Ezekiel 36:25-28 (The Message)
24-28 For here’s what I, your God, am going to do:
I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over,
and bring you back to your own land.
I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean.
I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you.
I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed,
not self-willed.
I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you
and live by my commands.
You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors.
You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!
Matthew 18:21-28 (New Revised Standard Version)
21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven.
23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him, 25 and, as he could not pay, the lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made.
26 So the servant fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
28 But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’
24-28 For here’s what I, your God, am going to do:
I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over,
and bring you back to your own land.
I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean.
I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you.
I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed,
not self-willed.
I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you
and live by my commands.
You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors.
You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!
Matthew 18:21-28 (New Revised Standard Version)
21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven.
23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him, 25 and, as he could not pay, the lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made.
26 So the servant fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
28 But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’
Reflection
Ever wonder where this whole confession thing comes from for Christians? Yes I know some Christians like to start with original sin in the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve, the serpent and the tree of knowledge. We are not going there today.
Let’s start with Exodus and the story of the Golden calf.
Moses is up on Mount Sinai, conferring with Yahweh about the 10 Commandments, and the people are sitting around waiting for him to come down. They are getting impatient, anxious, and maybe a little bit uneasy. Here, they have left Egypt and now, maybe, their God, Yahweh, has abandoned them because who knows what is happening up on the mountain.
So, they use all the gold they have to make a golden calf and start sacrificing to the golden calf, by the way Aaron; Moses’ brother is on this. When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and sees them worshipping the idol he smashes the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written, signifying how the Hebrews had broken the covenant before it even is a covenant, and God threatens to destroy the whole people.
Moses intercedes on behalf of the people – his people and destroys the Golden Calf and redoes the stone tablets and brings them back up on the mountain.
Yahweh passes in front of him in the form of a cloud saying in Exodus 34: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” and Moses responds: “He bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favour in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin.”
This story and several others in the Bible establish the God of Israel as a forgiving, compassionate and even merciful God, in addition to being a God of justice and law on a collective level.
And, as we know, when we read through the stories of the Bible, God’s justice and mercy are reoccurring themes; as are repentance and atonement of Israel. When the Temple is established and there is a sacrificial system in place we see the development and fine tuning of individual repentance and atonement. So that specific misdeeds, had specific ways to atone. If you did that, you could do this to make it right.
It worked something like Confession and Penance does in the Christian Church, so confession results in an admonishment "to go and sin no more" and 20 “Hail Mary’s” although in the more modern Protestant traditions Confession and Assurance may be as close as we get.
The word in Hebrew for sin (ḥet) literally means something that goes astray, like an arrow that misses the mark. When an archer misses the target, it is not a permanent failure. Rather, an archer can keep trying to get arrows closer to the target and ultimately to its center.
Atonement and Pardon are introduced in the priestly and prophetic texts of the Bible, which speak of the atonement of the people Israel, their return to God, and God’s acceptance of them anew. Repentance is possible for all who are able to acknowledge wrongdoing, express regret and ultimately change their conduct. So if you do something that is contrary to the law there are consequences, sometimes not just for you but for the whole community if you should try to hide the act.
For example, if you touched an unclean animal but chose not to disclose it to anyone and entered the synagogue you would make the whole community there unclean. Therefore, if you touched an unclean animal, even if you did it inadvertently; say by being pushed into a crate of pigs in a crowded street; you would have to wash – you and all your clothes, and isolate from the family and community until sunset. Paul and Peter eating with Gentiles was a very big deal not only for the them as individuals but for the community.
In Confession, remorse or guilt is necessary, we have to take responsibility for the act or inaction which causes harm, creates a rift between you and God or between yourself and another person or people. The sin is the rift, the separation, something is broken in the relationship.
But guess what?; we are all human, we all make mistakes, we are all imperfect, and God understands that. We know God understands this about us. We make mistakes; we treat others badly; we are selfish and self-absorbed. What we have to do is repair and mend and fix, if we can. We apologize; we try to repair the damage we have done; we seek forgiveness and forgive others.
The medieval Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, teaches in his code, the Mishnah Torah, that repentance a three-stage process. First we must regret our actions, we have to recognize and acknowledge the reality of what we have done. Then we have to apologize and make amends where possible and understand that this is a flaw in our character, a stain on our soul. Finally, we have to want to change ourselves, we have to change our behaviour, we have to change our thinking, we have to change whatever created the rift, the sin, in the first place. We have to want not to do it again. We have to be willing to change, to be a better person.
Repentance is really about who we are and who we want to be. Repentance is about looking at ourselves, and I don’t mean the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, justifying the why and what, it means looking at ourselves in truth and coming to terms with who we really are. Repentance is soul work and touches the very essence of who we are.
