Hebrews 10: 11-25 Forgiven and Forgiving - Pastor Paul Larsen November 15, 2009

As I get older, and some of you are perfectly willing to remind me that I am getting older, I find myself thinking more and more about the hereafter. I leave my office to fetch something and when I get there I have to ask myself, What am I here after?

I hate it when that happens, but sometimes forgetting is a good thing. In our Hebrews text we hear these words; I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. When God forgives, God forgets. God does not forgive conditionally. God forgives completely. The forgiveness of God is total and everlasting.

We know that God’s gift of forgiveness for our sins calls us to forgive others. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we say, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. That is a troublesome prayer because we find it difficult to forgive others. Too often we prefer sweet revenge.

Janine Brooks was a dental student when a man ran into her car and drove away. She got a good look at him, but she never found out who he was. Her damaged car resulted in a considerable financial burden on her student income. Now, a couple of years later, Janine Brooks is a dentist, and guess who comes to her office needing a tooth to be pulled. He did not recognize her, but she recognized him. She told him he didn’t need Novocain - it wouldn't hurt. She lied. Sweet revenge.

The scene is outside a supermarket in the middle of a torrential downpour. There is a canopy where cars could pull up and shopping carts could be unloaded. But this man is just parked there occupying that space. With his car squarely in the way, he watches with calm detachment as a woman seeks to transfer her small child and groceries from two carts to her automobile. First she makes a mad dash around his car to put her child into her vehicle. Then, dripping wet, she unloads the carts item by item because by this time the rain has destroyed her bags. At last, soaked to the skin, she is finished except for one last maneuver: Gathering all the empty carts left by other shoppers, she calmly encircles the man's car with them. No way could he move without going out into the deluge to clear a path. Then she drives off, giving the shocked fellow a grin and a wave. Sweet revenge.

Some of you are taking notes, aren't you? We can laugh about such acts of retaliation until they get out of hand. Then they are no longer funny. Somewhere, somehow, we need to learn how to break the cycle of hurt and revenge. We need to learn to forgive.

Forgiveness is serious business. If anyone has ever done you a serious wrong, you know how serious forgiveness is. You may remember a heartbreaking scene in the movie Forrest Gump. Jenny returns to her old home after her father has died. The old farm house is dilapidated and abandoned. As she reflects on the sexual abuse that she endured as a child, she is overcome by rage and begins throwing rocks at the house. The scene is powerful as it shows her rapidly reaching for rocks then violently throwing them at the house. Jenny finally falls to the ground in exhaustion and the scene closes with Forrest Gump philosophically saying, Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks.

There never are enough rocks. If someone has abused you, lied about you, cheated you; if someone you loved has betrayed you, deserted you, destroyed you; if deep in your heart there is so much resentment that you wish they were dead, there never are enough rocks.

Because there are not enough rocks the best option is forgiveness. But forgiveness is serious business. Forgiveness is essential to our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. We know that. We have heard that. But how do we forgive? How do we let go of our hurts and resentments? I know only one way: We acknowledge that we ourselves have been forgiven. Somehow when we acknowledge our own sinfulness and receive God's unconditional love, we find it easier to forgive those who have wronged us.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Christ, our great high priest, has made an offering on our behalf. It is an offering that makes it possible for complete and everlasting forgiveness for our sins. All our misdeeds; all the times we hurt someone who loved and trusted us; all the times our lives have been shoddy and disappointing; all the times we have been less than God created us to be; all those sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ. When we realize the weight of our own sins and that Christ has removed those sins from us, then our grateful response is to forgive others. Having been forgiven we become forgiving.

A man named Carl Coleman was driving to work when a woman motorist, passing too close, snagged his fender with hers. Both cars stopped. The young woman surveying the damage was in tears. It was her fault, she admitted. But it was a new car - less than two days from the showroom. How was she ever going to face her husband? Mr. Coleman was sympathetic but explained they must note each other's license number and automobile registration. The woman reached into the glove compartment of her car to retrieve the documents which were in an envelope. There was a note wrapped around those papers. In a heavy, masculine scrawl, were these words: In case of accident, remember, Honey, it's you I love, not the car.

Those are God's words to us. God loves us. God loves us! And because He loves us, He has taken away our sins forever.

