‘The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’ - Exodus 34:6
Brothers and sisters, I don’t know which films and books are your favourite or which themes you find in those you rewatch and reread. However, one of the favourite themes of all types of storytellers is people being changed by forgiveness. Kids, think about ‘Tangled’, the modern version of Rapunzel. Flynn Ryder is also a robber, he cares for nothing and no one as long as he can steal money; until he meets Rapunzel, and her love and forgiveness change him! From that moment on he becomes a good guy who ends up marrying the princesses. He was changed by forgiveness. Adults think of the famous book, musical, and film, ‘Les Miserables’. If you don’t know the story, it’s about a thief who on leaving jail is taken in by a kindly bishop. Next morning the bishop wakes up to find the man gone along with his silver candlesticks. The police catch up with the man and he thinks it’s back to jail for him. However, the bishop forgives him and gives the candlesticks to the man as a present, telling him to let this kindness and love change his life…and it does! That forgiven man goes on to live a life of love, caring for others, and risking his life for those in need. He was changed by forgiveness
We’re coming to the end of our studies in the Book of Exodus and last week it seemed to be ending badly! God’s people swapped God for a fake, for a chocolate teapot god, which was of no use to anyone; swapped Him for a Golden Calf, a golden idol which looked nice but wasn’t the God who loved them. To make the point of how terrible this was the contract, the covenant, the love letter written to God’s people by God is ripped up, the stone tablets are broken in two. It looked like this was the end of the story, the end of the line for those rescued from Egypt…and it would have been if God were just the angry god some people make Him out to be! Sure He was angry, after all wouldn’t you be if you saved people from oppression and slavery only to have them turn to a fake who couldn’t and wouldn’t look after them in the future? Yes, God was angry—quite rightly—but wonderfully that’s not the end of the story as we see today. God gives His people a second chance: ‘The Lord said to Moses, ‘Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai.’ God is ready to forgive His people, He is ready to rewrite the love letter on two new stone tables, and to be the people's God once again. Like the bishop in ‘Les Mis.’, like Rapunzel in ‘Tangled’ God will not let the mistakes of the past decide the future for the ones He loves. We see this truth played out again in our Gospel reading. Last week we heard how Peter denied Jesus as Jesus was being arrested, beaten, and then killed. Peter, like the Hebrew people, turned his back on God when following God made him unpopular or uncomfortable. Peter knows he has acted terribly and is now outside of Jesus’ handpicked team. Quite rightly from now on, God-in-Jesus should treat Peter as Peter treated Him; but thankfully that is not what God is like. Peter denied Jesus three times, and so Jesus asks Peter three times whether he is sorry, whether Peter actually loves Him after all, and then—by forgiving Him—not only includes Him in Jesus’ team but amazingly makes Peter the team’s captain. Peter is forgiven by God and this changes Peter forever! From this point on Peter speaks to anyone and everyone about Jesus and is never ashamed of knowing Him ever again! Peter is changed by forgiveness
Back to our story in Exodus. God is ready to forgive His people, God is ready to start again, and to write out the ten commandments which were broken when God’s people swapped Him for a fake. God shows Moses, shows His people, and shows us—and anyone who reads the Bible—just what He is like: a God who rightly gets angry at injustice and sin, yes, but also a God who forgives, and in so doing changes, those who know that they have done wrong and who then turn back to Him. This is summed up in our reading, listen: ‘the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’ Want to know what God is like, not just in the New Testament but from the beginning of time? Well, look no further than right here. God is for justice, God is for living right, God is for obeying His laws… but when people go wrong—and all people go wrong at some point—God wonderfully won’t let that be the end of the story. God’s people—like Peter—get a second chance. God forgives them and gives His people a chance to be changed by that forgiveness.
You know there are two mistakes made by people today when it comes to God. One mistake is to imagine that God is a terrible and unmerciful God who throws down thunderbolts and, like an awful boss, kicks you out of the company if you put a foot wrong. The other mistake is to imagine that as forgiven people we can stay as we are, thinking: ‘God will forgive us, that’s His job’. If we go about thinking such things or acting as if what we do doesn’t matter because God will forgive us the one thing we can be sure of is that we haven’t accepted that forgiveness. If we haven’t changed then we haven’t claimed God’s forgiveness. In this way God’s forgiveness is like an old fashioned cheque or perhaps a modern gift card; it’s lovely to receive them but you only actually benefit from them when you cash them in. God is willing to forgive His people. He has written out the cheque to pay for their mistakes but they need to play their part and cash in the cheque. In the Old Testament this deal—this two sided agreement—is known as the Covenant of Moses. The’s what’s happening at the end of our first reading when: ‘the Lord said: ‘I am making a covenant with you’. God will forgive His people and be their God, He will care for them; that’s His side of the deal, His side of the covenant. Like with Peter, Jesus forgives him and includes him back into His people, promising to care for Him for the rest of His life. However, there are two sides to a deal, two sides to a contract, and the people’s side—whether for the people of the Exodus, for Peter, or for us here this morning—is always the same: to let God’s forgiveness change us, to makes us into better people. Like Valjean in ‘Les Mis.’ who went on to lead a life of caring for others; like Flynn who stopped stealing and took care of Rapunzel and the rest of her people; like Peter, who went on to speak boldly about Jesus and lead His people to share the Good News of Jesus; we too—in order to show we accept the forgiveness God offers—must allow ourselves to be changed by forgiveness.
If you are hearing this this morning—whomever you are—God-in-Jesus is offering you forgiveness, just as He offered it to the Exodus people, and just as He offered it to Peter. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or who you are, your past deeds need not define you. God longs to forgive you, and for that forgiveness to change you. All you need to do is to reach out and accept it. The sign you have done this is that you allow yourself to be changed and you work with God to become a better person. So, if you’re a Christian here this morning—which means you know you need to be forgiven and you’ve chosen to accept God’s forgiveness—how are you a better person than you were last year? Are you more compassionate? Do you love God more? Do you talk to Him more in prayer? Are you reading the Scriptures more? Do you work to help those in need, care for those who are sick, walk with those who are mourning. You won’t be perfect—in fact you will never get to perfection this side of heaven—but are you moving in the right direction and can you see that movement in the way that you live?
There are two sides to any agreement, whether the Covenant of Moses or the Covenant of Jesus, and our side is to live out the forgiveness we receive from God. That we become those changed by forgiveness. Forgiveness changes people is it changing you? Amen (from Fr Mike).