SIX WORDS MOTHERS TEACH US

Sermon Summary (5/14/17) “Six Words Mothers Teach Us” (Mt 6:14-15; Col 3:13)

I’m wearing two carnations, a white one for my Mother and a red one for my Step-Mother.  I can just feel my Mother pinning a carnation on me on Mother’s Day, a day that holds many memories of my Mom.

Mothers are special teachers. Today we concentrate on six words that mothers teach us: “I am sorry” and “I forgive you.”  (Except for Mamabears that protect at all cost.  We have a sign in our house that says, “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”  Even Mommabears should understand that unhappiness and holding a grudge is not a way to “Live Well.”)

Forgiveness comes to crescendo in the New Testament with Jesus making it essential to relationships.  In the Lord’s Prayer he says, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Some say this is a dangerous prayer if ask for forgiveness to the extent that we forgive others!  Additionally, this is the only line of the prayer that Jesus explains.  In the verses immediately following the prayer (Mt 6:14-16), he says, “¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  Wow!  CS Lewis says this is unequivocal.  If we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven!

In my wedding sermons, I made forgiveness a pillar of marriage.  We just cannot go forward if we do not forgive.  Paul says, “forgive one another; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.” (Col 3:13)  Must forgive.

Luke says “if any sins against you and repents, you must forgive.”  How good are you at repentance?  Repentance is a theological term.  The street language is “I am sorry.”  How good at saying “I am sorry”?

“I am sorry “and “I forgive you” are operative words.  In our series we find the operative words are “to do.”  The Golden Rule, “To do unto others…”  And the requirement, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to do lovingkindness…”  “To do.”  To say “I am sorry”; to say “I forgive you.”  To do.

I spent last weekend with Ray Buckley, a friend and an amazing man.  Finest storyteller I know.  A book he has authored is Christmas Moccasins.  A grandmother works are year making three pair of the finest moccasins.  We find the grandmother and her grandson out in the snow on Christmas Eve looking for three youths who had accosted them the previous Christmas.  Her present for them?  Christmas moccasins, yes; but more importantly, Christmas forgiveness that frees both them and their adversaries.  Central lessons for living well.  Amen.