Genesis 27, 33:1-11
Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon
Once upon a time there were two twin brothers. Though the boys were twins, as they grew up, they became quite different. Hairy, the elder brother by a few minutes, was the king of the outdoors- he became an expert hunter- nothing could escape his shot. Heel, however, was a much quieter man and mostly stayed amongst the women in the tents.
Heel had always been mad that just because his brother had beat him into the world by a few seconds, Hairy would become the head of the family, inherit the bulk of the property and would run the family business. Thus, he always sought a way to turn the tables on his brother and cheat him out of his inheritance.
Many years later, Hairy and Heel’s father grew old and weak. On his death bed, Father asked Hairy to go out on one last hunt so that he could eat his favorite meal before he was to die. Hairy, being the good son, of course rushed right out to fulfill his father’s dying wish. However, Heel heard that his father was on death’s door step. Seeing an opportunity to steal his brother’s inheritance once and for all, Heel waited until his brother had left camp. Knowing his father was blind and addled, Heel proceeded to dress up like his brother Hairy and slipped into his father’s room.
Heel, doing his best impression of Hairy, whispered “Father?”
“Who is it? Is it Heel or Hairy?”
“Why, its Hairy” Heel said. I’ve brought you your final meal. Oh, and I brought the contract signing everything over to me. Come eat, and give me what is mine.
Father hesitated for a moment. This didn’t seem like Hairy. “Are you sure you are Hairy?”
“Yes, of course father. Can’t you smell how good this food is? Surely you are hungry!”
The smell of the food overwhelmed Father’s suspicions and he ate his final meal. When Heel gave him the contract turning over the family property, Father signed the deed thinking he was doing the right thing. Heel, with the legal document in hand, slipped out to celebrate his victory.
Meanwhile, Hairy returned home after a successful hunt. He prepared the game just like his father always loved. He loved his father dearly and knew this would be the last gift he could give. He was determined that this last meal would be everything his father desired. After lovingly preparing it, he went to his father’s tent.
“Dad- its your firstborn Hairy- I’ve brought you your meal.”
Father’s eyes snapped open, and he began to shake in rage. “But, if you are my son Hairy, who was it that I just blessed and gave everything I own to?”
Realization suddenly washed over Hairy. He knew his brother was treacherous, but, could he really have gone this far? Did Heel really steel from his father, and from his family, on his dad’s death bed?
“Dad- isn’t there anything you can do?”
“No, son. The contract I signed if legal. Your brother has taken everything. He is your master then. If you want to stay with the family, you will have to be his servant. It will be a hard life- your brother may treat your cruelly. But I cannot give you what I don’t have.”
Hairy collapsed in grief and anger. How could his own brother have done this to him? He would stay to mourn his dad’s death, but when the opportunity presented himself, he would strike and kill his evil, treacherous brother.
Now, raise your hand if you have heard that story before? I’ve taken it directly from scripture and have only adapted it lightly for understanding. So that we could hear it with new ears, I used the English translations of the brothers’ names, but I bet there is at least a few hear who remember their names in Hebrew. Can anyone name these brothers?
Yes, Esau (the elder brother) and Jacob (the younger). I wanted to retell this story because I think we sometimes miss the profound immoral and evil actions that take place. Because scripture follows the life of Jacob, we tend to see things from his perspective and assume he is the hero in every story. But clearly, Jacob is the villain in this story. He cheats, steals, and deceives his own father on his death bed. Esau loves his father but gets all that he is owed stolen away from him.
So, the story leaves off with Esau having lost his father, his home, his livelihood, and, in essence, his family. Put yourselves in his shoes- how do you feel? What do you want to do?
Being bitter, seeking revenge, avenging the wrongs done to you- this seems like the most natural response, right? I bet every one of us here can describe a time in our lives in which we were tremendously wronged. We may still be holding considerable anger and bitterness. And really, who can blame you- anger and bitterness often serve as a kind of protective shield- keeping you (in theory) from being hurt in the same way again. We close our hearts off so that no one can tear them apart again.
Today, September 11th 2011, we commemorate a day that was marked by extraordinarily evil acts. In addition to grief, I think anger and bitterness describe well the dominant emotions felt toward those who had committed, planed, or participated in the act.
