Fix it, don't pitch it.

Matthew 18:21-35 “Don't throw that away. Fix it!”

We live in an increasingly disposable culture. The time from purchase to landfill is getting shorter and shorter. Products are designed to fail or become obsolete so that we buy new new and better products. So that we can throw those away as well. And on it goes.

This morning I want to consider our role as Christians in today's world. How are we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ supposed to behave and how are we supposed to influence the world around us.

Well, I like to look to my dad as an example.

My dad, whom some of you have met grew up on a Dairy farm, was an iron worker for many years and is now retired. He can fix just about anything. From reinforcing the neighbors barn to keep it from collapsing to helping me build a model rocket when I was a kid he always know how to go about doing things. I on the other hand did not receive that particular gift from god. Often when I try to do repair work the problems gets bigger and I have to get help.

Because of my inability to be a proper handy man I tend to be a person who tends toward throwing things away and buying new. Yes, I am part of the problem. One time I was at camp with my high school FFA and it came time to go home and I couldn't figure out how to let the air out of my air mattress I was sleeping on. It was one of those things that people take to the beach or pool to float on. I think it cost me 3 bucks. I couldn't get the air out and everyone was packing up. I didn't want to hold them up, so I cut a hole in it to deflate it quickly. I threw it in the trash and was ready to go. When I got home My dad asked where the air mattress was. I told him what I did. He was disgusted with me. With the unnecessary waste.

Now I could stand up here and start talking about recycling and environmentalism, but I wont. I could talk about the necessity for an active economy to provide jobs for folk, but I wont. I wont because those issues have been taken over by political parties and distract us and divide us when we are trying to discern Gods will for us. We are Christians. Our first priority is God.

We live in a world that is full of brokenness. Throwing away a 3 dollar plastic air mattress when I was 15 is just the smallest symptom of that brokenness. I have a lot of respect for the work that my predecessor, Pastor Bob, does. He goes into the prisons. A place where the brokenness of this world is most evident and tries, with God's help to mend some of the brokenness. And that is what we are called to do in this world as Christians. To fix this world rather than throw it away.

I lacked the ability to take air out of a mattress so I threw it away. We lack the ability, as a society to rehabilitate criminal offenders so we throw them away. Prison is not a pace that is designed to make people better. It is a place where we put people to keep us safer. End of story.

There is brokenness in all of us and it needs to be fixed. Our brokenness gets passed on to our kids and they pass it on to theirs. Some people are so broken they do and say things that hurt others and create brokenness in their lives as well. There was certainly brokenness in the lives of those who perpetrated the attack on America 10 years ago. Whatever grievance they had, what ever war they thought they were fighting, they gave in to their own brokenness has humans. It is like there is an unseen enemy who is doing all he can to make our lives unhappy and unfulfilled. It is as if there is an adversary who is constantly working against us and if we do nothing he advances and causes more and more brokenness. The perpetrators of 9/11 created even more brokenness in the world. But we don't have to accept that into our lives. We can be sad, we can remember, we can take precautions. But we don't have to be broken. We don't have to give in to evil as they did.

Doing nothing is not an option. As Christians we are called to fix the brokenness.

Jesus tells a story about a king who wished to settle accounts. One of his slaves who was to be sold to cover his debt to the king pleaded for forgiveness. The king forgave all his debt. When that same slave refused to forgive a fellow slave a minor debt the king was enraged and punished the slave severely. Jesus makes the point at the end of his story. “So my heavenly Father will also do to eery one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

God want us to forgive each other. More to the point God wants us to overcome each others brokenness. You may do me harm but that harm should go no further than that. I shouldn't let your sin cause me to sin. I shouldn't let the broken relationship of in this part of my life cause more broken relationships in other parts of my life.

Our mission is to know Christ and to make him known. We know Jesus by loving him and by obeying him. Jesus gives us this parable as an example of how we are to live. The king forgave a great debt. Someone described the debt as the amount of money 60 men could carry in backpacks. Conversely the slave refused to forgive a debt the equivalent to what one person could carry in his pocket. The king was enraged because he set the standard. He forgave and so he expected his slave to do the same. Likewise Jesus sets the standard and is the example for us. We measure our behavior against Jesus behavior.

So when Peter asked Jesus how many times should we forgive another member of the church who sins against us. Jesus came up with this story about the king and the slave. Jesus is saying that we are forgiven SO much. We are loved so much. That we have to do the same. Any offense what we can come up with to hurt each other is minor in comparison to all that God has forgiven.

We have been called to make Jesus known, that it, we are called by god to proclaim the kingdom of God. Living into the kingdom of god means doing as God does, doing as Jesus does. That is loving extravagantly, forgiving each other. Do we need further instruction? We have it in holy scripture. Look at the 10 commandments. Instead of reading them as punishable offenses read them as ways of living that seek to prevent further brokenness.

Today is indeed September 11. it has been 10 years since the brokenness of some affect us all. Today I ask you to think about the people around you. The people sitting next to you right now and the people that you love and know in your day to day life. If you hold anything against them, if their brokenness has hurt you, I ask you to release them from the hold that you have over them. Forgive them. We learned from the events of 10 years ago that we may not have tomorrow. I ask you if your brokenness has caused harm to another, ask them for forgiveness and forgive them if they refuse to give give it.

So how is it with you today? God has given us this beautiful life. He has surrounded us with people that he loves enough to die for. These are gifts that are priceless. Don't throw them away even if thy are broken, fix them.