Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

In most instances, the answering of prayer is God's business;
However, this is the petition of the Lord's Prayer that we get to answer.
In this petition we are asking God to forgive us
As we have forgiven others.

Note the tense here, as we have forgiven - past tense.
We are asking God to forgive us after we have forgiven others.

We are not asking God to forgive us so that,
In order that,
We may forgive others,
But to the same measure,
To the same extent that we have already forgiven
Our neighbor, our child, our spouse.
We are not saying forgive me first in order that I may forgive
We are saying I have forgiven the other,
And I accept the extent to which I have forgiven them
To be the same extent to which you dear Lord,
Will forgive me.
When God forgives, he wipes the slate clean.
When God forgives, it is as if the sin, the debt, the trespass never happened.
God forgives and forgets.
Do we do as well?

I previously served in a congregation in which two sisters were members.
These two had not spoken to each other for almost forty years.
One sat on the east side of the church, the other sat on the west.
They were both in their seventies, and time was running out.
I have no idea what they were fighting over,
And I doubt if either of them remember what started the disagreement,
But one was as stubborn as the other,
And neither would make the first move.

While the original slight may be forgotten,
Resentment still seethes.
How sad, to see how the acid of unforgiveness had affected their lives.
Robbing them of years of shared memories,
Not to mention the toll such bitterness can have upon one's health.
How much happier they would have been if they had learned
To forgive and forget as God does.

That is what we are called to in this petition.
To forgive as if the debt, the trespass, the sin never happened.
To wipe the slate clean.

Of course, we would not need this petition
If we were not sinners,
If we were not human.
As Martin Luther reminds us in his explanation of this petition:
"We ask in this prayer that God would not regard our sins,
Nor deny these petitions on their account,
For we are worthy of nothing for which we ask,
Nor have we earned it.
Instead we ask that God would give us all thing by grace,
For we sin daily and deserve only punishment.
So, on the other hand, we, too,
Truly want to forgive heartily
And do good gladly to those who sin against us."

Every day we need to confess our sins,
Every day, we need to ask God for forgiveness,
Having so done, we arise new, refreshed, clean.

I rather like the traditional wording of
"Forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who have trespassed against us."
The more modern wording is "our sins".
Being good Lutherans,
Perhaps we are more comfortable with this word
Than are others within secular post-modern society.

Phylilis McGinley the Pulitzer prize winning poet
And a devout Catholic observed that
People no longer see themselves as sinful,
But only as immature, underprivileged, frightened or sick.
No one accepts responsibility for their own behavior these days.
Rarely do you ever hear anyone say,
"I am guilty, I was wrong."
Has Britney Spears every apologized for her behavior?
Has Randy Moss every apologized for his behavior?
We need to restore to our vocabulary the word sin,
Even if it is old fashioned and offensive.
And we need to start teaching our children
That they are responsible for their actions and their words.
The best way to do this I have found
Is to set an example.
I apologize on a regular basis to my husband and children.
I admit that I am not perfect.
I ask others for forgiveness,
And I give forgiveness just as freely.

Perhaps the deepest understanding of this petition that I can recall
Was the example given to us
By the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Penn.
In October 2006,
After a gunman had lined up and shot ten girls
Inside the Nickel Mines school,
Killing five of them.
Rather than words of hate and revenge,
The Amish community offered forgiveness.
Many members of the Amish community
Attended the funeral of the gunman
In support of his wife and young children.

At Christmas, the Amish community decorated
A tree with toys and gift cards For the family.

[Community Artist Elsie Beiler said about her painting
Depicting the five young girls who died in this tragedy,

"As time went on,
It became clear that the painting would be about
The bond of friendships that have been formed among people
Who have been hurt so deeply,
But who are free to love because of their choice to forgive."]

Because of this communities choice to forgive,
They are free to love,
To extend love to all the survivors of this tragedy,
Including the family of the person who caused the tragedy.
That's how forgiveness works.
With the popularity of the Da Vinci Code,
First as a novel and then as a movie,
You may not be interested
In one more story about Leonardo Da Vinci's
Painting of "The Last Supper",
But it's a good one, that was shared by
Ellsworth J. Kalas, of Asbury Theological Seminary,
In his study of the Lord's Prayer.
"It is said that Da Vinci expressed his hatred for an enemy
By painting the face of that enemy on the shoulders of Judas Iscariot.
When the artist tried, however, to paint the face of Christ,
He found that he could not bring up an image of his Lord.
Then he forgave his enemy and painted out the disgracing picture.
That night, da Vinci had a dream
In which he saw the face of Christ and was able again to paint him.
When we hold something against another person,
We begin to shut out the face of Christ,
And when the image of our Lord is blurred,
We no longer have the faith to accept forgiveness.
When we see Jesus,
Our hearts can envision the forgiveness we humans need.
But when we are angry with someone,
That person's face, so to speak,
Constantly comes before us.
Try as I will to see the face of our Lord,
That face is clouded by the image of the persons I resent.

So it is that forgiveness for my own sins is made impossible
Not because God is unmerciful,
But because when I hold something against another,
I shut out the vision that gives me
The faith to accept forgiveness.

By granting forgiveness to others,
We receive forgiveness for our own souls.
Because if God does not forgive us without ceasing,
We are lost.
It is only through his mercy and grace
That we can approach the throne of God.
It is only through his mercy and grace
That we are saved.
Looking at the mercy and grace that we have received,
How can we deny mercy and grace,
Forgiveness and peace to our neighbor?
Amen.