Scripture: Matthew 6:12; Psalm 23:1-3; Matthew 6:9-13 Series: 2023
A Lenten sermon in a series praying through the Lord’s Prayer, focused on ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’ (Matthew 6:12). Pruitt reframes trespass not as violating private property nor sin-in-general, but as straying from our path and causing others to stumble, drawing on greenbelt walking imagery and Psalm 23’s ‘paths of righteousness.’ Noting righteousness equals justice in Hebrew and Greek, he presses the radical claim that mercy is conditional: we cannot expect God’s forgiveness while withholding our own. Citing John Chrysostom on the inseparability of prayer, fasting, and mercy, he calls the congregation to offer mercy and forgiveness before seeking it, closing with prayer and an original verse.
Illustrations: tripping-your-child, greenbelt-trail-walks, children-no-trespassing, trail-manners, distracted-podcast-walk, seven-figure-debt-freedom, childhood-kjv-memory, chrysostom-prayer-fasting-mercy
March 19
Forgive us our trespasses
One of the greatest differences between the older King James translation of the Lord’s Prayer and a more contemporary one is with this line, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And for contemporary translations, it’s forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who have debt against us. A few weeks ago, I preached sermon basically on this, about the forgiveness of sins in regards to the Apostles’ Creed and how one way of understanding sin, especially in the New Testament, is as a debt to God and, and the stakes of that. That is, when you have a debt against someone, it’s not a minor thing. If it is a large debt, it’s a pretty major thing. If you are seven, eight figures in debt, it changes how you need to run your organization. When that debt is gone, there is an amazing feeling of freedom. I think that there is lot to be said about the accuracy of that translation of debts. especially when you look at the Aramaic that Jesus would have said that in Aramaic, the word for sin is literally the same word as debt, but the older familiar translation forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, is also important and valid and helpful for us to understand what is going on here in the Lord’s Prayer
Series Intro
My friends, for this season of Lent, we are going to be slowly reading and praying through the Lord’s Prayer. These familiar (or unfamiliar words) are a radical call to seek God’s will in this world. And to understand God’s vision for ourselves and those around us. Today, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Trespass is a crime most of us understand. Especially if someone says, “No Trespassing.” It is going on to someone’s property without their permission or approval. It is something that is hard to teach children. You tell them, “don’t go through that person’s yard.” “Why not?” “We don’t know them.” “Well, what’s the worst that can happen?” “Well, in Texas there are a lot of bad things that can happen. Trespassing gives you cause to defend your property. So in the Lord’s Prayer, we say, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Forgive us God for the times we stray from our property. As we forgive those who stray onto our property. Now, private property is not a major issue in the Bible. Familial property is important. The land that goes to the family is important, but it’s because it’s familial. It’s not not private. You can’t do whatever you want with your land. It is not really yours. It is owed to the generations after you by the promise of God. I don’t think it is entirely helpful for us to focus so much on property as this fixed thing when we think about trespass in the Lord’s Prayer. Instead, I want us to think about the path we are on. That is, we are all on a path. We are all on a journey. We are all on a road to where we are going. I really enjoy going on walks. The Hamilton Green Belt or the Green Belt right by Serene Hills, the canyon lands trail. When there is green space filling my eyesight, I feel better. When I go and walk and follow a path, my soul is at rest. Sometimes I stick to the path the entire time. Other times, I may see something that’s interesting and move off. Sometimes it’s unclear whether or not the ground I’m walking on is a path made for humans or a path made by deer. Many times, when I’m walking in the local area, there other people who pass me by. Sometimes they bump into me: Most of the time they make space for me. I make space for them. We talk about this a lot with the boys, about having trail manners. How important it is to be courteous to those around us whenever possible; to stop in order to let them pass. Most of the time, people stop when I pass. People I come across in the trailer almost always decent and sometimes it doesn’t happen. Sometimes they don’t stop. Sometimes their path runs right into my path or my children’s path. Sometimes my path runs right in to them. My mind is elsewhere. I might be listening to a podcast, practicing a sermon; focusing on something that is not the immediate present. I stray from my path and I trespass into theirs. I bump into them. They bump in to me. Our lives are like our journeys. Sometimes we follow the path as God has laid out for us perfectly. Sometimes we stray and we get in the way of others and sometimes we cause them to stumble. I think this is how we should understand trespasses. It’s not just straying onto someone else’s private property. It’s not just sinning in general. It’s acting in a way that causes another to stumble and fall. When someone trips you and you fall, it is really frustrating. It’s really aggravating. Like why did you do that as a grown up? It is confusing. Why would anybody do that? Does it make any sense?
