Rarely do we do a deep dive into scripture. Sometimes its good to look at big swaths of scripture because then we can explore the context, explore what it means together, instead of misinterpreting what is being said. But other times its good to take things piece by piece. In this sermon series focusing on the Beatitudes found in the Gospel of Matthew, we are doing both. Last week we looked at the overall context of the Beatitudes as a whole, but starting this week we are going to go Beatitude by Beatitude through the Scripture so we don’t overlook or miss anything. 

One day my parents were over visiting and my dad asked to see my computer so he could show me a new website he had found, globalrichlist.com. On the site you enter in where you live and either what your annual household income is or what your assets representing your wealth are and then it tells you in a matter of seconds two things - you are in the top certain percent on the world by income and then what number richest person you are in the world. 

Friends, I was in the top .41 percent of the richest people in the world. 

It was absolutely eye opening. 

Because the truth is we often compare ourselves to those who have more than us, thus tricking ourselves into thinking how we wish we could have more. We compare ourselves to our neighbors. Or to the people we hear about on TV. As a result, we often consider ourselves not be as well off as others But when we look at in terms of the whole world, we get a clearer picture. 

And yet, as rich as we may be in terms of things or money or wealth, the truth is that we are also all poor. That there is something that is missing from our life. Or a place where we are impoverished, but most of us try to hide those areas and shove them off to the side so we can ignore them. 

Jesus calls our impoverished nature front and center in this particular Beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Pages upon pages, Church, have been spent written about what Jesus exactly meant by poor in spirit. When we look to the counter part of the Sermon on the Mount, known as the Sermon on the Plain found in the Gospel of Luke, it simply says “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”

What we do know that there are two different words in the Greek language for poor. One means one who works for a living, isn’t wealthy but has what he needs. Th other means to be destitute and powerless - this is the word Jesus uses. So we could say this verse translates as blessed as those who are destitute and powerless, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

That doesn’t exactly sound like how we would want to describe ourselves, does it? Which is the point! Jesus comes right out of the gate with this first Beatitude, first blessing, and says you know all those ways that you consider yourselves to be blessed in this world - those aren’t what matter most. Instead, all your ordinary expectations are reversed when we are talking about the Kingdom of Heaven because God’s ways aren’t our ways. This Kingdom? It’s about God’s righteousness first and foremost and not what you have in this world. 

The problem of course is that it is so tempting to weave together the ways of the world with the ways of God. To pretend that they are one and the same. And if we are honest, even the religious leaders of the time were doing a little bit of this. Who was considered blessed? Those who were healthy. Those who were bearing children, lots of children, and especially boys. Those who had more than enough to get by. So its not hard to see how the desires of the world collided with what the priests and scribes were saying about the blessings of God, even if they weren’t representative of all of scripture, and as a result, we forgot the ways of God are different then our worldly desires. 

This is a perfect example. Who is blessed and favored by God? The poor. Which Scripture said time and time again:

“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” Psalm 12:5

“You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.” Isaiah 25:4

There are scriptures all through the Old and New testament, of which these are just two that speak of God’s concern for the poor. 

Or consider the teachings of Jesus. In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we find the story of a widow who came and offered her very last coins to the work of the Kingdom of God. She presumably didn’t think she would have anything left to feed herself or take care of her needs. Yet, she gave anyway. She gave more abundantly, even out of her poverty then those giving much larger sums. 

I was reading a book this week on leadership and in one brief section it was talking about financial security. It referenced this really interesting study that found that the more people made the more money they needed to feel secure. One example was if you had 1 million dollars you thought you needed 2 million dollars to feel secure, but if you made 10 million dollars you thought you needed 15 million dollars to feel secure. Yet, into this world that we feel like we don’t have enough, whether it be in Biblical times or today, Jesus says blessed are those who are the poor in spirit. 

Isn’t it interesting that this teaching about the Kingdom of God, the Good News proclaimed by the Heavens but lived out amongst us in Jesus Christ, this call to discipleship - starts by saying, you know how you think your worth and grounding comes from what you have in this world, it doesn’t. It comes from who are in God and being grounded in that and that alone. It seems so impractical doesn’t it? Yet, that’s what Jesus is doing - turning the values of the world sideways and upside and down and says this, this is a new way to live. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

I love the way that the Message translates this verse, You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. Once again, its a reminder that we are all impoverished from time to time, all at the end of our rope in one way or another and at that time we have a choice to make - are we going to trust God, or are we going to keep trying to rely on ourselves alone. 

