Readings: Romans 14:1-12 & Matthew 18:21-35

We are in constant need of repentance. Our sinful nature means that we need to constantly turn back to God for forgiveness. We can never be fully free from cultural fear, prejudice, racism. The need for mutual understanding and respect has never been so great as in this past year. A profound change took place in our world that left us all wondering at humanity’s inhumanity. It gives us an opportunity as Christians to take to heart the gospel and God’s law to love God and love neighbour, to always do the loving thing.

But forgiveness is not easy to put into practise. Many things keep us from having an attitude of forgiveness. Who d you find it hardest to forgive? Why is forgiveness so difficult? What gets in the way? How can we make forgiveness a lifetime habit?

Jesus told a parable based on a certain Hebrew law that stated that debtors could be sold as slaves or put into prison. A slave, undoubtedly some sort of an official in the king's government, owed the king a huge sum of money. A colossal sum! Ten thousand talents! That translates into billions of dollars. The king considered ordering him to be sold along with his wife, children, and possessions. Yet their sale would result in only a small portion of the debt being repaid.

"Have patience. I will pay you everything!" the slave pleaded. And the king was moved by his plight. Knowing that the man could never repay the great sum, he showed his slave great mercy. He forgave him the debt. Not just part of it – but that whole colossal amount! The slave no longer owed anything.

Imagine the astonishment the king must have felt when he heard of the treatment of that same person toward another slave who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed the man violently. "Pay what you owe," he demanded. But the slave was unable to pay. He showed no mercy. He threw him into jail until the debt should be paid. He had experienced forgiveness of his great debt. He of all people should have known how to treat his debtor.

There is a part in each of us that is that unforgiving slave. It comes out in us in many different ways and attitudes. Take for example a friend of mine. You may know someone just like her. She is a good friend, a good person, one who tries to lead a good Christian life. She is very gentle and quiet – until she gets behind the wheel of a car. Then there is a total transformation in her personality. Every emotion comes out in her driving. She cuts people off. She drives too fast. She shakes her fist at them. She experiences a form of Road Rage.

While that may be a rather innocuous illustration, there are many more harmful ways in which an unforgiving nature asserts itself in our society. Since 9-11 in particular, we see it in attitudes towards people of other races and cultures. It expresses itself in snobbishness, in looking down our noses at the weaknesses and failures of others, in arrogance in our relationships with others.

It also shows itself in societal attitudes in terms of God or perhaps even nature taking revenge on a part of humanity. We hear it whenever there is a natural disaster. Somehow it must be their fault. We certainly have heard such attitudes expressed about homosexuals who have contracted the AIDS virus.

What Jesus says in the gospel is that such attitudes are simply wrong. How often am I to forgive? Seven times? That is a lot to ask. The Jewish faith called for forgiving four times for the same offense. Seventy-seven times? That is unbelievable. But the truth is, I must stop calculating forgiveness and simply be a forgiving person. I am called to have the kind of attitude that reflects God's forgiving attitude to me. My sin against God cannot be wiped out through any repaying of debt. It is too colossal for that. The only way it can be repaid is if I am forgiven.

How do we come to appreciate the magnitude of the reconciliation that God offers each of us? At every Eucharist, Christians gather and pray for forgiveness and the priest offers absolution. Absolution is the granting of pardon that says that our great debt has indeed been wiped out, totally. I suspect that most of the time we go off knowing that nothing too shattering will change. We will need to come back the following week to ask once more that we be forgiven. The fact is, human nature is such that we will continue to drift away from God. We will continue to do things that take us out of relationship with God. We need to be reminded of how far short of our calling we fall. We need to be called back into relationship with God. And most of all we need to experience forgiveness. That is what confession and absolution are all about.

We need to experience forgiveness in order to be forgiving. The calling back of the forgiven into community is a constant reminder of our need to forgive. It is a reminder that our sinfulness hurts the community. There is always a community involved. Reconciliation with God is not a strictly personal matter. It is not something I can do on my own. My relationship with God is not a private affair. For the church is the community of the forgiven. All of its relationships are marked by forgiveness. Repentance and its forgiveness draw me into solidarity and love for others. In my own spiritual bankruptcy I recognize God's acceptance of me as I am.

That ought to result in making me a more loving, understanding and forgiving person towards others. Forgiveness will become not merely some form that I pray without meaning, but an essential characteristic of my life in Christ.

"We do not live to ourselves," Paul says, "and we do not die to ourselves." Certain rules and principles guide our community. We respect the traditions and convictions of others. We embrace others regardless of how each tries to worship and serve God. We try to abide by the rules and laws of society. We try to do the loving thing.

It is no mistake that the commandments are summed up in two laws – love of God and love of neighbour. Our law is to love – not to judge. That means having a forgiving attitude towards others. It means rejoicing in the experiences of others. It means seeing Christ in each other. It means affirming one another. For whatever we do, we do as children of God. We do it with love large enough and generous enough to embrace one another in Christian love.