Jesus came to teach us the language of love, and the language of love is always the language of forgiveness.

Jesus came to teach us that we are called to forgive seventy times seven, infinitely. Jesus came to teach us to break our cycles of revenge. Jesus came to teach us to forgive ourselves and other people, no matter how painful that may be.

Jesus came to teach us to forgive ourselves and other people, no matter how difficult that may be. Jesus came to teach us not only to forgive our friends and people that we  like but also to forgive our enemies and people with whom we have deep conflicts.
Jesus came to teach us that forgiveness is the master key of all human relationships.

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The word, “church,” is a very common word used by the Apostle Paul, but in the four gospels, the word, “church,” occurs in two places.  Here in the Scripture passage for today from Matthew 18, and from a few weeks ago, in Mathew 16.

The Greek word for church is “ecclesia” which means church or fellowship.

The passage for today says that “wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The church is a community of loving people. The church is a community of people who love you, know your name, and are concerned about you. Is it not important for you that as a member of a church, that people know your name? Is not that your right? That they know what you struggle with? Isn’t that at the heart of a church? Where you are known and loved as a friend?

We recently had a seventh grade retreat. Those kids were wonderful. You can have a great youth program and have great singing and great energy around the campfire, but every one of those kids wants to be wanted. And the kids, in spite of the fancy camp and in spite of the fancy singing, and in spite of a fancy youth director, if a kid feels that he or she is not wanted and loved by their friends, those kids will not want to be part of it.

The same is true of us as adults. We want to be wanted. We want to be loved. We want people to treat us as friends. The church is a fellowship. The church is a community. The church is family.

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Simon Peter had the right answers, the right theological answer, but he didn’t understand. He said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” but he did not understand about the way of the cross and what it meant for his life.

Simon Peter had half of the story right. Part of being a Christian is to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The other half of the story is to experience the cross. The first part is to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the second part of Christianity is to experience the cross. To experience the cross is to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ. It is to lose your life for Christ’s sake.

The question is: What does it mean for us to deny ourselves, to take up the cross and follow Christ?

In a book, “The Cross of Christian Experience,” the author C. M. Clowe makes the distinction between burdens, thorns and crosses.

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I would like to talk about keys.  See in my hand, a key from my key chain. Keys are so important to our everyday lives… as are key chains. Many of us adults have a key chain. In fact, having a key chain is a sign of becoming an adult.

Doesn’t it frustrate you when you lose your set of keys? Knowing we all have problems losing our keys, most of us have a key hook at home where we hang our sets of keys. If we don’t have that key hook, most of us lose our keys and that is so frustrating when we lose them.

Keys are incredibly small but open such great power. You know that and so do I. I think of Wendy who drives an eighteen wheeler which he sometimes parks in the church parking lot at night during the week. Wendy gets into that eighteen wheeler, turns the ignition, and Wendy moves tons of material just with that little key. Look at this key in my hand. Look how small it is. How much does it weigh? I measured its weight. This key weighs a fraction of an ounce. It is two inches long. But it can move many tons of machinery. This key is a small little bugger but it is important.

Most of us have other keys…..for our office, our building, our school. Most adults have jobs and often there are several keys that are connected with work. Sometimes we carry a master key. A master key will open numerous doors in the building.

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The wheels from the car screeched.  The mother’s heart stopped.  The child screamed.  The mother ran to the street out in front of the house as fast as she could. She was scared spitless when she saw the tricycle and her daughter lying on the pavement.

That’s the way mothers are. That’s the way fathers are. Anytime your child is injured and anytime your child is sick, you become very, very upset, especially if the child is seriously ill or injured. That is just the way God wired us as mothers and fathers.

You can tell your stories and I can tell my stories about illnesses and injuries. For example, when our child Anne was little, maybe three years old. I came home one afternoon and you could feel the tension in the house as you opened the front door. A dog had bit my daughter right across the face. It was ugly. We rushed off to the doctor as fast as we could. We were totally upset. The doctor stitched her face up as she way lying there in a straight jacket. It was not a fun afternoon. This nasty event feels like it occurred just like yesterday but it happened more than two decades ago.

