The View From Robert St.

Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

There are times in our lives where our devotion to Christ is put to the test.  And this passage from Matthew is certainly one for me.  I am tired. I am tired of the lying. I am tired of the half truths. I am tired of putting profit over people.  I am tired of the only measure of success being the % increase of the Dow Jones.  

I am tired of the petty grievances and playing politics with people's health and well being.  I'm tired of being told to stay above the fray. I am tired of forgiving and forgiving and forgiving and seeing things get worse and worse and worse. 

I am tired of seeing everyone else do well and we continue to mess it up. 

I feel like I'm long past forgiving 77 times. When does the clock run out on this? 

And then I think about my own sins.  The arrogance and hatred which infects my heart. The stress and worry I have let overtake me. My intolerance and frustration for people I love dearly. For the relationships I have let lie fallow. For the voices I haven't listened to. For my own stubbornness and pridefulness in the wake of a pandemic none of us really understand. 

The Gospel this week is a tough one. Tough talk about forgiveness and about subservience.  A lot of words we don't really want to hear.  About slaves and masters. about debts and forgiveness. About anger and torture. About sin and us.  

But at the root of this story is Grace, and not the prayer you say around the dinner table before you eat.  Grace is a tough concept to explain but an image I like is the open loving arms of the Divine waiting for us to return the embrace.  No matter what you have done or how far you've fallen or how angry and upset you are.  Those arms are there. This is the Grace Christ offers to us no matter the debts we owe.  

Over the next few days, weeks and months - there will be a lot of people looking for grace. some deserved, some undeserved.  When they come to you -- how will you respond?