The truth is when we get caught up in what we have or who we are or the fact that we think we can go through this life on our own, we truly do miss out on the blessing. The blessing of being rooted in God. The blessing of being in relationship with a Holy God who loves us and provides for us in ways that we often take for granted. Blessed even when we have nothing of material value, but possess everything we need in the Spirit. May we empty ourselves out so only God remains, for Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

“The Empty Tomb” Luke 24: 1-12

This morning’s lesson may be a familiar one. We read a version of it each and every Easter Sunday - the angel appearing to the women at the tomb. The women come to the tomb to keep vigil, to grieve. The one whom they dearly love has died. They go to the tomb to tend to the dead. And then something unexpected happens. They found that the stone sealing the tomb had been rolled away.

For the one whom they came to tend to, the one whom they came to grieve isn’t there. There is no body to prepare. For he is risen! Just as he had told them would happen.

The reason we return to these texts year after year is there is always something within them for us. Something that we overlook. Something that we miss. Something that it wasn’t the right time for before, but perhaps it is the right time for us to receive now. 

The women went to the tomb that day expecting to do one thing - they expected to do their duty, their act of love and prepare Jesus’s body for burial. His death on Friday happened too close to the Sabbath to do so then, so they have returned, armed with homemade spices to do this one final thing for the body of their Lord.

I have lost track of how many funerals I have done in my tenure as a pastor. Dozens certainly. But what I always am struck by is the tender care each family expresses differently as they prepare the body for burial in their own way. Some folks search for the perfect outfit for their loved ones. Others adore the casket with things that their loved one treasured. Still others think of the perfect thing to have inscribed on the tomb stone. Many grasp the hand of their loved one’s body in the casket or kiss him or her goodbye. All are ways to prepare the body in our modern context.

In Biblical times this was the way that the body was prepared. But what they expected was interrupted by the unexpected as when they approached the tomb they found it both open and empty. And suddenly in the face of two angels. ‘

The women were afraid. In fact, the text says that they were terrified. And wouldn’t we be as well, if what we expected to find was interrupted by the unexpected of God?

I love what the angel says in this passage “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” The women have encountered the glory of God. They are standing on holy ground. 

Yet, how often are we looking for the living among the dead as well? Perhaps we are not literally looking for someone who is alive amongst the dead, but we definitely find ourselves looking for life giving things amongst those things that bring death. Looking for life in the midst of death. 

I was recently listening to a podcast that was talking about how we are humans are wired to try to find the meaning in life. But as people start to move away from religion for that meaning making, they are grasping at other things, some of which don’t fill that void very well. But they keep reaching, looking for life amongst death, because that is what they are made to do.

Why are people looking for life amongst death? Because church, we have not always done a good job of telling the life giving story of Jesus. We haven’t always done a good job living into the Easter story with our very lives, so people aren’t sure where to turn. 

For Jesus is not where the group expected him to be, but he is also exactly where he told them he will be. Jesus told his disciples while he was alive that he would die, but behold he would be alive forevermore and he would hold the keys over hell in death. We repeat that in almost every funeral we have in this church. He told them that message in a bunch of different ways, yet the angels still had to remind them. Remind them of how Jesus said he had to be handed over to sinners, be crucified, but he would rise again on the third day. Then they remembered. 

Jesus had anticipated and understood what was to take place, even if they could not understand. Even if we don’t fully understand. Because church, faith isn’t about just proving something to be true, it’s about living it out. Which we celebrate today with the Easter journey. 

Even after they had been told this they had a couple different reactions. We are told that the women remembered, returned from the tomb and told the rest of the apostles what they had encountered. When we have encountered the resurrected Christ we cannot help but tell as well. In fact, God gave these women, and us, the responsibility to go forth and tell when we experience the empty tomb. How do we do that? We tell our story of how Jesus has changed us. We tell the story of our God, who through Jesus Christ has victory over the power of sin and death. The women believed and they were moved to testify. 