I must admit that I personally like the idea that I can confess, well anything, and I am assured that my mistakes, my unkindness, all the things I have done and haven’t done, any failings on my part, are forgiven each and every Sunday. I am assured that God understands my human-ness and that I can start again, a clean slate.- every week. I think there is truth in our confession because while our communal confession may only vaguely refer to faults or missteps or failing in general- our private confession those moments that sometimes may seem too long or too short – those are the ones that really count. Those little niggly things that come to us in a flash – maybe an insight that just occurs to us in the silence. These are the things that make our Confession and Assurance necessary and meaningful.
In Judaism there is this holiest of holy days called Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement. It was the only time the High Priest could enter the inner sanctum at the Temple: The Holy of Holies and perform the rituals of atonement and ask forgiveness on behalf of all the people of Israel. Since the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE the liturgy is conducted in synagogues by rabbis.
It is a day when people, who have spent the previous 10 days from Rosh Hashoana to Yom Kippur, evaluating their lives during the past year, reflecting on their relationships and trying to make amends – although I suppose they do that all year. So, on Yom Kippur, when their relationships with others had been scrutinized, and all effort has been made to repair and atone with their friends and loved ones and the larger community, the slate is wiped clean, and their relationship with God is also put right.
I once heard the asking for forgiveness process explained to me in such a way that it opened my eyes a bit the difference it might make to well everyone involved: say you harmed someone and went to them to tell them you were sorry and they didn’t accept your apology, that is; there was no forgiveness offered. Well it doesn’t stop there, you don’t just walk away and say to yourself “ Well, I tried”. You go again and you bring a witness: again you offer your apology and if it still isn’t accepted, you go again with two witnesses and so on.
Now you might be wondering what is the purpose of the witnesses and you might think: “Oh, to tell the community that you really had apologized.” But, no, the witnesses are there to give you advice on your apology. You get advice so you will get it right, because repenting and making amends is really important for you, for the other person, for the community. Repentance is all about acknowledging wrongdoing, expressing regret and ultimately changing.
Looking at our scripture today, we are reminded that forgiveness is never just once, it is never just you, it is never just others – it is this continuous cycle – and everyone is involved in it: God, you, me, our kids, our friends, everyone. We are all imperfect, we are all flawed, we all have moods, we are all busy, we are all tired, we are all trespassers who owe debts to others whom we have never acknowledged, we have all been trespassed against and have forgiven debts that have never been paid, we are all God’s beloved and forgiven people, we are all God’s loving and forgiving people.
Everything I have described today is hard, it’s not easy looking at yourself, it’s not easy going to someone and apologizing, asking forgiveness, it’s not easy trying to repair and amend a relationship, it’s not easy to forgive but that is the only way we can all work together to build a better more compassionate and loving world. One life at a time, one act at a time, we will move toward the Kin-dom of God.
May it be so.
Amen
Ever wonder where this whole confession thing comes from for Christians? Yes I know some Christians like to start with original sin in the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve, the serpent and the tree of knowledge. We are not going there today.
Let’s start with Exodus and the story of the Golden calf.
Moses is up on Mount Sinai, conferring with Yahweh about the 10 Commandments, and the people are sitting around waiting for him to come down. They are getting impatient, anxious, and maybe a little bit uneasy. Here, they have left Egypt and now, maybe, their God, Yahweh, has abandoned them because who knows what is happening up on the mountain.
So, they use all the gold they have to make a golden calf and start sacrificing to the golden calf, by the way Aaron; Moses’ brother is on this. When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and sees them worshipping the idol he smashes the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written, signifying how the Hebrews had broken the covenant before it even is a covenant, and God threatens to destroy the whole people.
Moses intercedes on behalf of the people – his people and destroys the Golden Calf and redoes the stone tablets and brings them back up on the mountain.
Yahweh passes in front of him in the form of a cloud saying in Exodus 34: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” and Moses responds: “He bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favour in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin.”
This story and several others in the Bible establish the God of Israel as a forgiving, compassionate and even merciful God, in addition to being a God of justice and law on a collective level.
And, as we know, when we read through the stories of the Bible, God’s justice and mercy are reoccurring themes; as are repentance and atonement of Israel. When the Temple is established and there is a sacrificial system in place we see the development and fine tuning of individual repentance and atonement. So that specific misdeeds, had specific ways to atone. If you did that, you could do this to make it right.
It worked something like Confession and Penance does in the Christian Church, so confession results in an admonishment "to go and sin no more" and 20 “Hail Mary’s” although in the more modern Protestant traditions Confession and Assurance may be as close as we get.
The word in Hebrew for sin (ḥet) literally means something that goes astray, like an arrow that misses the mark. When an archer misses the target, it is not a permanent failure. Rather, an archer can keep trying to get arrows closer to the target and ultimately to its center.
