Harvest - & the unforgiving servant (Proper 19)

      Psalm 103: v1-8       Matthew 18: 21-35          

 

We celebrate our harvest today – bringing our thanks to God for all the richness of the earth with which God blesses us every year. It is a time to give thanks and a time to rejoice in God’s love.

And yet, however long we have been aware of the love God has for us, it feels as if we human beings need to keep learning what unconditional love really means.

 

Jesus tells this story of 2 servants and their king to try to help us grasp how God’s loving care of us all works in our lives.

And yet we often call this parable the story of the unforgiving servant – and make it into a warning about how if we are unforgiving like that servant, we could get punished like him.

 

We hold onto the way in which the servant, who has been forgiven a massive debt, pursues a much smaller debt from another servant, because he hasn’t learned the lesson of forgiveness, but in doing that we’re in danger of missing the generous love of the king.

The story begins with the massive debt of the servant – a debt he could never hope to pay off.

When he asks for more time the King does not just grant him a deal where he gets more time to pay, the King goes way beyond any reasonable action. He forgive the servant his whole debt.

 

The current American president is fond of talking about ‘deals’ in world politics. He rose to fame in the United States because of a book he apparently co-wrote with Tony Schwartz “the art of the deal”. In a deal, someone looks for a solution which profits both parties – but of course one person is always trying to get a better deal than the other.

 

There is no ‘deal’ in Jesus’ parable. The King doesn’t say to his servant “I will forgive your debt if...”

‘You work harder for me in future’, for example

Or ‘you don’t get yourself in trouble like this again’.

Or even ‘you become a better person and forgive others’.

There is no deal, there is only loving kindness.

And so it is with God’s love.

No deal, no ‘if I do this, you do that’.

Just pure, flowing, forgiving, generous love.

 

So what are we to make of the second part of Jesus’ parable, where the servant who has been the recipient of such grace is in turn ungracious and unforgiving?

 

One of the great things about parables is that they often chime in so well to human nature.

Let’s admit it, we’re probably rather glad that the unforgiven servant gets his comeuppance.

What sort of person feels the relief of having a massive debt forgiven and then immediately turns round and pursues another person for the small amount they are owed. We know, deep in our guts, that someone who has been given such grace and generosity should surely respond with some gratitude and generosity of their own.

 

Jesus’ warning to those who are unforgiving, ungracious, mean-spirited is a warning which rings true to us.

In the light of all that Jesus teaches about the proper response of gratitude in the face of generosity, we celebrate our harvest festival.

 

What we are doing is not making some kind of a ‘deal’ with God our creator. We are not saying thank you to God today so that God will continue to bless us.

We are remembering that even if we do nothing to deserve or earn it, God’s gracious love continues to be poured out on us year after year – the gifts of the harvest are just one sign of that.

 

We are like that wretched servant who has been given more than he coudl ever repay. But unlike that ungrateful servant, we have come together in recognition of the grace of God.

 

And in response to God’s grace and mercy we open our hearts to God in gratitude.

That gratitude leads us to respond with our own generosity and grace to others.

A small example of this is “paying it forward” – a concept that originated in the United States, first described in a book by Lisa Hardy Hammond in 1910. Instead of paying back a favour or a generous act, the idea is to pay it forward – to be generous to someone else.

It could be something as simple as someone buying a coffee for you if you haven’t got your money on you – but instead of buying your friend one back, you buy one for someone else when they are caught out without a way of paying.

 

It could be a bit more elaborate.

Sarah-Jayne Wright was just 18 when she read a novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde called “Pay It Forward” and decided that the world would be a better place if everyone just did three favours for others.  Having lost her own father at the age of eight, she had great empathy for children of a family friend who had just been widowed.  Sarah-Jayne took time out to chat to the children helping them and making life much easier for their mother. 

This ‘success’ prompted the second favour which was to set up a counselling service at her school, particularly to reduce the amount of bullying.

Her third favour was for her neighbour, an elderly woman who was losing her sight.  As she had been the one to introduce the Pay it Forward book to Sarah-Jayne, and was an avid reader, it was a real act of paying it forward to take time out every night and read aloud to this neighbour and keep her company. 

 

Jesus never used the term “pay it forward” – but the parable of the generous king – or the unforgiving servant – shows what can happen when we forget to be grateful and generous, and tend to brush off the great mercy of God.

 

So may the bounty of this harvest teach us how blessed we are and may we respond with lives of gratitude and generosity.

In the name of Jesus Christ – who gave his life in the service of others. Amen.