Now did everyone they tell believe right away? No. Most of the apostles didn’t believe them. They thought it was just a tale. And friends, not everyone may believe us. But we are still sent forth and called to testify. To tell our good news. To proclaim the life in the midst of death.  All because of Jesus. 

But Peter, Peter was at least moved to go and see what they women were talking about for himself. He saw the linens and the empty tomb. But Peter didn’t go and testify. Peter we are told went home amazed. Sometimes, friends, we too cannot help but be amazed by Jesus. We cannot help but be amazed by the good news of God in our life. But there is a difference between what Peter did and what the women did, in whether or not they acted.

God calls us to both be amazed and to testify. To both come and see and then go and tell. We need folks to testify to God’s goodness and grace in their lives, so others can recognize what God is doing in their lives. There is a gentleman in this parish that says that you are the only Bible that some people may read. What he means is that our lives should so testify to the Good News that people cannot help but be drawn to Jesus. 

The women worshipped Jesus by testifying about what they had seen, simply because he was risen. Simply because they loved him. We too are called to worship him here in this place, on this day, and each and every day of our lives. Because we know that through his death and life, we have life eternal. We know that we have victory over the grave. We have something to testify about. 

Friends, when you have encountered Jesus Christ, when you come to know his life giving power and discover that the tomb is empty, you cannot go back to the way your life was before. Does that mean that we won’t experience any hardship? Absolutely not. But it means we have a story to tell of our Savior even during the most difficult of times. Because we know that whatever we face in the present, we have a hope to come. No matter where we find ourselves this morning, we are called to testify to a risen savior. Hear the Good news. He is not here, he has been risen! And so shall it be with us. Amen. 

"Come to the Garden" - John 20: 1-18

While it was still dark. We have gathered today in the darkness, but as we have gathered together we lit the light of Christ, which fills this place. We have gathered together in darkness - some come with hearts heavy with grief. Others come feeling like they are carrying the weight of the world. Some may come with worries about today or the future. Yet, we have come.

Mary also came in the darkness. Just like you, just like me. However, her darkness was not just the lack of light outside, but the grief that was in her heart. And that she did not understand what is about to take place.

But when she arrived she was able to see through the darkness that things were not as she expected them to be, for the stone had been rolled away. She didn’t even look into the tomb, knowing that what she was find there was not what she wanted, not what she expected, but rather a lack of Jesus’s body. So instead, she ran. She ran to Peter and the other disciples and made a bold statement, “they have taken the Lord out of the tomb.”

Who was this “they” that she was speaking about? Some scholars think that the very religious leaders who had cheered for the death of Jesus were part of who insisted that he be buried in this particular manner, in accordance with the law. Maybe Mary that it was the religious leaders who had come in the middle of the night and moved his body. Or maybe it was the government officials who were supposed to be guarding the tomb, but fearing what his disciples would do, had moved his body. Whoever, they is, it is clear that Mary had someone in mind, and it further broke her heart. 

Peter and another unnamed disciple, who is believed to be John, took off once they heard Mary’s words. Maybe they were in darkness as well, the darkness of unbelief. How can what Mary said be true? Maybe she misunderstood? Either way, they needed to see it for themselves, so they took off. 

Peter bent down and saw that it was just as Mary had said at the garden tomb. Had he come to the garden expecting anything different? The other disciple went into the tomb itself and the text said that he believed. Let us note, that he believed the word of Mary, believed that they had moved the body. They did not yet come to the garden and leave the tomb expecting or believing in the resurrection. And because this was not what they expected or what they believed, they left the garden that day still in the darkness of unknowing. 

But Mary, Mary stayed. She couldn’t bring herself to leave. Her heart still heavy, now with even more grief, that all she could do was weep. Through her darkness and her tears she did not recognize the man standing near her, asking why she was weeping. Thinking that he was just the care taker of the garden, she asked if he was the one who carried away her Lord. Was he part of the “they”? 

Then Jesus simply said her name, “Mary”, and her eyes were opened. Just as he said the name “Lazarrus” not many days ago, and he came out of the tomb. From darkness to light. Mary’s eyes and heart were open and she did all she knew what to do, she called his name aloud and rushed to hug him. Hug his risen body. 

When I was little Norman Rockwell paintings were ones that I remembered seeing in several places. Maybe you remember seeing them as well. They were paintings that people could relate to, every day people, doing every day things. Friends, that is what the scripture has been like for people for so many years. Especially for Christians, we see ourselves in the every day experience of those early disciples, which allow us to insert ourselves into the story anew. 

