Genesis 50: 15–21 / Psalm 103: 1–13 / Romans 14: 1–12 / Matthew 18: 21–35
This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, September 13, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.
“LEAKS: GOOD ONES AND NOT-SO-GOOD ONES”
(Homily text: Matthew 18: 21-35)
We
begin this morning with a bit of humor…
It’s
Sunday morning, and in the local Pentecostal church, the service is nearing an
end. The altar call is given, and a man steps forward. Raising his arms, he
begins to cry out, “Lord, just fill me up, just fill me up!” The man continues
in this same way for a good while, and then stops to catch his breath,
whereupon a lady in the front row says, “Yes, Lord, fill him up, ‘cause he sure
does leak!”.
So
then, let’s consider the matter of leaks, those sorts of leaks that are good
and desirable, and which are the sorts that are good and necessary for a
faithful walk with God, those sorts of leaks that we’d be better off if we
didn’t lose what good things God would like us to have and to retain, and those
sorts of leaks that we must make use of, if we are to be good followers of
Jesus.
Three
examples, demonstrating both sorts, come to mind…
If we
think about it, and if we are honest with ourselves, all of us leak when it
comes to the things of God. That is to say, we forget the things we have
learned, or the things we have come to know. So, we need refreshers. We need
God to fill us up again, in order to fill up the voids in our faith life that
must be filled. That would be a good example of the less-than-optimal sort of
filling up that each of us require, now and again. And, by the way, that’s one
reason we gather in church Sunday by Sunday, because we need reminders, we need
a godly boost to bolster our walk with God.
Just
as bad is a condition in which we are unwilling to let the less-than-desirable
aspects of our human nature to deliberately leak out of us, so that God can
refill those spaces with His wisdom, insights and love.
And
then, there’s those sorts of leaks that can work either for our good, or can
threaten to impair our relationship with the Lord. I’m thinking here of the
ability to share the good things of God that He wants to give us, and which we
receive if we are willing to turn around and share those same good things with
others.
This
last point brings us to the matter of receiving and giving forgiveness, and to
the Lord’s Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, which is our appointed Gospel
text for this morning.
Matthew
places this teaching right after the teaching about how the Church, and its
members, are to resolve injurious behaviors in the Church. (This was our
appointed Gospel text for last Sunday). Perhaps the context of today’s parable
is important for our understanding of its importance.
Recall
that, in the teaching we heard last Sunday, the Lord instructs an individual
member of the body of Christ who’s been the recipient of bad behavior to
approach the one who’s caused the problem, going one-on-one. If this doesn’t
resolve the matter, then the Lord says that the injured party is to take one or
two others as witnesses. If this next step doesn’t set the matter to rest, then
the whole Church is to resolve the matter. Concluding the teaching is this
instruction from the Lord: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Peter,
apparently thinking about this last comment, asks the Lord, “How many times
should I forgive a sister or brother?” He then posits the answer as being
“seven times”. No, the Lord says, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Or
– in other words – a limitless number.
Then
we hear the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.
Jesus
spins out a tale in which a servant owes his master a very large sum of money.
But the servant is unable to pay the debt, so the master forgives the debt.
Leaving the master’s presence, the servant encounters a fellow servant who owes
him a very small sum. The forgiven servant obviously forgets the blessing he’s
just received in the forgiveness of his debt, for he grabs his fellow servant
and demands payment.
The
parable is told in hyperbolic terms, meaning that the Lord deliberately
exaggerates the sums of money involved in order to provoke our response.
We are
told that, unless we are willing to offer forgiveness to others, our Heavenly
Father won’t be generous with us.
Here
we come to the matter of leakages.
If we
are unwilling to deliberately allow God’s goodness, God’s love, and God’s
forgiveness to flow out of our innermost being, then there’s no space for God
to refill. The truth is that we control the valve which regulates the outward
flow. Surely, this is a mystery: Why would God allow us the freedom to choose
to be generous with that which flows out of us? I don’t know the answer, but I
do know that’s how it works.
We
could characterize this truth by saying that, if we want to receive, we’ll need
to be willing to also give. (I’ve heard that somewhere, have you?) Or, in order
to get, we’re gonna have to be willing to give.
Where
the matter of giving and receiving forgiveness is concerned, Matthew provides
us with today’s parable. But he also provides us with the Lord’s Prayer, which reminds
us that we want God to forgive us, just as we are willing to forgive others.
Then, to be sure we’ve gotten the message, Matthew tells us plainly that,
unless we are willing to forgive others, God will not forgive us (see Matthew 6:
14–15). (Matthew is fond of repeating himself – his Gospel accounts contain
many examples where a teaching appears twice.)
Our
prayer then might be that the Lord will fill us up, to the extent that we’ve
created space for Him to do so.
AMEN.