It is in such a context that I think we should find today’s lectionary text (Matthew 18:21-35) shocking, perhaps some might even say, offensive. When Peter asks, Jesus says that we must forgive essentially an unlimited amount of time. And to make it worse, in the parable that Jesus tells, he indicates that if we don’t forgive, it is us who will be tortured. Jesus makes no mention of the one who has committed the initial wrong.
By all worldly measures, Jesus seems to be pronouncing something that is fundamentally unjust. As I was preparing for this week, I was particularly struck that the master in the story turned the person over to be tortured until the debt was paid. In my notes for this week, I wrote the question- “Should we interpret this to mean if we don’t forgive, we are going to hell?” I mean, if this is the pronouncement of a good god, I hate to see what a bad one might say.
However, further prayer and consideration led me in a different direction. The torture of the man is directly related to his failure to forgive. If we try and reconcile this with our view of a loving God, perhaps the torture associated with failing to forgive isn’t hell or something in the next life at all. Perhaps it is the very real hell in this life that hanging on to that anger and bitterness can evoke.
Have you ever come into contact with someone who is tremendously bitter about something unjust that has happened in their life? Think of Esau...can you imagine him after the dealings with his brother? Wouldn’t the natural thing be to grow suspicious of the world, to turn inward, to harden one’s heart against the cruel, cruel world?
This is certainly what Jacob assumes happens. When later in life he finds that he must cross paths with his brother, he fears for his life. He fears the confrontation between himself and the man he so throughly wrongs. Jacob sends gifts and sweet words ahead of him, but who can really expect that to be enough for the man he stole everything from?
A funny thing happens however. When Jacob meets Esau, he does not find a tortured man. He does not find a man crippled by his anger and bitterness. Instead, Esau runs up to his brother, holds him tight, and kisses him.
What an unnatural story! If we submitted this script as a movie, it would be rejected as too unbelievable- who could relate?
Somehow, despite everything, Esau has not collapsed beneath his own anger. Somehow, Esau has managed to live with an open heart.
So, it is possible that we could do so also? I am confident everyone here has been grievously wounded by someone else at one time or another. And certainly, all those over 10 have experienced the collective affront that was the 9/11 attacks. In response to those attacks, we certainly expressed outrage and anger. Ten years out, I still think we as a whole continue to carry the bitterness caused by the attacks with us. I think this has plagued us and has rocked our own faith. It is only through the angle of bitterness that I can understand how studies show that if a person in the US professes faith in Jesus Christ, they are more likely to be in favor of torture. How Christ can correlate with torture, absent our bitter anger, I do not know? Furthermore, our bitterness has lead us to see our Muslim brothers and sisters not as neighbors, but as the enemy. We have in essence considered them our modern day Samaritans: a despised religious minority in our midst whom we want to have little contact with.
Is it possible, in the face of such bitterness, and in response to such a horrific attack, for us to learn to live with open hearts?
If we are to begin, we must first Acknowledge our anger- then pray for the ability to release it. In the case of Esau, he would have been within his rights to continue to stoke his anger. But then, rather then being able to develop his own family and set out on his own life, he would have been forever trapped by the wrong committed against him. Releasing his anger and coming to forgive his brother was far more about his own ability to live then it was about Jacob’s need for forgiveness.
Admit our own sin. In the parable, the servant seems to forget he ran up his own debt. It is rare that when an offense is committed, that the blame rest entirely on one side. When I would get in a dispute with my brother or sister, my mother would have this nasty process for resolving it. Even if I was 99% right in the argument, she’d still make me admit the 1% I was wrong. Confronting our own culpability humbles us and prepares us to forgive the other.
Admit our own forgiveness. The servant chooses to ignore that he himself was forgiven. We believe in a God of whom we, or people like us, crucified. And yet, God used the crucifixion of Jesus to forgive us all. If God can forgive us the murder of the Messiah, surely we have room to be open to forgiving others.
Forgiveness is not an easy thing. Reconciliation may not always be possible, but I think we always have to remain open to and strive toward forgiving those who have wronged us. Not so much because they need it, but because we do. If we choose to remain mired in our bitterness and despair, we choose a tortured existence that may well be worse then the initial offense. Let us pray that through the example and aide of our forgiving God, we may, like Esau, learn to live with open hearts.
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