This may be a story that you have heard before. Maybe it is completely new to you, but either way, let us insert ourselves anew into it this day. Are you like Mary, coming to the garden of life, expecting one thing, only to be disappointed that life isn’t as you expect it to be? Or do you come to the garden today based on the word of others, like Peter and the unnamed disciple, only to still leave without encounter the Risen Savior yourself? Or are you like Mary after the disciples left, so caught up in grief and overwhelm, that you are having a hard time recognizing the presence of Jesus right near you? Friends, know that the Easter story is for you. 

Or are you like Mary after her eyes and heart are opened, rushing to cling to Jesus, to grow close to him, to celebrate that he is right here with you. Know that the Easter story is for you as well. 

For as we insert ourselves into the story of Easter again this day, we can recognize ourselves in so many of the characters, depending on where we find ourselves at this very moment. For they were people like us, coming to a garden expecting one thing, but leaving finding another. 

But here’s the thing, friends of God. Once we have had this life changing encounter in the garden of life, we are not the same. We are sent forth, transformed by the love and presence of the Risen Christ, to proclaim the Good News, the news that we have seen Jesus. That we have experienced his love. That we are not the same. 

If you came this morning still seeking Christ, I hope and pray that this is a day where you find him. That this is your time to hear Christ call your name and be transformed by it. If you have forgotten your experience with Christ from long ago, may this be a day for you to remember and to feel your heart strangely warmed. And if this is a day when you are walking close with the Lord, may you remember that we cannot stay in this place, as much as we may want to, but rather we are called to go and proclaim. 

Church, hear the Good News. Christ is Risen! And the church responds “Christ is Risen indeed!” Amen. 

“Beginning Again” Luke 7: 36-50

One of the things I am most proud of writing while in seminary was a letter to the World Council of Churches about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 1996, it was found that a large number of people had been mistreated prior to the end of apartheid in South Africa. Victims were encouraged to talk about their experience in public hearings. 

But these hearings were quite different than what we think about hearings today, because at the end of the hearings, there was an option to grant amnesty to the perpetrators. Why in the world would this be a form of justice? Because many victims wanted to move towards reconciliation - starting to rebuild a new life together.

Now were these hearings one hundred percent successful? Of course not. Like everything else in society, it faced criticism. Nor was everyone granted amnesty. But what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission started was a new way to envision justice in a broken world.

We are now in the final week of our sermon series for Lent around forgiveness. We’ve talked about why it can be hard to forgive. About how God forgave us. We’ve explored those areas in our lives where we need to examine ourselves more and confess our sin. 

This is Palm Sunday. The day we traditionally celebrate Jesus riding into Jerusalem before the events that will come to pass this week take place. The final meal with the disciples. His arrest. Trial. And sentence to death on a cross. But shortly after Jesus’s triumphal entry into the city is described in Luke 19, we find Jesus weeping over the city. He cries out telling the people to pay attention, to open their eyes, because a hard time is coming. A time when their enemies will seem to succeed instead of the way of peace. 

When I read about Jesus weeping, when I think about what is to come, when I explore some of our world’s history of brokenness, I am left with questions. Questions like, can you truly be reconciled without forgiveness? Does forgiveness always lead to reconciliation? Is it about what we say publicly or how we feel in our hearts? What is the way of peace that Jesus is calling us to?

In Hebrew Scripture there was a very clear path laid out in Leviticus and Numbers about how one was to approach being reconciled with one’s neighbors. If a person wronged their neighbor, the first thing they had to do was go to that person and acknowledge their specific sin. Essentially they had to say what they had done wrong and how they are sorry that they did it. But then the were to work towards restoration, making it right again. They were to pay restitution of the value of whatever they harmed plus another 1/5 of the cost. Only after they had reached out to their neighbor could they go and make atonement before God in terms of sacrifice. Why was there such a process for restoration? Because people harm one another and we are not always great at an attitude of repentance. 

