How Many Times?

Gospel:  Matthew 18: 21- 19: 1

How often do we ask the same question Peter does - how many times do I have to forgive?  God might well ask us the same question - how many times have I forgiven you, and how many more times will you come to me asking for mercy again and again and again?  Despite this fact, we will look for ways to avoid forgiving other people, for excluding them from the circle of care and compassion, for not admitting them to the table of communion.

When Christianity has become a religion of condemnation, hatred, excommunication, deportation, execution, and genocide, then we have truly entered into the realm of the demonic in our world.  When Christian theology becomes merely an apologetic for the defense of the cruelty in our world in order to satisfy our political allegiances, we have departed a long way from the Gospel of Jesus.  When the message is that mercy is only for Christians and no one else,  when we come to justify genocide and the sexual abuse and trafficking of children, we are in the abyss of Gehenna.  

The mercy of Jesus extended to every race and people, every class and gender, every age and place.  Mercy is extended to all people because everyone is a child of God, another Christ, a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Our mercy must extend to all people without exception for the same reason.  As Christians our lives are to be modeled on Christ, not Joshua, the way of mercy and peace, not the way of war and destruction.