Proper 19 :: Genesis 50: 15–21 / Psalm 103: 8–13 / Romans 14: 1–12 / Matthew 18: 21–35
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker
on September 13, 2020.
“CONDUITS”
(Homily text: Matthew 18: 21–35)
Conduits
are essential tools upon much of what we experience in our daily lives depend.
Consider, for example, these conduits: A extension cord connects the wall plus
and its supply of electricity to the light or the appliance that needs that
electricity in order to work. Or consider a rope or a chain, which can be used
to connect the pulling power of a two vehicle to one that’s stuck in the mud or
sand. Another example would be a hose, which connects a source of a liquid and
the receiver of it.
You and I
are conduits, conduits of God’s truth, conduits of God’s grace, and conduits of
God’s forgiveness.
It is to
the matter of forgiveness that we now turn, since our Gospel text, appointed
for this morning, deals with our Lord’s teaching about offering forgiveness.
It is
Peter, whom we might expect would be the very one to ask the Lord about the
number of times that he (or someone else) should offer forgiveness to another
person, who asks the Lord, “…how often will my brother or sister sin against
me, and I forgive them? As many as seven times?”
Peter’s
question flows naturally out of the Lord’s previous teaching, the one we heard
last Sunday, about dealing with wrongdoing on the part of a member of the
Church. There, the Lord concluded His teaching by saying that, if the guilty
person doesn’t listen to the judgment of the Church, the Church is to treat
them like a “Gentile and a tax collector”. Recall that we concluded last week
that the Lord’s mandate in such circumstances is that we in the Church are to
continue to reach out to the wrongdoer in hopes of re-establishing relationship,
for that’s how the Lord treated the outcasts of the day, the tax collectors and
others.
This week’s
text follows, then, quite naturally out of last week’s, and in my humble
estimation, constitutes one teaching, not two separate ones.
Matthew
seems to want to be sure that we don’t miss this important and vital teaching
from our Lord, for he includes not one, but two, teachings having to do with
offering forgiveness to another person. The first may be found in Matthew 6:12,
14 – 15. There, in the Lord’s Prayer, we read this petition, “and forgive us
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us (verse 12). But then,
just to be sure (at least that’s my understanding of it), the Lord continues in
verses 14 and 15 by saying, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their
trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses.”
(It’s worth
noting that Matthew is fond of repeating some of the Lord’s key teachings…Just
as there are two teachings about forgiveness in Matthew’s text, so there are
two teachings about marriage and divorce in Matthew’s account, to cite another example.)
The text
we’ve just cited from chapter six illustrates the nature of our relationship
with God and with others: We are conduits, passing along to others the good
things that the Lord has given to us. Forgiveness is but one of those good
things, for we cannot exist without God’s forgiveness, and our relationship
with others will either be impaired or even ended if we do not hold in mind the
many times God has forgiven us, as we deal with others. Conduits serve no
function if they don’t connect two things, one to the other. So it is with us:
We are to connect God to people and people to God, preaching the Gospel, and
using words, if necessary, to do so, as St. Francis of Assisi said.
We end with
this question which we might ask ourselves: “To what extent am I an effective
conduit of God’s grace, goodness, mercy and forgiveness?”
AMEN.