On some basic level there has to be forgiveness in order to be reconciled. We see this in the forgiveness that Jesus will offer time and again throughout this week, but forgiveness does not always lead to reconciliation. Sometimes the people that you are trying to offer forgiveness to will think that they have done nothing wrong and don’t need to be offered forgiveness. Sometimes the person you need to forgive has passed away. Sometimes we get forgiveness all messed up and we use apologies as daggers to further harm people instead of places of healing and grace. 

Other times there can be reconciliation without forgiveness. Have you ever had a friend, or perhaps your own family, who you just didn’t talk about something from the past because there is some unresolved hurt there. Yet, you just keep moving forward, as if nothing happened, because you value the relationship more than the hurt? 

But when forgiveness and reconciliation truly connect church, the result can be powerful. In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus is invited to the house of a Pharisee named Simon. Somehow, an unnamed woman from town found out where Jesus was going to be and she came to the table where he was eating and brought a jar of ointment with her. As Simon tried to eat with Jesus, probably wanting his undivided attention, here is a woman who everyone has deemed a sinner who entered into his house, uninvited, and is washing Jesus’s feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. 

Simon is not happy. But he knows better than to say anything out loud to Jesus, so instead  he just keeps his resentment in his heart, saying to himself.  “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” Only Jesus knows what he is thinking. But instead of just correcting Simon, instead, he told a story. A story very similar to the one we heard last week about debts and debtors, only this one has a slightly better ending with all the debts being canceled, but Jesus asking this very peculiar question - if debtors of two different sizes had their debts canceled, who would love the one forgiving their debt more? The answer - the one with the greater debt. 

Here is this woman before Jesus, who is crying because she has had her debt of sin forgiven. Yes, everyone identifies her as a sinner, but that is not how Jesus sees her. She is crying because she knows that she is forgiven and knows the weight of all that she had been carrying around. She shows love because of what she has been freed from. 

This woman was forgiven and free but she was also restored. She was made new. Friends, that is what the love of Jesus can do in our lives. Have you ever noticed how excited people can get when they dedicate their lives to Christ? When they first feel the weight of the burden of sin lifted from their lives? It can change them! And they are so excited to share it! Because they know, they know they have been made new. 

Somewhere between when we first accept Christ and as we live into our faith over the years, some folks can lose that excitement. That overwhelming feeling of grace. 

But we have an opportunity today to think about that experience all over again. As we ponder this scripture about the woman crying, we can realize that the way that we have always done things, may not be the only way. We’ve been thinking over the past few weeks about people we need to forgive in our lives or things that we need to be forgiven for. The world in which we lives seems to think that if someone has wronged us, what we need is retributive justice, justice in the form of punishment. But Jesus did not punish this woman for her sins, friends. Instead he offered restorative justice, by telling her to go and sin no more. By sending her back into society forgiven and freed. 

At first glance, it may be really hard for us to imagine this type of justice, rooted in forgiveness, in our lives and in our world. But friends, isn’t this the very type of forgiveness that Jesus offered us on the cross? 

In a moment we are going to have an opportunity to come and lay whatever we have been carrying at the foot of the cross. Maybe its a person that you are just really struggling with forgiving. Bring it to the cross. Maybe its a situation where you see no way out. Bring it to the foot of the cross. Maybe it is a sin that you just cannot shake. Bring it to the foot of the cross. Because here, friends, and especially this week, we remember the grace and forgiveness and new way and new life that wait for us here. Let us pray…

“Forgiving” Matthew 18: 21-35

The idea of forgiving others is part of our Christian faith. Every week we pray together the Lord’s Pray, which includes “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Sometimes other churches use the words sins or debt in that part of the prayer, but no matter what we pray, the premise still gets across, we are to forgive other people. 

And yet. And yet, we are not always very forgiving are we? Even with forgiveness being part of our faith, we try to place limits on what that looks like, on what Jesus could actually be asking of us. When Peter asks Jesus how often we should forgive, that is exactly what he is looking for. What is the limit? How much is too much? To which Jesus essentially says - any limits that you think exist on forgiveness, they don’t. We forgive indefinitely. And then launches into the parable of the unforgiving servant. 

This is a parable that I have always found interesting. Jesus is talking about what the Kingdom of God is like and compares it to a King who is trying to settle accounts in his Kingdom, only to find that one slaved owed him an astronomical amount of money. One talent is equal to fifteen years worth of ordinary wages, so the amount we are talking about in this parable is equivalent to 150,000 years of labor. Its an amount he could never pay back in this lifetime. A debt that could never be settled. So the King did what he was allowed to do by law, he ordered that the slave and his family and everything he owned be sold in order to put money towards the debt. 