Or the time our little boy fell off the swing and had a huge cut under his chin and we were off to the doctor again. Totally upset.

Or the time that the same little boy grew up and was driving a car and had a car accident. The police called and said that our son was in the emergency ward. The police didn’t tell how bad he was other than we should get there real fast.

Anytime one of our children is seriously injured or ill, we are deeply upset.

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Theme: When God breaks into the ordinary, miracles occur.

The word, “miracle,” and the experience of the miraculous, is in no way confined to Biblical times or the first century.  The word, “miracle,” and the experience of the miraculous, is very much part of our modern world and our everyday lives.

Let me illustrate.  You open the refrigerator door and you pull out a jar of Miracle Whip, a mayonnaise that spreads so nicely across your bread.   Or you pull out a small, flat bag and put it into the microwave, and “wallah!,” it puffs up and you have instant popcorn, and you say, “What a miracle!” You go out to the garden  and you pour Miracle Grow onto your plants and they flourish so splendidly,  thanks to Miracle Grow. 

A rocket is shot up into the air and a man for the first time plants a footprint on the moon, and everybody called it a miracle. … It wasn’t that many years ago that penicillin was discovered and everyone called it a miracle drug.  Soon after that, in the early 1950s, Dr. Salk discovered the Salk vaccine to vaccinated against polio and all of our parents said it was a miracle,  that children didn’t have to fear polio any more. The smallpox vaccinate was given to children throughout the whole earth and there is not one case of smallpox anywhere on the globe and everybody would agree that is a miracle.  And when a vaccination or the equivalent is discovered for cancer or cancers, the headlines will shout for joy:  “Miracle drug found for cancer!”

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One of the most obvious values that my mother displayed, was the equal treatment of her three daughters.  What one received, the other two received.  If one was loaned money, the other two were given a similar offer.  While one was helped thru college, the other two choose not to attend.  They instead received similar monetary value.  When one received something out of the ordinary, the other two were told about it and informed that they would receive something similar. 

One of the greatest gifts a parent can give…  being fair to each child, conveying equal love and attention, not showing favoritism and therefore preventing any jealous feelings amongst siblings.   

Any parent who shows favoritism with one of his/her children, is only asking for trouble.  The robe of many colors signifies the special status given to Joseph by Jacob.  While the reaction of the other brothers is not surprising, it doesn’t excuse their murderous intentions.  Favoritism in families only breeds trouble.    bailee

Theme: God transforms the little things.

Jesus can work miracles with five loaves and two fish.  That is at the heart of the story, that the little boy brought his meager gifts to Jesus, his five loaves and two fish, and look what mighty miracles God did with them! God wants to do the same with us;  that we bring our meager gifts to God, our five loaves and two fish, our meager and ordinary talents and gifts, we bring the simplicity of who we are to God, and look what mighty miracles God can do with our little lives! 

The key for me is that the little boy surrendered his meager gifts to Christ, and at the heart of the story today is the implied invitation for us to surrender our little gifts, the gift of our little lives to Christ, and then see what mighty miracles God can do in and through us. That’s what God wants from you and me, to surrender who we are and what we have to offer.

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The magnificent scenery and rock formations in the Southwest are metaphors for the troubles we often encounter in life.  When we feel alienated, lost a dear loved one, feel like a miserable failure, when the valley or canyon of grief threatens to swallow us up, the scriptures proclaim,”that nothing in life or death can separate us from God’s love.”

To purchase these images for worship

I remember one of the most difficult days of my life. It was the funeral for Patti Arnold. Patti Arnold, thirty-nine years old, had cancer.  Her maiden name was Colello and she was Italian, pure Italian. Her family owned an Italian grocery story and she was the most fireball woman I had ever met in my life. Never in the history of this congregation have we ever had a funeral like this.

