Teaching Moments
Pastor Mark Breland
September 14, 2008

Worship should never be taken for granted.  The time hat we spend here today, the time that we spend over the years in worship, praying together, and singing old hymns, hymns that we have perhaps been singing for many years, or learning new hymns, new songs, is the time of the teaching.  It is a time to teach the young children what we do in worship - how we worship, and why we worship.  It lets them see how it lifts our spirits; how coming together in worship draws us closer together, and closer to our lord.  So when we come together in worship, it is a teaching opportunity.  It is a teaching moment that should not be taken for granted.

We come and we sacrifice ourselves.  God is truly the only audience and all of us are here to worship.  So it's only fitting that on this Christian occasion, we focus and learn from Him.  Learn from Jesus.  Remember that Jesus was called the teacher.  His disciples called Him teacher.  The pharisees and the crowd that followed him, both those that supported Him and those who were His opponents, knew Him and called Him teacher.  And one of Jesus' favorite teaching tools was to tell a short story and to draw from that daily experiences that applied to the gospel, to salvation, to God’s kingdom.  We know these short stories, these teaching tools, as parables.  

The parable today is Matthew 18, versus 23 to 35.  We know it is the parable of the unforgiving servant.  The kingdom of God is a place where pardoned sinners will be; a place where folks know and have a heart for God's love.  It is a place where there are people who know about God's love and compassion, people who know about forgiveness, people who and know about mercy.  It is for people who know about that kind of heart. 

Peter knew about Old Testament writings, and he understood that to be a good person, he had to show forgiveness.  So if someone wronged him, he knew and understood that.  But perhaps he understood from his upbringing that forgiveness was something you did, but you didn't go on about it.  If you forgave somebody three times that was good enough.  And all of us can relate to Peter.  We understand and know that there are people who take advantage of our kindness and our goodness, people who go so far as to take advantage of our love for the Lord and how we want to show that to them.

You have heard the saying "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”   We don't want to be looked down upon.  We don't want to be looked upon as fools, and I think that Peter knew that if he talked to Jesus about forgiveness, about mercy, Jesus would understand.  Because all of us know that he knew there were people who when they spoke their words, the words they rolled off their tongues were nothing but lies.  They could not be trusted. 

So Peter came to Jesus in the spirit of being a student.  I think he was confident.  He thought, “I’ve got the answer here.”  I think he went to Jesus to ask, “Lord, if another member of the church stands against me, how often should I forgive that person?  As many as seven times? 

Imagine his surprise when Jesus responded, “…not seven times but seventy times.”  Peter thought he would get another answer.  He thought that if he forgave seven times, he would make Jesus proud of him; pat him on the back.  But Jesus blew him away telling him, “…not seven, but seventy-seven.” 

We learned about two servants; each of the two servants that had a debt.  A debt that neither one of them could repay.  The first servant had an enormous debt.  It was time that he came to the lord to settle his accounts.  But he could not pay.  So the lord ordered him to be handed over to the authorities; to be arrested with his wife and his children and all their possessions, and to be sold into slavery to help make payment for that debt.  

The servant fell on his knees and began to beg him to have patience, saying, “Give me more time and I will replay you everything.”  And the lord had compassion and released him of his debt and forgave him. 

And we hear that the story goes on and we have the second servant.  Now this servant even owed a debt to the first servant.  And he too could not play.  His debt was not that large, not compared to the first servant.  But the first servant had the second servant arrested.  And the second servant begged him.  He asked him to give him more time.  “I will pay you back everything.  I will pay you back in full.”

The second servant pleaded with him but the first servant grabbed the second servant and he choked him and ordered him to be put into prison until he played every penny. 

When the lord heard about this servant, this first servant with whom he had so much compassion, he called for him.  And he called him wicked, saying, “You should have shown him mercy.  As I have shown mercy to you, you should have shown mercy to him.  I forgave you all your debt. and you could not find it in your heart to show him the same.”  Angered, he ordered the servant to be tortured and to be punished and sent to prison, knowing that with his debt, he would be imprisoned for the rest of his life, because he would have no means to repay the debt. 

The key verse here is verse 35.  Jesus said, “My heavenly father will also do likewise to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”  Jesus taught his disciples that the kingdom of heaven will be offered to those who understand that forgiveness comes from the heart.  You don't need to be mindless or heartless in following the rules.  We have rules to go by, but we need to go further than that.  You can't fake forgiveness.  All of us have been wronged by someone.  All of us have hurts and pains that someone has done to us.  And to say you forgive them, you will lie to yourself if it is not real. 

Jesus told them to go beyond the law.  And that meant going beyond just doing lip service, but really getting at the heart of the matter.  One understanding of the debt that is talked about in this scripture is to think about the debt and we owe to God.  We owe God everything.  Our life, our family, all our possessions, everything belongs to God.   None of us can stand equal with God.  We all owe Him the debt. 