Then the slave fell down on his knees and begged for more time. The slave even said if he would have more time he would be able to pay everything back. Do you think the King believed that this was possible? Absolutely not. So instead, he showed mercy and forgave the debt entirely. 

Brothers and sisters, if we were placing ourselves in the parable, we would certainly be the slave. We owe God more than we could ever repay, for the blessings that have been lavished upon us and for the grace that was shown to us on the cross. God knows that we cannot repay this, or even come close in our human existence, so God forgave the debt of our sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. Because of this gift we can now stand before God’s throne and be counted as God’s children. We are freed and forgiven!

But instead of rejoicing in the forgiveness that the King offered, we find the slave going out and demanding that another slave repay him about 100 days worth of wages. It was such a small amount compared to the debt that the first slave had racked up from the King, yet he would not let it go. His fellow salve begged for patience, just as he had done not moments before in the parable, but he would not show mercy and had him thrown in debtors prison. 

We do this as well, do we not church? If God has lavished us with forgiveness because of the cross, what witness does it show in the world when we do not forgive as we have been forgiven? God’s expects us to share this gift of forgiveness not just with our lips, but to live it out with our lives. 

Which is where the problem lies. When we find ourselves acting in unforgiving ways its usually for one of two reasons. The first is that we sometimes feel like we just can’t forgive. Adam Hamilton used an example of unforgiveness a few years ago that has always stuck with me, and which my dad and I were just talking about the other day. Rev. Hamilton had a large camping backpack - frame and all, and slowly, he started to add rocks to it. Each rock had something written on it - a place of unforgiveness in our lives. Rock after rock was added, until it became apparent that it was more than any person should be carrying it around. Then he hoisted it on his shoulders and carried it. 

Friends, how many of us are carrying around a backpack full of unforgiveness? How many of us have heaviness in our hearts in the form of bitterness and resentment that is just fatiguing us day in and day out?

I think part of the reason we carry around all of those things within us is that we don’t really understand forgiveness. We think that if we forgive someone that means that we need to have the same relationship with them as before. That we are opening ourselves up to be a doormat. That we need to pretend that everything is okay. That is not forgiveness.

I have some people in my life who have deeply hurt me. I have forgiven them for what was done, but that does not mean that we just pretend that everything is okay or that we have the same relationship as before. What it does mean is that I have dropped those rocks of bitterness and resentment. Forgiveness was about letting go, but not forgetting about what was done in such a way that I would put myself in a position where I could be hurt. 

Not all the things that we need to forgive are the same. Some things we can talk out. Other things demand a change. We do not need to wait for people to come to us and ask for forgiveness before we forgive them. Sometimes forgiveness is more for our own sake and health then waiting for the other person to become repentant. So even when we feel that we cannot forgive what has been done, let us pray that God allows us to forgive and drop the rocks that we are carrying around.

The other reason people don’t forgive is frankly that we don’t want to. This is about us holding on to control and not wanting to look weak. This is also I think where most of the unforgiveness in our lives is. Not in the feeling that we can’t forgive, but that we just don’t have the desire to forgive.

The other slaves in Jesus’s parable must know that their fellow slave had been forgiven a large debt by the King only to turn around to throw someone else in prison for an unpaid debt. Maybe they are worried the first slave is coming for them next. Maybe they just have a feeling that this isn’t right. Whatever they may be thinking they go and tell what has taken place. 

And the King becomes furious. How could the slave do this? Is this how one responds to mercy? The King was so angry in fact that he rescinded his previously shown mercy and demanded that the entire debt, the unplayable debt, be worked off. 

Friends, is there anything you are carrying around in you today that you need to hand over to God? Is there anyone you need to forgive in your heart for something that has been done to you in the past? God is waiting. Waiting with open arms. We just need to take the first step in handing it over in prayer. 

In a few minutes we are about to celebrate holy communion. A table where we remember both when Jesus offered his very life for us and the forgiveness that he showed us, but also the forgiveness that he would go on to show so many as he handed his life over. Let us take time this morning to prepare our hearts for what we are about to receive by being in an attitude of prayer…