The 18th Sunday After Pentecost, (Proper 19A), Sept. 14, 2008
BCP: Ecclus. 27:30-28:7; Psalm 103 or 103:8-13; Rom. 14:5-12; Matt. 18:21-35
RCL: Exod. 14:19-31 and Psalm 114 or Exod. 15:1b-11, 20-12; or Gen. 50:15-21 and Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13; Rom. 14:1-12; Matt. 18:21-35
Much of life involves settling accounts. Evening the score, leveling the playing field, earning a place at the table — we devote vast amounts of time and energy to getting what we believe we are due. The latest crisis in the financial markets stemmed from mortgage loans that couldn’t be repaid and financial commitments that could not be backed up.
In the parable of the unmerciful servant in today’s gospel, a king forgives a gigantic debt of 10,000 talents that one of his servants owes him. (Estimates of what this sum might be worth in today’s money vary, but the debt is at least equivalent to millions of dollars.)
The servant seems amazingly ungrateful for his good fortune. He commands a fellow servant to pay him a small debt, the equivalent of a few dollars. When the repayment is not forthcoming, the first servant has the second put in prison. The king later learns what happened and orders the unmerciful servant to be tortured until he pays his original debt to the king.
To the reader, the unmerciful servant’s behavior seems incomprehensible. He has squandered a miraculous chance to be free of an unpayable debt in order to try to collect a trifling amount of cash from another poor person. Ironically, he never even gets repaid.
The fantastic character of the parable, however, ought to direct us beyond the servant’s hard-heartedness toward the larger issue Jesus is addressing: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts.”
In the realm of God, God forgives us all our debts. Our trespasses against God and our neighbor are wiped from the balance sheet. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).
Through the divine mercy, our accounts with the universe are already settled. Whatever happens, we are ready to go. As St. Paul put it with profound logic: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8).
We need not fear death — the final settling of accounts — because God is with us beyond death. And if we find ourselves still living on earth for the time being, Christ helps us to follow God’s will for us in this life. Whatever happens, we are forgiven. And this precious gift of forgiveness is not to be squandered.
Look It Up
Jesus often talks about forgiveness, as in Luke 6:27-36. For example, “Be merciful as your father in heaven is merciful.”
Think About It
How would you live differently if you had an absolute conviction that whether you lived or died, you belonged to God?
Next Sunday
The 19th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 20A), Sept. 21, 2008
BCP: Jonah 3:10-4:11; Psalm 145 or 145:1-8; Phil. 1:21-27; Matt. 20:1-16
RCL: Exod. 16.2-15 and Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45; or Jonah 3:10-4:11 and Psalm145:1-8; Phil. 1:21-30; Matt. 20:1-16
