What keeps you awake at night? There is always something happening in the world that causes us concern. In any given week, reports of natural disasters or human-created tragedies dominate the news and it can seem that the time we are living through is worse than anything that went before, though a close look at the history books will tell us otherwise. Add to all the concerns we have here in our own community, and even closer to home, the challenges in our own families. Yes, we have real cause for concern, and it is enough to keep us awake at night. 

There are positive things happening in the world, too, as well as in our local community and our families, but they tend not to make headlines or capture widespread attention. There is much good that is happening, quietly and in seemingly small ways. God is continually working through people of good will to pour out living streams of forgiveness and healing, for even as we think globally, we are, most often, called to act locally, and while some are empowered to do great things and have the capacity to affect national or global change, most of us are called to act locally and in small acts of kindness, service and generosity, not to ignore the global reality, but to consider where we have agency and the real ability to make a difference. 

Today’s gospel reading is a good example of this. Whether we are thinking about the wildfires across the country this summer, the wars happening on other continents, the upcoming U.S. elections, or other global concerns, we are always brought back to the tangible, the possible, the real situations around us. We are always brought back to what is within our reach, what we have agency to do. 

Forgiveness is usually a local act, not a global one. The forgiveness that happens regularly within families, within our faith community, in our local community, doesn’t make the news but it is essential for the healing of God’s love to flow freely and transform us. 

This gospel reading, like so many others isn’t about what we should do to change the world. It is about what we should do to change ourselves. Peter asks Jesus how often he should forgive someone. As many as seven times? he asks. Many rabbis at that time taught that three times was required, so Peter probably thought he was being generous was he said seven times. But Jesus gave a surprising answer: that we should forgive, not seven times, but seventy-seven, which basically means that we should forgive without limit, because forgiveness is not about math, it’s about mercy! We are called always to do for others what God continually does for us, and there is no limit to God’s mercy. 

Whatever you have done or not done, that is contrary to God’s desire for you, God has already forgiven you. And when we get our minds around that, we begin to understand that God wants us to do the same for others. That’s what this gospel reading is trying to teach us today. Just how much God has forgiven us, and just how much of a difference we can make in the world by paying this forgiveness forward. 

Now I’m not saying this is easy: it’s hard enough to forgive the small slights and offences against us but some sins are bigger, more than we can deal with on our own: infidelity, abuse, violence, false accusations, the pain that addiction inflicts within the family. These are examples of a deeper woundedness that require deep healing. Some of these wounds are passed down through generations. Some sins are individual and many more are collective. The damage that is done by the actions of others takes time to heal; forgiveness is not always simple or straightforward. Using the example of the harm caused to generations of indigenous people through the residential school system for example: the Government and the Anglican and Catholic churches have issued a sincere and formal apology, but the healing continues. 

When Jesus tells Peter that he is to forgive seven times seven, he is saying that there can be no end to it. This could feel overwhelming except for two things: 1. Jesus didn’t choose perfect people to be his disciples, they were flawed but faithful, and Peter is such a great example of this. 2. Jesus is inviting them, and us (for we too are flawed but faithful) to enter into the stream of his mercy. Like the stream of living water which is the theme for the Season of Creation. God does not keep a ledger of our sins, or whether or not we have forgiven others. It is not about math, it is about mercy and God’s mercy is ever flowing, always available. God understands that we are a work in progress, God’s masterpiece in the making. God hasn’t finished with us yet.  

Forgiveness isn’t easily achieved by any of us except in the flow of God’s mercy, and then, even the most impossible things can be forgiven. Seventy times seven, yes! Not math but mercy. Amen.

 

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