A man who owned a Rolls Royce was traveling on vacation in France and experienced a mechanical failure. The man called the company from which he had purchased the car, and they flew in a mechanic from England to repair it. After waiting a number of weeks for a bill for the repair job, the man wrote to the company and asked for a bill. He received this reply: We have no record of a Rolls Royce with a mechanical failure.

Some day when we get to the pearly gates and we ask St. Peter about our sins, he will reply: I don't have any record of your ever having done wrong. You see, those records have been wiped out, they have been expunged by the sacrifice of Christ. God has not only forgiven our wrongs, he has forgotten them.

When it comes to forgiving others I frequently hear people say, "I can forgive, but I will never forget." That’s a clever way of saying that forgiveness is conditional. God’s forgiveness, however, is unconditional and the only way for us to fully understand that God forgets is to be persons who forget ourselves.

How do we truly forgive and forget? The first and most important step is to accept God’s unconditional forgiveness for ourselves. The next is to offer our unconditional forgiveness to those who have wronged us.

One day a seven-year-old boy was riding in the back seat of the car. Suddenly, in a fit of anger, his mother, who was driving, spun around and struck him across the face. Then she yelled at him: And you! I never wanted you. The only reason I had you was to keep your father. But then he left anyway. I hate you. That scene branded itself on the boy’s memory. During the years that followed, his mother reinforced her feelings toward him by constantly finding fault with him. Years later, that son told a friend: I can’t tell you how many times I have relived that experience. Probably thousands. Then he added: With the help of a therapist I was able to put myself in my mother’s shoes. Here she was, a high school graduate with no money, no job, and a family to support. I realized how lonely and depressed she must have felt. I thought of the anger and the pain that must have been there. And I thought of how much I reminded her of the failure of her young hopes. And so one day I went to visit her and told her that I understood her feelings and that I loved her just the same. She broke down and we wept in each other’s arms for what seemed like hours. It was the beginning of a new life for me, for her, and for us.

When we are willing to forgive others we are putting into practice the unconditional forgiveness of God. Each time we do that our lives will become more fulfilled and we become free. And, the negative actions of others begin to fade in our memories.

God understands how hard this is, but God does not want us to give up. In verse 23 the author of Hebrews writes, Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. God wants us to persevere, to keep trying because forgiveness will ultimately prevail.

Then, the text reads, Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…. To be part of the community of faith is to accentuate the positive. We are to encourage one another and build each other up.

Christ is at work in us making us holy. Jesus accepts us just as we are, and he forgives us completely. But he does not stop there. Christ makes us better. Pastor Leighton Ford is credited with the quote, God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way. God seeks to change us and transform us and make us more like Jesus.

Writer Max Lucado says that, at one time in his life he was a closet slob. He just couldn't comprehend the logic of neatness. Why make up a bed if you're going to sleep in it again tonight? Why put the lid on the toothpaste tube if you're going to take it off again in the morning? He was compulsive about being messy.

Then he got married. His wife was patient. She said she didn't mind his habits . . . if he didn't mind sleeping outside. Since he did mind sleeping outside, he began to change. He says he enrolled in a 12-step program for slobs. Hi, my name is Max and I am a slob . . . He rediscover the muscles used for hanging up shirts and placing toilet paper on the holder. His nose was reintroduced to the smell of Pine Sol. By the time his in-laws arrived for a visit, he was a new man.

But then came the moment of truth. His wife went out of town for a week. At first he reverted to the old man. He figured he could be a slob for six days and clean on the seventh. But something strange happened. He felt a curious discomfort. He couldn't relax with dirty dishes in the sink. He actually put his bath towel back on the rack.

What happened to him? Simple. He had been exposed to a higher standard. That's what Jesus does to us when he comes into our life. Though he does not hold our imperfection against us, still he does not leave us just as we are. He is at work in our lives making us what we ought to be.

Perfection is impossible. We know that. But we cannot excuse ourselves from responsibility by saying that we are only human. With God's help, human beings are capable of extraordinary things. Christ has made us perfect before God by his sacrifice on the cross. Now he is daily making us into his image. His love is transforming us and changing us.

Knowing that God has forgiven and forgotten all of our sins can help us become a more forgiving person.

Understanding the boundless nature of God’s love can fill us with hope and help us to persevere in our efforts to become more Christ-like.

Realizing that God offers that same love to others, can help us to provoke them to love and good deeds.

We are loved and forgiven people. Let’s live that way. Amen.

GUIDED BY THE GOSPEL: GATHERING • GROWING • GIVING