Forgive and Forget?

Forgive and Forget?

Based on John. 8

Preached on October 29, 2017

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Fellow baptized saints, 500 years. 500 years and we’re still catching up. No, not because Luther and co were any more intelligent than any of us, though they probably were. Not because society was changed dramatically through these historical events, as it undoubtedly has. But because that plain Biblical truth of who God is and what He does for you – is something we are always catching up with. It is something the apostles themselves were catching up with – something Luther and the reformers were catching up with – and something you and I are catching up with all the time. God is not like us – and that’s a very good thing.

God forgives and forgets. He forgives our wickedness, and He remembers our sins no more. That’s that marvel and the mystery we are always catching up with. The Judge of all, the One who could condemn us, and who could destroy body and soul in hell, forgives. And the omniscient One who knows all things, chooses in mercy to remember our sins no more. That’s called “grace” – undeserved kindness on the part of God. Because that’s who He is.

What about us? Oh. We are reluctant to forgive, and even less inclined to forget. We hold grudges. We keep book on one another. We remember the hurt feeling, that wayward word that jabbed us the wrong way, the injustice done to us. And we dwell on it, nurture it, walk it around like the dog. Past offenses turn into present accusations. “You always do this; you never do this.” Our idea of justice is quid pro quo – this for that. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. That makes sense. Strike me on the cheek, and I’ll bop you on the nose. Forget? We may have trouble remembering birthdays and anniversaries, but we have no trouble remembering wrongs done to us in the past.

Forgive? That’s not our way either, is it? To forgive is to let something go, to leave something be, to go on as though it hadn’t happened. Like the farmer in the parable whose enemy sowed weeds among his wheat. “Forgive it, he says. Let it alone. Let it go.” Do nothing. Like the father with two sons who welcomes his prodigal son home with an embrace and a robe and a ring without so much as a syllable of confession much less a deal. Act as though it had never happened. Like the prophet Hosea, who seeks out his adulterous bride and courts her and wants to take her back. Like Yahweh with His people, loving the unlovable, embracing the unembraceable, forgiving and forgetting, making a new covenant with those who broke the old one. God is not like us – and that’s a very good thing.

We’re always catching up – because we try to have it both ways: “I’ll forgive, but I can’t forget,” we say. Meaning, “I don’t want to forget.” Just in case I need call it up later on. Or in case I need to call in a marker or two. Put it up on a shelf, like a fine wine. Let it age for a while. Forgive, but never forget what was forgiven. The problem is – that forgiveness without forgetting is not forgiveness at all. They run parallel. To forgive is to forget. Not forget as in a case of amnesia, but as in refusing to call to mind. Running it through the shredder, instead of filing it away, so the pieces can’t be put back together again, even if we wanted to.

Can you picture it? Imagine what our lives would be like if we forgave and forgot. If children would forgive and forget what their parents have done to them. If parents would forgive and forget what their children have done to them. Therapists would be begging for work. Imagine husbands and wives forgiving and forgetting. The divorce courts would be hurting for business. Imagine brothers and sisters forgiving and forgetting. Families would be so close to one another. Imagine communities and congregations, where, instead of dwelling on each other’s sins and shortcomings, we forgave them, and instead of obsessing on them at every moment, we set them aside in our own minds and refused to recall them.

But forgiving and forgetting is not our way. We may as well admit it. It comes as naturally to us as breathing water or flapping our arms to fly. The sinful human nature cannot forgive and forget. Why? Because we want to be gods, damning those who do bad things to us. Our pride cannot and will not contend with these assaults on our being. And so we see those who forgive and forget as stupid and weak. Forgive and forget seems so foreign, it may as well be from another planet or something so “divine” it can’t possibly be human. But Jesus is human. And His cross does looks foolish and weak – to the unbelieving – but to those who are being saved – it is the power of God.

Unbelief. Adam’s fall and our curse. Unbelief. The reason we are always catching up with who God really is – because we just can’t believe He is really so merciful. In our unbelief, we refashion God in our own unforgiving, unforgetting image. This is how a respectable God is supposed to be, we think. God the Judge, sitting high on His throne, with the scales of justice dangling in His hand, balancing sin against good works. We cook up religions that bargain with God, as though God could be bribed by our prayers, our works of charity, our religious disciplines, our fasting or Bible study or pilgrimages, or whatever else we come up with. We imagine God to be the great Accountant in the Sky, a sharp-penciled bookkeeper peering over the record of our lives, running the totals, checking our debits and credits on some heavenly spreadsheet. We even come up with a treasury of merit from the saints that can be credited to those who are lacking righteousness. Indulgences. Masses. Relics. All for a price.

