The story of God vs. the story of the world

Sermon preached in Lincoln Cathedral, Sunday 17th September 2017

Matthew 18: 21-35 (The parable of the Unmerciful Servant)

Then Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

 ‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii;and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’

+May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Salvation.

Once upon a time, there was a president. The most powerful man in the world. And one day he was rifling through his records. He stopped. He blinked. There it was in black and white – his chief of staff owed him thirty billion dollars.

He grabbed his phone. “You come right here!”

The chief of staff sidled in. He’d heard the tone of voice. He guessed what this was about. He collapsed in a heap and cried. “I’m so sorry. I can’t pay it back. Not yet. Don’t make me go bankrupt! Just give me time! I’ll pay it back, you’ll see, but you need to give me time!”

And the president...

... considered for a moment and then stood up, not bothering to hide his irritation.

“Nope. Not happening. If you won’t pay, I’ll sue. See you in court.”

You look surprised.

Don’t tell me you were expecting the story to end another way?

What on earth did you think the president was going to do? Thirty billion dollars is a lot of money. What kind of person would write off a debt like that?

The world doesn’t work like that.

And yet... that isn’t how we expected the story to end.

Not just because Jesus had told a similar story with a very different ending.

But because we want our stories to show us a different world – not the way the world works, but the way the world ought to work.

In our stories, we want to hear about mercy. About forgiveness. About people, despite their mistakes, getting a second change. About happy endings. About it all coming right in the end.

We want our stories to paint us a picture of a world that is better than ours.

And that’s because we know there’s something wrong with the way our world is.

Our world runs on selfishness and on looking out for number one. It tells a seductive story about us and them. We are more worthy than other people – people from other countries, other colours, other faiths. They don’t deserve a wage they can live on. They should be grateful for what they have and not protest for more. They don’t need our support. Let alone our generosity, our forgiveness, our second chances.

That’s the story of the world.

So when Jesus tells his story about the king who – unlike the president! – sees his subordinate begging for mercy and lets him off this enormous debt, it clashes with the story of the world. But it doesn’t clash with the stories that we want to tell ourselves – the stories that we wish we could all live by.

The stories Jesus tells help us to see the way things should be. The way things could be. And the way things will be.

The way things should be: the way we know, deep down, we ought to treat one another. The way we hope we are treated if we get into trouble; the way we hope the people we love would be treated if they got into trouble.

The way things could be: if we chose to live differently. If we chose to listen to Jesus and to our own deep sense of how things ought to be. If we chose to live in a way that said no to the way the world works, and yes to a vision of mercy, compassion and forgiveness.

But also, the way things will be. Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of heaven is not just about telling stories of utopia – of a potential happier future, if we stop being bad and start doing good. Not at all. Jesus tells stories about the Kingdom to say that this – this is ACTUALLY how God works. This is how the world will work when all is set to rights – and that time is coming and nearly here! And if you want to be part of that new world – you need to enter into God’s story now. Your place in the story of God depends on you hearing that story and saying yes to it – and no to the story the world tells us, about looking out for ourselves and mistrusting everyone else.

We have already entered into God’s story – we have heard it told by Jesus and through the words of the liturgy. Praying together, we become a community that lives God’s reality and tells God’s story. Receiving the Eucharist, we taste God’s kingdom.

But now it’s up to us to live within that reality. To reject the way the world tells us to be and to live instead in the way God calls us to be. God’s story is a true story – and to believe that means to live in the reality of God’s story. Which means living in the reality of God’s community. Living within the forgiveness of God, living within the vision of mercy and compassion. It’s the entire opposite of the president’s story of requiring the money to be paid back; the entire opposite of the way the slave in Jesus’ story throttles his friend who owes him almost nothing at all; the entire opposite of the whole insidious temptation to look out for number one, to do only what serves our own interests, to hoard our money and our time and to judge anyone who doesn’t have as much to hoard as we do.

And it’s hard. It’s hard to ignore the seductive story the world tells. Especially now – I was going to say in a week like this, but the sad reality is that every week has been a bit like this. Terrorist attacks. Fear of people who look different, believe different things. Fear of people from other countries taking what belongs to us. We’re being told the fear-mongering, selfishness-raising story of the world constantly, at ever-increasing volume. And it’s hard to lift our eyes to the Kingdom.

But the Kingdom will come. The story of God is the true story – it’s the story of the world that’s a lie. And if we live within the story of God, when the Kingdom comes we will have a place within it.

We have fallen on our knees before God, saying “Have patience with me” – and God has forgiven us. Soon we will draw near to receive the new life of God in bread and wine – the food of the Kingdom, which feeds us to live in the Kingdom.

How will we allow that forgiveness and that food to work within us? Will we let them draw us into life within the story of the Kingdom – the story that tells us the true way to live?