The radical thing that Jesus teaches in the Lord’s prayer is that there’s a sense in which mercy is conditional. The mercy we receive is conditional on the mercy we give. It’s all conditional on the mercy we get from God, the absolute mercy and justification through the blood of Jesus Christ. And we cannot expect anything from God if we are not willing to offer mercy to others, to those who have trespassed against us, to those who have strayed on our path, to those who have even tripped us up. And to the parents who are here, you know how difficult mercy is for those who have tripped up our children. That might be one of the tallest orders of the life of faith. I think it is in fact impossible apart from grace. I think there’s one sense we should understand the Lord’s prayer as aspirational. We seek to be like this. We seek to forgive like this, especially if we’re not there yet.
Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those we trespass against us. Forgive us for the times that we have strayed from your Holy Word as we forgive others.
The language of straying and following often brings us back to the language of shepherds and sheep.
Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer are the first sections of the Bible I learned as a child. There are many similarities between them. They are filled with images and power over a brief length of verses. As well, the King James version holds pride of place in my imagination.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Righteousness is a powerful word in the Bible. In Scripture, when we read righteousness, it also means justice. In Hebrew the word is Tsadoq, in Greek it is Dikaiosune. Righteousness and Justice are the exact same word. He leads me in the path of righteousness. He leads me in the path of justice. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. I think we should understand our trespasses as those times we have strayed in the path of righteousness, when we have strayed from the path of justice. And God’s justice is not just about these discreet actions we may or may not have done against people in life. Have we have been following our shepherd along the path of righteousness or have we not? Ultimately, the question comes down to our own response to God and our willingness to respond to God. And that is the radical claim of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not about other people and what they do and what they don’t do. It is first, second, and third about God and us. The father of all creation desires relationship with us. The father of all creation desires us to seek His kingdom. God, the Father of all desires us to seek our material sustenance in God and when we don’t seek God’s will in God’s kingdom, when we don’t seek our material sustenance and our spiritual flourishing in God, when we stray from the path of justice and interupt the path of others, we need to seek forgiveness as a part of how we forgive others. And it’s not a one to one equivalent. If someone hasn’t trespassed against you in the last week, that doesn’t mean you’re golden. For mercy is not this qui pro quo. That is, it doesn’t work like I’ll forgive his sins so that God will forgive mine. It is about this journey and seeking God’s will and our consistent and constant reminder that mercy is a two-way street and we must give it as much as we seek it.
This should be especially apparent to us during the season of Lent.
Lent is a season full of prayer. People read devotionals more in Lent than in any other time of the year. It is also a season of fasting. Many churches exhort the people to give something up for the season. The early church added a third component to Lent: mercy.
John Chrysostom said,
Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others you open God’s ear to yourself.
When you fast, see the fasting of others. If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery.
Let this be the pattern for all men when they practice mercy: show mercy to others in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness, as you want others to show mercy to you.
In this season of Lent, may you hold close to God’s path of righteousness. When you pray or you fast, also hold true to mercy. May you hold close to God’s path of justice and in that may you offer mercy before you seek mercy. May you offer forgiveness before you seek forgiveness. May you give more slack than you get. May you treat others better than they treat you, not because you are great or special, but because God is great and special and holy and offers you life eternal in Jesus Christ.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the amazing gift of mercy. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Let us never be too proud to share mercy and the name of the Father and the son of it, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Forgive us As we forgive others We can’t expect a thing If we don’t forgive our brothers
Help us Lord to see Forgiveness starts with me.
Jesus gives us Grace to love each other. Jesus us forgives us His mercy is utter
But help us Lord to see Forgiveness starts with me.