24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 17th September 2023.
Lectionary Readings:
Genesis 50 v 15-21; Psalm 103 v8-13; Romans 14 v 1-12; Matthew 18 v 21-35.
Reluctance
In the Old Testament reading, the brothers of Joseph seem reluctant to ask his forgiveness for selling him off as a slave many years before.
It is only when their dying father (Jacob) urges them to do so, that they acknowledge their need and then seek forgiveness from Joseph.
Joseph’s response is both humble and generous. He forgives his brothers, forgets the bad times that he endured during his years as a slave, and praises God for his good fortune. God, he says, has turned bad into good; not only for him and his family, but also for all God’s chosen people.
In the reading from Romans, Paul is talking about faith and how different people express their faith.
Paul points out that God is the only just judge. We have no right to criticize others just because they express their faith in a different way to us.
As Paul says; “What right do you have to criticize someone else’s servants? Only their Lord can decide if they are doing right.” (Romans 14 v 4).
Paul is suggesting that, as followers of Jesus, we should be reluctant to criticize and keen to forgive; not the other way round! (A challenge to all church communities, ours included.)
Jesus, on the other hand, is keen to emphasise the need for us to forgive others, countless times if necessary, in the same way as God forgives us. (see Matthew 18 v21-35).
God and Jesus display no reluctance to forgive. The Bible is a love story, a story of God’s love for us.
Hymn writer, Fred Kann, has this to say about God’s healing love.
(Singing the Faith 649).
God! When human bonds are broken and we lack the love or skill
to restore the hope of healing, give us grace and make us still.
Through that stillness, with your Spirit come into our world of stress’
for the sake of Christ forgiving all the failures we confess.
You in us are bruised and broken: hear us as we seek release
from the pain of earlier living; set us free and grant us peace.
Send us, God of new beginnings, humbly hopeful into life.
Use us as a means of blessing: make us stronger, give us faith.
Give us faith to be more faithful, give us hope to be more true,
give us love to go on learning: God! Encourage and renew!
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.