The people who came to that funeral were sitting in the parking lot, way out to the road. Why were there so many people? There was no one who had loved the way Patti loved. Patti had loved the world so vigorously. In that sermon for her funeral, I told about how Patti had loved people, not only when she lived but when she was dying. I told stories about when Patti was up at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Treatment center and the way that she cared for people around her. It was absolutely incredible. Her faith was fourteen feet tall. To this day, her life still inspires me.

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Theme: Like an umpire, God makes the final judgment call.

The word for weeds is a technical Greek word that needs to be explained since it unlocks the meaning of the story.  The Greek word for weeds is “zizania” which is a very particular type of weed that looks just like wheat as it is growing up.  You can hardly tell the difference.  Today it is called  “darnel” wheat; it looks like wheat, it appears like wheat but it is not wheat.  It fools you.  It’s kind of like wild oats and true oats; they look alike but they are very different. Who can tell? Who wants to be the judge?

At the heart of this story about the weeds and the wheat, Jesus is clearly telling us that there is a final judgment and a final separation of the good from the bad.  And his clear revelation about the final judgment is to motivate us to live lives that God would approve of.  This parable is to motivate us to live a godly life; to energize us to be the kind of people God wants us to be.  The motivation of the threat of hell isn’t politically correct but it is still real.

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Imagine yourself in the winter, thinking about springtime, and plans for your garden. You’re looking thru the seed catalogue and you find seeds that make really, really big tomato plants with big tomatoes. So you order some of the seeds from the catalogue, they come in the mail, you put them with your gardening tools and time passes. Finally spring is here and its time to get the soil ready. You work the soil and rest for a day.

Then you put on your gardening apron with pockets, in which you put your seeds. On the way out to your garden, some of the seed from the apron falls onto the path. Some of the seed falls on the side of the path where it is kind of rocky. Then some of the seeds fall there in the weeds by the rocks of the path. When you get to the garden, here is the really good soil, with lots of healthy nutrients. You spread your seeds, scattering them on the good soil. Work done. You go back to the house, and check the garden occasionally.

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Theme:  Jesus lifts the heavy burdens of life.  (Two visual themes to choose from.)
“Come onto me all who are weary and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” That simple line is so powerful. These words are sacred.

These words are from the real world of real lives of real people who are members of our parish:

-“When my husband was killed in an industrial accident, it was as heavy a burden as I ever carried, and in that process, God did give me rest. God carried my load and also gave me the strength to carry my load.”

Whoa. What did this woman say? That the death of her husband in an industrial accident was as heavy as burden as she ever carried. God carried her load for her. God gave her the strength to carry her own load. Both words are true: God carried her load for her and also gave her the strength to carry her own load.

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Theme:  surrendering to God that which is most precious or valuable to us.
Often times when a loved one is sick, we have no choice but to surrender our loved one into the hands of a loving God.  There is that time when you finally give the life of your mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, best friend, to God.  You open your hands and let them go, to die and be with Christ.  You surrender them into the hands of a loving God.

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One of the meanings of this Biblical passage is the awareness that struggle and suffering are part of discipleship. Being a Christian involves struggle. Unfortunately, many people want to eliminate the struggle from life and also eliminate the struggle from following Christ. Such people end up being weak, weak Christians.

There was this amateur naturalist who saw a cocoon. This amateur naturalist saw a butterfly struggling to get out of that cocoon. The butterfly was struggling to get out of the cocoon and was just about ready to break out of that cocoon. The amateur naturalist was closely watching as this miracle unfolded. Then, the amateur naturalist did a very dumb thing. He took out his pocket knife and he slit the cocoon so that the butterfly did not have to struggle. The butterfly came out and flew around but it was a very weak butterfly because the butterfly never had to struggle in its own birth.

Many parents make the same mistake in parenting, where the parents cut the cocoon and make it easier for the children to grow up, protecting their children from difficult struggles, and thereby the children never develop the inner strength that is learned through struggle.

So it is with Christianity. Christianity always involves struggle, whereby a person becomes a strong disciple. It is only through struggles that a person becomes strong spiritually or strong emotionally.

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