Sermon from 10/5/2014

Matthew 18:27 The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

1. You are the most ____________ person in your life.

2. Jesus, the greatest in the Kingdom, treats you as the ____________ and ____________ your ____________.

3. Nothing is more harmful to the reign of mercy than ____________ ____________.

4. All our ____________ have been ____________, we need demand ____________ from anyone.


Scripture Readings
Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 18:21-35


Take It With You!

Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the message to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with what we are hearing.

For each other... I would cautiously suggest that we should not be surprised to discover that we may need to forgive others-and may need to listen to the forgiveness pronounced by others-more than once for the same sin. When a sin causes wounds that take years to heal or perhaps scars that will be evident until the end of this earthly life, the process of healing and restoration for all persons involved may take repeated mutual confessions and absolutions. As the portrait of the disciples in Matthew reveals and as the teaching of the New Testament epistles makes clear, there is ever and always a struggle going on in Jesus' disciples, a struggle between the ways of the old evil age and the powers of the new time of salvation to which we have been called and baptized. In that struggle, it may be that I need to forgive (and be forgiven) more than once-perhaps over and over again. This need does not mean that I have refused to forgive another (or have never been absolved). It just means what it means: for the sake of fragile human relationships and peace of spirit, I need to forgive again. In the context of Jesus' teaching in this parable that proclaims how it is right, necessary, and possible so to forgive, I too can let go of retribution and forgive-with the prayer and expectation that other disciples of Jesus will do the same for me.

Jeffery A. Gibbs: Concordia Commentary: Matthew 11:2 - 20:34, pgs. 940-941.

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