The Poison of Resentment

Matthew 6:9-15[Jesus said to his disciples:] Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.A Sunday school teacher once said: “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other one to die.” Think about it. Resentment hurts more the one who holds it. Think about all the poison we take just because we don’t want to forgive.Did you notice that there are seven petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, and that after Jesus finished teaching it, he explained only one of them? Do you know which one? The one on forgiveness.Forgiveness is the key that opens heaven. To withhold forgiveness is to close the access to Holy Communion and the access to heaven. Not to forgive is to poison our lives to the point that we become bitter and sour people.Forgiveness on the other side, frees us, because forgiveness is not resentful. Forgiveness throws poison to the trash, where it belongs. Forgiveness does not keep account of wrongdoings and is not offered in a limited way.By Rev. Hector Hoppe

Love Your Enemies

Matthew 5:43-48

[Jesus said:] You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven… For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?… Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus explains the law in a much different way than it was interpreted and taught by the religious leaders of his time. In other words Jesus was saying: Do not pay attention to popular religiosity. Pay attention to the clear message of Scripture, because one thing is what you hear, and another thing is what God says.

By loving those who do not like us, or hate us, we are showing who we are: children of God. If there is one visible way we show that we have received God’s forgiveness, it is by loving those who need extra grace. Reconciliation is now required, not only among brothers and sisters and friends, but among you and those who are –in everyday terms– “impossible.”

This action will require an extra measure of humility and maturity on our side. We are called to be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. We are not called to be perfect without sin, but perfect in the sense of maturity. We are called to be mature, and patient, and understanding, and loving towards those who dislike us.

We are not to be like the unbelievers, so, before we address any issue with our brothers or our enemies, we look up, and learn how our heavenly Father would do it. What would he do to those who hate him and persecute him? The same thing he did in the past, when people hated him and persecuted him killing his dear and only Son: he forgave them. He will treat his enemies the same way he treated us when we were still enemies. Saint Paul reminds us, “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10).

We are reconciled children of God. Now, in our relationship with others God gives us daily opportunities to show that we are his beloved children.

Rev. Hector Hoppe

Forgiveness

Matthew 5:23-24

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

It doesn’t matter here how the whole thing started. We must go even if we didn’t start it, even if we may not be guilty, and even if we don’t feel like it.

One time, a colleague, and my pastor at that time, counseled me to go and make peace with a brother that, according to him [that brother], I offended. My colleague said that by me going, I was going to be able to provide a space for reconciliation between me and my brother, and that I would give myself a great opportunity to exercise humility. The good part of this advice was that my pastor saw in me some type of humility… that obviously needed to be exercised and worked towards improvement!

Every day I am given an opportunity to exercise humility as I come to realize that all my excuses are futile. I actually need to drop all my excuses for not making peace or for not working toward reconciliation. It doesn’t matter if I started the fight or the disagreement or not.

God didn’t start this whole business of sin and brokenness. We did. He did not push us into sin, he did not persuade us to disobey, and yet he made the first move to reconcile ourselves with him. Not only that, he didn’t only talk about reconciliation and forgiveness, he actually did the most costly thing somebody can do for reconciliation. Jesus went to the cross to accomplish and to announce to us God’s forgiveness.

How do we work on reconciliation? How do we announce forgiveness? No need for us to go to the cross, although it might require some sacrifice on our side. To work on reconciliation we stop everything we are doing, and before we go to church next Sunday and before we go to the altar to feast at the table of the sacrificed Lamb, we practice humility and go and make peace with our brother. The Holy Spirit will assist us to do so. There is nothing more important than to be at peace with God and with those around us.

By Rev. Hector Hoppe

Angels! What Blessings!

God's gifts to us of forgiveness and salvation, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, are certainly His ultimate and most important gifts. However, another important undeserved gift of God's love is His creation of the angels. There are numerous references to angels in the Old and New Testaments. Their role was often that of messengers and protectors.

What a fantastic message the shepherds near Bethlehem heard when an angel appeared and spoke to them concerning the birth of Jesus. Then, "Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.'" Luke 2:8-14.

It is not unusual for many of us to give the angels credit for personal protection from storms and automobile accidents, etc., even though we may not actually see the angels at work. However, I can verify through a personal experience, and in conversations with others, that, at times, the helping angel is visible and speaks with the person experiencing the protection. Such experiences of obvious protection call to mind the words of Luke 4:10-11, "He will command His angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone."

Are the angels only involved in our physical well being, or do they also play a role in our spiritual life? In Jesus' explanation of the Parable of the Weeds to His disciples, Matthew 13: 39-40, He states that the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels... “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil... Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

Luther recognized this spiritual-protecting role of the angels. He provides a model prayer request in his Morning and Evening Prayers, "Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me." Thus as we pray to God for the help of the angels, we should also ask Him to send His angels to ward off the temptations of the devil, to shield us from all temptation and the committing of sin.

We pray, "Dear God, thank you for creating Your angels to protect me from physical harm and misfortune, and also for sending them to help me fight off the temptations of Satan himself. Amen." Angels — What Blessings!

By Dr. Al Senske St. Louis, MO