. For we have failed to do what God has asked multiple times, and he has never tired of forgiving us and offering his comfort and open arms when we came to our senses.
Let us be grateful today that we have a God who loves and forgives again and again, and remember that we too are called to do the same.
We will never change anyone by any other way but by loving and forgiving. We should know this because wasn’t it Gods patient love that captured us in the first place? Wasn’t it Jesus who came to be with us, die for our sins, that enabled us to even have a way back home…all this while we were sinning ourselves.
It is more important than ever to be grateful and love. We can start this by shutting down anger or irritation within us and letting it go. Maybe it starts with just quieting ourselves when we feel the need to lash out or admonish others. Sometimes the best we can do is to just not say anything but at those times count our blessings and be thankful for the times we were forgiven.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
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