So as we think about that first servant, and the huge debt that he had over his head, think that we too have a huge debt.  We could never repay God for all the goodness that He has given to us.  But God gives us a reprieve.  We are not people that are not guilty, but we are people that have been given a reprieve.  And if we ask with all our heart and it's true, God forgives us. 

Another way to think about this huge debt is to consider our parents, or godparents, Guardians or someone who took a stand for us; someone who gave us a life when we needed it most.  Someone who fed and clothed us, who cared for us, played with us, disciplined us, protected us and taught us.  So when you think about your parents, or whoever that person is in your life, who took care of you when you were little baby and as you grew up in life and did all those things that so often we take for granted, think how can you repay someone who cared for you when you couldn't care for yourself?

Sometimes I think about my beginning.  I was born in Clovis, New Mexico in an Air Force hospital.  And believe it or not, I was a premie.   My mom and dad had to move on to Indianapolis so they left me in a hospital.  She said I was really skinny.  I don't remember those days.  My mom said I was so small that she could put me in a shoebox.  And when I did get home, and got fattened up, I slept in the top drawer of the dresser. 

I think about the nurses when my mom and dad went back to the Indianapolis.  I was in a hospital and there were people there who fed me, changed me and cared for me.  I would never meet them.  But I think about my debt to them, for what they've done for me.  Think about the people in your life that you could never repay for what they've done for you.  When they fed you when you couldn't even hold a bottle.  They bailed you out of trouble later on in life.  They did all those things and you could never find enough money to repay them.

So when you think about that type of debt, you can think about the debt that we all have with God.  God cares for us.  God loves us.  And there's no way that we can ever repay Him for all that He has done for us. 

Our last hymn is one that I love to sing.  I love singing, “Lord I want to be a Christian”!  The words challenge us.  It goes right to the heart of what I call a heart faith.  “I want to be a Christian in my heart.  I want to be more loving in my heart.  I want to be more holy in my heart.  I want to be like Jesus in my heart.”

I wonder about today.  I wonder about my church, not just about the Lititz Moravian Church, but about the wonderful church universal, where we have people who love Jesus or they say they love Jesus and they call themselves Christians.  And I think, what does it mean to be a Christian today?  Has it become just something that we say and has no meaning to it?  How many churches have members on the role but they are not really active in church per se.  They are not really living out the ministry.  They're not doing some of the things that we expect members to do for those who dare to call themselves Christians.  I wonder sometimes have Christians become just a word, just something that we say, just something that we don't really take seriously anymore? 

A heart faith is one that acts out of compassion, one that comes out of commitment, a love for Jesus, a love for our neighbor.  One that wants to give up their life for the Lord, and live above and beyond the law and the rules.  We think about forgiveness.  Star helped us understand that today.  We think about forgiveness; it means we need to move beyond focusing on myself and focusing on Jesus.  Instead of focusing on how much we've been wronged, we must think about the love that's been extended to us and we are called to extend that love to others.

Jesus, a teacher, his followers, his students, and they were given the opportunity to teach and model his work, his ministry.  And we have that same opportunity today; we have teaching moments each and every day. 

But I’m mindful of the fact that when we think about being a Christian, have we achieved something?  We say, “Well, I'm a Christian now.  I can rest on my laurel.  I have reached my goal; everything is fine.  Me and God, we are cool!”   Maybe we think that being a Christian is something we do - a role.  When I think about the teaching moments that we have here at Lititz Moravian Church, a role to encourage one another, to motivate one another, to share our faith stories with one another, to teach one another, and to help each other live the gospel message, to give it life.    

It's not something that is in pages.  People see it in the lives of other people.  Maybe we become folks who think of themselves as teachers, as role models, as mentors, as folks who want to share their love for Jesus with one another.  We have an opportunity that when this service comes to a close, we are not limited by the walls of the sanctuary.  We are not limited by the walls over at the Christian Education building.  Wherever we go, we take the opportunity to be a mission, the opportunity to be a teacher, the opportunity to share our faith, to talk about forgiveness.  It is our opportunity to be God's people at work in the world . 

Teaching others in everyday life opportunities is to be a follower of Jesus.  Not just to be one in name only, but to be one because of your heart.  The heart understands that we are people who need to share the gospel.  We are people who need to help people to see the gospel.  People are looking at us.  Christians want to see what we see.  They want to hear what we have to say.  They want to know what we're doing. 

And Jesus calls for us to be a people, as we go about living our lives, and being a witness, that have a heart for forgiveness, a heart to show in love, or to show mercy, and with that, to help move these teaching moments outside the limitations of this building, to go wherever we may go. 

I ask that you be in prayer with me, as we prayerfully consider the opportunities that we have to go about our mission work, sharing the gospel, and sharing love and compassion to the world that needs it so much.
Lititz Moravian Congregation | 8 Church Square | Lititz, PA 17543 | 717 626-8515 | Admin