Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The texts on which this morning's message is based comes from the printed list of Bible verses in your bulletin insert.

Today's sermon continues the topical sermon series started last week, with the four topics you helped choose being forgiveness, living the Christian life, sharing the Christian faith, and predestination. Today's topic is primarily forgiveness, but as I said last week three, even all four of these topics interconnect heavily. My preparation for this sermon was very different than for a typical sermon. Typically I study the 3 assigned lessons for the day and prayerfully consider which 1-2 lessons would be the best to preach on. Typically I read them in English, translate them from the original biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek, read Bible commentaries, and study how these lessons have been used in hymns, Luther's catechisms or other Lutheran confessional writings. Then I begin developing the sermon itself.

A topical sermon on forgiveness required a different strategy. I started with a word search in the Bible on the words forgive, forgiveness, forgiving, forgave, etc. I discovered this word group occurs 143 times in the NIV Bible. It occurs in slightly differing numbers in different translations. From looking at these multiple verses on forgiveness, I realized that the scope of forgiveness was much too broad for any one sermon. But, in general, the majority of those 143 verses fell into four main themes, of which I have listed many representative verses in the bulletin insert. I hope that you will read through the insert in more detail at home, and use it during the sermon to follow the major themes.

The first theme is Old Testament forgiveness. A cartoon in an old New Yorker magazine once pictured an angel standing before a big office door with a sign that reads "God." Before entering the office the angel asks the secretary: "Is he the God of the Old or the New Testament this morning." This cartoon assumes that the Old and New Testaments present God as radically different; as primarily harsh and demanding in the Old and primarily loving and forgiving in the New. Unfortunately many Christians have similar assumptions. But, in the Old Testament the chief characteristic that Yahweh (the LORD) reveals to us about himself is his loving, compassionate, forgiving nature. This forgiving nature is revealed early, often, and late in the Old Testament. The words forgive and forgiving occur almost as many times in the Old Testament as in the New.

Exodus 34: 6 perhaps captures the primary teaching about God in the entire Old Testament: "The LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, (is) abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…

In the Old Testament He reveals himself as a God who is slow to anger. He is patient and kind. He forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin, over and over again among his Old Testament people. When they called on him, He was forgiving and good. When they neglected him and rebelled against Him, He was slow to anger, wanting to love them and forgive their sin. Yet He knew when to eventually discipline his people, to use the effects of their sinful ways to bring his people to repentance. He is slow to anger, but He's not a patsy. "He does not leave the guilty unpunished."

The second major theme about forgiveness in the Bible is this: In the New Testament we learn how that loving, compassionate, forgiving nature is made clear and visible, in our LORD Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1: 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Jesus came, proclaiming that he had the authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9: 6) and performing miracles to show that he had that authority. He was given that authority because he made the loving, compassionate, forgiving nature of God clear and visible, on the cross. On that cross he prayed for his tormentors and for us "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." The God of the Old Testament is slow to anger, but He is also righteous and "does not leave the guilty unpunished". Instead Jesus ransomed us from the guilt and rebellion of our natural selves, and placed our guilt on himself on the cross. Our guilt was punished. Jesus took the punishment we deserved on himself.

Forgiveness theme #3: This forgiveness for Christ's sake is made evident also through Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the Office of the Keys given to the church. God made his compassionate, forgiving nature clear and visible through our Lord Jesus Christ. A third set of forgiveness verses shows that He continues to make that forgiveness tangible and visible for us through the means of grace, His Word, His word connected to water as we saw so wonderfully here already this morning. His word connected to bread and wine, his body and blood there for our spiritual nourishment. This forgiveness also comes through confession and absolution, whereby the church, through the pastor, forgives sins because Christ has instructed us to do so (John 20: 23). I am looking forward greatly to later next month, after my ordination and official installation as your pastor, when I stand before you for the first time and say those words "In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins."

Theme four about forgiveness in the Bible is: Christ's death and resurrection has made his forgiveness of our sins clear. How do we make that forgiveness clearly evident to the world? In both the Gospels and in Paul's letters, our ability to make Christ's forgiveness known to others is deeply interconnected to how deeply we trust in Christ's forgiveness, made visible through our struggles to be like Christ, to forgive other people.

As I said in the Children's message, have you ever noticed how group-oriented, how "congregational" the Lord's prayer is? (Matthew 6 on the insert) OUR Father who is in heaven… Give US this day our daily bread. Forgive US our sins. How? Forgive US, all of us, as WE have forgiven those who sin against US. There are no "I's" or "me's" in the Lord's Prayer.   And notice the verse following immediately after the Lord's Prayer, verse 14 about forgiveness, Matthew emphasizes the importance of forgiveness in the 5th petition of the Lord's prayer with these words: For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Our English language has a weakness when it comes to understanding verse 14 and nearly all the rest of the verses on page 2 of your insert. Our English word YOU can mean either you individually, or YOU can mean a group, all of you. Southerners have tried to correct this English weakness by inventing the word Y'all, You-all, but we tend to make fun of them. However, in all the YOU words on the rest of the insert, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul originally all used the plural YOU, Y'all.

Try verse 14 this way: For if y'all forgive people when they sin against y'all, y'alls heavenly Father will also forgive y'all. 15 But if y'all do not forgive men their sins, y'alls Father will not forgive y'alls sins. I know, it sounds hokey, but in essence that is what Matthew originally wrote 2000 years ago. When we the church, Christ's visible body here on earth, make forgiveness our main goal, the world then sees Christ clearly.

Christ's forgiveness brings us within God's sacred circle. The Lord's Prayer shows us that one of the plain marks by which we can judge our own forgiveness, our own place in that sacred circle, is our own forgiveness of others, even to non-Christians who are outside that circle. When we are striving to forgive others, trying to forgive those who have sinned against us, then we show that we understand and trust what Christ has done for us on the cross. When we quit striving to forgive, when we want vengeance over our neighbor or brother rather than their forgiveness, then the world is not able to see the forgiving nature of Christ through us (Lenski, 1943).

Our forgiving disposition never earns God's forgiveness. The beginning of this sacred circle always starts with God. The forgiveness of our sins is based only on what Christ has done for us. Nevertheless, our forgiving disposition is very important. It is a mark of our faith, of our lives as Christians. It is how we share the faith with others.

We believe, we trust in Christ for our forgiveness, we forgive in kind.

The grace, peace and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us always. Amen.