Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 19, September 17, 2023: Exodus 14:19-31; Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11,20-21; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35
Today’s lessons in Paul’s letter to the Romans and Matthew’s gospel focus on scale: who we are in relation to God. It is somewhat humbling, but also a source of relief.
“So then, each of us will be accountable to God”. Thus ends our reading from Paul, when he is trying to get the members of the congregation in Rome to focus not on their different interpretations of rules about food and eating, but on the big picture. It’s not up to us, Paul says, to tell people what they should be doing as they live their lives, as long as they are living it “in honor of the Lord”.
Clearly, the church in Rome was no different from modern churches. We may not worry about what people eat, but there are certainly issues that some think are vital and others do not. For some today it is abortion, for others it is the rights of migrants. At different times of history, different issues have surfaced as deal breakers for some in the church. Paul’s reminder that others are not accountable to us for what they do, but to God, is one we might all try to keep in mind!
Jesus too is reminding us that it is God who is our judge. When Peter wants to know how often he should forgive, Jesus tells him, “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.” In the parable that follows he contrasts the mercy given to the slave who owed 10,000 talents to the harshness that same slave showed to one who owed merely 100 pennies. God, he suggests, is extraordinarily generous, and we should be too. We need to forgive. We are accountable to God, as are those who have harmed us.
Because we so often hear that we should “forgive and forget”, it is worth observing that Jesus says nothing about forgetting: forgiveness is separate from memory. When I forgive, I do not always forget the harm that was done me, and there are limits to my trust going forward! The King did not forget the debt he had forgiven, after all.
The reminder of scale in this weeks readings is comforting. We don’t have to take care of everything, because we, and those we know, are accountable to God. We need to be ready to forgive, and to let go of our obsessions, to be part of a community. God will take care of the rest.