forgiveness, repentance and tolerance              June 17, 2007       Pastor Laird Duran

This is a sermon about forgiveness, repentance and tolerance. It’s about respecting others, even if we don’t agree with them.

I like to listen to a radio program by Ed Wallace, who comes on every Saturday and talks about cars and the auto industry. He also writes about cars for the Star Telegram, and for a local television station, channels Four. On a recent radio program, one of his callers said his wife was trying to decide between two different kinds of cars, a used Lexus or a new Saturn.

Ed said, “Wait a minute, you said this car is for your wife. Let me stop you right there. I’ve said this again and again. My friend, I’m not going to get between you and your wife. If this is her car, then let her pick the car. He said that essentially, they were both good cars. It depends on her own taste.

“What I do is go with her to the two dealerships, and drive each car. Then figure out which way she’s going in the decision, and then encourage her to do what she wants to do.”

Then the caller said, “In my house, I wear the pants, and I make the final decision.”

“Now wait right there,” Wallace said, “I gave that stuff up thirty years ago. After three wives and several girlfriends, I learned to give that up. If this is her car, let it be her decision.” “Humm,” the caller said. “Well then, which options do you think I should get?” “You haven’t heard a word I said,” said Wallace. “Once again, it’s her car, you let her make the decision about buying it. Good luck to you.”

This Father’s Day, Ed Wallace is giving good advice. Being a father and husband requires a healthy dose of tolerance and repentance. Hopefully, the man will take Wallace’s advice, and let his wife choose her own car. Tolerance and repentance are the ways we learn to forgive. They are essential elements of life in the family and in the world.

In Luke 7:36 50, there is another lesson on forgiveness, tolerance, and grace. A sinful woman crashes a party where the honored guest, Jesus, is dining with a prominent pharisee named Simon. I wish Luke would tell us how she got in and crashed the dinner party, but somehow she got in. Often people like her showed up wherever Jesus went. This sinful woman shows her gratitude to Jesus by kissing and washing his feet with her tears. She dried his feet with her hair, and anointed them with precious balm.

Simon objected to this display of affection and reminded Jesus that this woman was a real sinner. Some even assumed that she was a prostitute. Jesus challenged Simon, saying that her faith was authentic, and she expressed her gratitude by anointing his feet.

Then Jesus told him a simple story to prove his point. Jesus said that once there two people in debt to a certain creditor. One owed five hundred days wages, the other owed fifty. Since both were unable to repay, the creditor forgave both of them. Jesus then asked Simon, "Which of them will love him more?" Simon replied, "I suppose the one whose debt is larger."

Jesus then looked over at the woman. He said that when she kissed his feet, washed them with her tears, and dried them with her hair, she showed her heartfelt need for Jesus' forgiveness. Simon, on the other hand, had failed to make any such personal claim of affection or gratitude for Jesus. "You did not even provide water for me to wash my feet. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered," Jesus said. Jesus forgave her, releasing her of any offense against God.

Simon, on the other hand, neglected to show Jesus any love nor any need for repentance of forgiveness. Even worse, he was downright intolerant and arrogant with this woman. Now I’m sure as a pharisee, he kept the torah, the law and traditions of Jewish culture. We can presume that he wore the pants in his family as was their custom. But God counts all these things as simply works of the law that misses the whole point of the law God has given us through Christ.

For Jesus, the main point of God’s law is to love God and love our neighbor. It is this love which manifests itself in being a father, mother, sister or brother in the family, with our neighbor, and in the world. This love is manifested in praising God for all the good gifts and opportunities God has given us. This unnamed woman showed Jesus her true affection for him, and Jesus forgave any and all of her sins. She experienced the grace and never failing love that Jesus gives each of us. Several years ago, a woman I’ll call Sheila called me one day and asked me how she could get back into the church. She said she was a member years ago, but that she had not been to church for more than twenty years. She was now quite sick, and was not able to travel. I told her she simply had to reaffirm her faith, a kind of mind reconfirmation promise.

The next day, I went to visit. She had been very sick for a long time. I said, “Sheila, why have you waited so long, and stayed away from church. She talked about arguments with her sister. They had fought over her mother, and who was her favorite for years. She felt like her sister was always putting her down, and that she was her mother’s favorite child. She talked about the sins of her sister, and her own sins against her. Finally she said, “I just got tired of fighting, and want to have some peace in my life.”

I said does that mean you’re ready to forgive her sister? “Yes,” she “That’s all behind me now.” I just want to live in peace with God and with my family. What do I have to do?”

“Just let it go,” I said. Those issues were over. There’s no reason to let them haunt your relationship with her or with God. God loves you and your sister, and forgives both your sins.”

That led to one of the beautiful moments when the grace of God finally breaks through. We had personal confession and absolution, and she named her family issues, and promised to repent. Then we celebrated Holy Communion, and she received the cup of forgiveness Jesus gave to the world. Forgiveness of sin is a beautiful thing to behold. And with that, I assured her, she was once again an active member of the church.

That night, Shelia died suddenly in her sleep. Her heart had simply stopped. We had a church funeral. Her sister came to her funeral, and told me that Shelia called her earlier in the evening, and told her she missed seeing her all those years. That funeral was a good funeral. It was a time to remember that the business of forgiveness goes beyond the grave and brings us into the light of Christ.

With all of the bickering and disagreements, the hardness of heart that we encounter in our culture can be overcome when we accept that we are all sinners in need of the forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ. I am convinced that tolerance, repentance and forgiveness are sorely missed, not only in our families, but in our nation as well. Many talk radio programs are destined to stir up intolerance. Sadder still, many religious leaders fan the flames of hate and intolerance, too.

A few great leaders knew that in order to have peace in the country, we need a healthy dose of tolerance, or repentance, and forgiveness. One of those great leaders was Abraham Lincoln. After the great Civil war was over, Lincoln knew that the best thing he could do was to help heal the divisions in our nation. Consider this portion a speech he made soon after the Civil War.

Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved . . . in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has grown. But we have forgotten God.”

"We have forgotten the gracious hand that has preserved us in peace . . . We have vainly imagined that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity and redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."'

I think these words by Abraham Lincoln are beautiful. Too bad that he was shot to death soon after that by someone who was angry at him about that war. His visions for a united country were succeeded by the disastrous policy called reconstruction. No doubt Lincoln was rolling in his grave as the South suffered for years after the Civil War was over.

Lot’s of political leaders like to use God talk, but most are simply trying to persuade us, not God. As far as I know, Lincoln never used God talk for his own political gain. He never boasted that he had an exclusive claim on God’s will, or God’s blessing. Rather, Lincoln understood that God stands with all those who suffer and die, both Confederates and Union. That is after all, the message of Christ's cross. Moreover Lincoln was asking the nation to "confess our national sins" and ask for God's forgiveness."

I hope that one day, the fourth of July will become a national day of repentance and prayer. I hope that one day, faithful Christians will help our country to be tolerant with those they disagree. Let us pray for our nation and its leaders, that they lead us in the way of tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation with our neighbor. Then we Christians can call all people to give thanks to God for the nation God has given us.