Atonement and Pardon are introduced in the priestly and prophetic texts of the Bible, which speak of the atonement of the people Israel, their return to God, and God’s acceptance of them anew. Repentance is possible for all who are able to acknowledge wrongdoing, express regret and ultimately change their conduct. So if you do something that is contrary to the law there are consequences, sometimes not just for you but for the whole community if you should try to hide the act.
For example, if you touched an unclean animal but chose not to disclose it to anyone and entered the synagogue you would make the whole community there unclean. Therefore, if you touched an unclean animal, even if you did it inadvertently; say by being pushed into a crate of pigs in a crowded street; you would have to wash – you and all your clothes, and isolate from the family and community until sunset. Paul and Peter eating with Gentiles was a very big deal not only for the them as individuals but for the community.
In Confession, remorse or guilt is necessary, we have to take responsibility for the act or inaction which causes harm, creates a rift between you and God or between yourself and another person or people. The sin is the rift, the separation, something is broken in the relationship.
But guess what?; we are all human, we all make mistakes, we are all imperfect, and God understands that. We know God understands this about us. We make mistakes; we treat others badly; we are selfish and self-absorbed. What we have to do is repair and mend and fix, if we can. We apologize; we try to repair the damage we have done; we seek forgiveness and forgive others.
The medieval Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, teaches in his code, the Mishnah Torah, that repentance a three-stage process. First we must regret our actions, we have to recognize and acknowledge the reality of what we have done. Then we have to apologize and make amends where possible and understand that this is a flaw in our character, a stain on our soul. Finally, we have to want to change ourselves, we have to change our behaviour, we have to change our thinking, we have to change whatever created the rift, the sin, in the first place. We have to want not to do it again. We have to be willing to change, to be a better person.
Repentance is really about who we are and who we want to be. Repentance is about looking at ourselves, and I don’t mean the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, justifying the why and what, it means looking at ourselves in truth and coming to terms with who we really are. Repentance is soul work and touches the very essence of who we are.
I must admit that I personally like the idea that I can confess, well anything, and I am assured that my mistakes, my unkindness, all the things I have done and haven’t done, any failings on my part, are forgiven each and every Sunday. I am assured that God understands my human-ness and that I can start again, a clean slate.- every week. I think there is truth in our confession because while our communal confession may only vaguely refer to faults or missteps or failing in general- our private confession those moments that sometimes may seem too long or too short – those are the ones that really count. Those little niggly things that come to us in a flash – maybe an insight that just occurs to us in the silence. These are the things that make our Confession and Assurance necessary and meaningful.
In Judaism there is this holiest of holy days called Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement. It was the only time the High Priest could enter the inner sanctum at the Temple: The Holy of Holies and perform the rituals of atonement and ask forgiveness on behalf of all the people of Israel. Since the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE the liturgy is conducted in synagogues by rabbis.
It is a day when people, who have spent the previous 10 days from Rosh Hashoana to Yom Kippur, evaluating their lives during the past year, reflecting on their relationships and trying to make amends – although I suppose they do that all year. So, on Yom Kippur, when their relationships with others had been scrutinized, and all effort has been made to repair and atone with their friends and loved ones and the larger community, the slate is wiped clean, and their relationship with God is also put right.
I once heard the asking for forgiveness process explained to me in such a way that it opened my eyes a bit the difference it might make to well everyone involved: say you harmed someone and went to them to tell them you were sorry and they didn’t accept your apology, that is; there was no forgiveness offered. Well it doesn’t stop there, you don’t just walk away and say to yourself “ Well, I tried”. You go again and you bring a witness: again you offer your apology and if it still isn’t accepted, you go again with two witnesses and so on.
Now you might be wondering what is the purpose of the witnesses and you might think: “Oh, to tell the community that you really had apologized.” But, no, the witnesses are there to give you advice on your apology. You get advice so you will get it right, because repenting and making amends is really important for you, for the other person, for the community. Repentance is all about acknowledging wrongdoing, expressing regret and ultimately changing.
Looking at our scripture today, we are reminded that forgiveness is never just once, it is never just you, it is never just others – it is this continuous cycle – and everyone is involved in it: God, you, me, our kids, our friends, everyone. We are all imperfect, we are all flawed, we all have moods, we are all busy, we are all tired, we are all trespassers who owe debts to others whom we have never acknowledged, we have all been trespassed against and have forgiven debts that have never been paid, we are all God’s beloved and forgiven people, we are all God’s loving and forgiving people.
Everything I have described today is hard, it’s not easy looking at yourself, it’s not easy going to someone and apologizing, asking forgiveness, it’s not easy trying to repair and amend a relationship, it’s not easy to forgive but that is the only way we can all work together to build a better more compassionate and loving world. One life at a time, one act at a time, we will move toward the Kin-dom of God.
May it be so.
Amen
