Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons

 Audio recordingSermon text:Forgiveness can be difficult. It can be complicated. If I accidentally bump into you as we are passing by each other, that’s not hard to forgive. Not all forgiveness is like that. In fact, I don’t know if that really is forgiveness. It’s more like politeness. Forgiveness is more serious. Being polite is easier than forgiving. Since politeness is easier than forgiveness we often try to have politeness be considered a sufficient substitute for actual forgiveness. There’s a phrase that’s common, “I will forgive, but I won’t forget.” That’s like a forewarning for how you’re going to treat the person—coldly and fiercely politely. The recipient of this coldness gets the message quite clearly. He or she knows that they are not forgiven. There’s no forgiveness from the heart. So when Jesus says at the end of our reading, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart,” we should not think that our cold avoidance of the one