At the heart of every human religion is the notion that God does not forgive nor does He forget. He’s making a list, He’s checking it twice, and He already knows whose naughty and nice. That’s the kind of religion that appeals to our sense of fairness and reason. We expect God to punish those who do evil, especially when it’s the other guy and not ourselves. We expect God to demand obedience from those who claim His name. We expect God to reward those who do good and walk the walk. But forgive? Why would God want to do that? And forget? Come on, get serious. This is God we’re talking about here – omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, sovereign to the nth degree deity. Any god who “forgets” just isn’t a respectable god in our religious way of thinking.

The Ten Commandments as a religion make a lot of sense to our unbelief. That’s why all sorts of religious people can rally around them. Morality is a no-brainer; forgiveness is the dividing line. We expect God to want an exclusive relationship with us, no other gods in His face. We expect that God would want us to worship Him, honor His name and His Word. We expect that God is pleased when we honor and obey parents and other authorities, when we don’t kill or harm one another, when we keep our zippers and our lips zipped, and don’t steal stuff and are content with the stuff we have. That all makes great sense. That’s why the Ten Commandments are so popular.

But if you learn anything from the Hebrew half of the Bible, learn this: Commandments don’t work - because we can’t keep the commandments. God didn’t bring Israel out of slavery with the commandments – but through the blood on the doorposts and the water that washed away their slavemasters. God made Israel into a nation and established them under Moses with a covenant. And what did they do? They messed it all up. They broke the covenant. Natural born sinners can’t live in a commandment covenant. It simply doesn’t work.

It’s takes a new covenant of water and blood. One in which the Word of God is not written on stone – but implanted in the heart. This new covenant is not just rules to live by, but Gospel good news that God forgives your wickedness and forgets your sins. A new way of knowing the Lord, not simply God on the mountain but God in the flesh. God incarnate. The Word made Flesh dwelling among us. Jesus.

He didn’t keep book you know – this Jesus. He didn’t count sins. He didn’t hold grudges. Father forgive them – He cried - for those who mocked Him and spit on Him and nailed Him to the cross – Forgive them Father – I beg You. He is very different than us, and it’s a very good thing - because what He does – all of it - He does for you. He doesn’t remember the hurt – He remembers your name and promises you will be with Him in paradise. He didn’t bargain with the Father – Your will be done Father. Into Your hands I commit my spirit Father. I leave it up to You – for You are faithful – save them Father. Save them.

Covenants call for blood. The old covenant called for the blood of bulls, goats, and sheep, which, on its own, accomplished nothing. But this new covenant is sealed by the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, a blood poured out for you on the cross, and poured into a chalice for you to drink. “This is the new covenant in my blood.” Do this “for my remembrance,” says Jesus. Eat His Body, drink His blood, so that we will remember Him and He will remember us, and remember our sin no more. Forgive and forget.

500 years on Tuesday. All Hallow’s Eve, the evening before All Saints Day. Martin Luther wasn’t out trick or treating that day when he nailed 95 points of debate to the church door in Wittenberg. He was nailing an indictment against religion that had made the new covenant of the blood of Jesus into a transactional system of works and deal cutting with God, leaving people uncertain of their forgiveness, life, and salvation. The Reformation is not about how the Lutherans are right and the Catholics are wrong. It’s about how easy it is for any of us to slip into this way of bargaining and deal cutting, the way of religion. Even the brightest bulbs on the theological marquee can slip, forgetting that God is the God who forgives and forgets for Jesus’ sake.

Reformation Day is not a day for comfortable complacency or “denomination dissing.” We may no more say, “We have Luther as our father,” than the Jews at the time of Jesus could say, “We have Abraham as our father” or Roman Catholics can say, “We have the pope as our father.” It all means nothing apart from faith in the promise that you are forgiven in Christ alone. Jesus is clear, “When you abide in my Word – when you rest in my promise of forgiveness alone - then you will know the truth, and the truth will free you.”

Come – Jesus calls – rest in the new covenant in My blood – Drink deep and hear my Word. I forgive you. I forget all your sin. But I remember your name forever. In the Holy Name of Jesus, Amen.

Rev. Cameron Schnarr