The Sunflower
Limits on Forgiveness?
Matthew 6:12; 18:21-35; Ephesians 4:32
Introduction
A couple of years ago,maybe three, Mak & I went to hear Albert Moehler speak at Bull St. Baptist. It was also a book signing & presentation on his book “We Cannot Be Silent.”
Moehler is straight forward and one of the few who can be called a sage not intoning sarcasm. He speaks with authority to call readers to action.
The first chapter he opens by quoting Savannah born Flannery O’Connor, “you have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you.”
Moehler believes the church, I take that to be “the church” the body of Christ, that is you and I, is the pillar & foundation of the truth. It is the responsibility of the church to speak to the culture.
His book opens up the cultural & ethical shifts that have led to the legalization of same sex marriage. It is in essence a defense of the Biblical definition of marriage & calls Christians to speak the truth regarding marriage to the culture around us. The title of the book again, is We Cannot Be Silent. It is the last word of the title that brings us to today’s message. -- SILENT --
The Sunflower; Wiesenthal, in the narrative, relates how one day they come across a military cemetery and on each grave there there was planted a sunflower. The sight of the sunflowers aroused thoughts in him, that he would come across them again; they were a special symbol with meaning for him. After the war, in a field he saw a sunflower and as he continued looking around he saw other sunflowers growing. He became lost in thought, and remembered the cemetery and a grave of a young SS man where there now would be a sunflower growing.
Some may have read or heard of the book The Sunflower, I’m sure all know who Simon Wiesenthal was.
He was a prisoner in about five concentration camps during WWII, and the book is an account of his experience as a prisoner in the concentration camps.
He describes the anti-semitism in the Polish culture before the German occupation; and the life in the concentration camps, the continuous humiliations, the hunger, the illnesses & constant threat of death.
In the center of the narrative is the story of him being summoned to the death bed of a young Nazi soldier who had been wounded in combat; he calls him Karl.
Karl confesses to simon his activities against the Jewish people which he did the service of the Nazi regime, & tells Simon that he cannot die in peace unless Simon, a Jewish person, forgives him for the things he has done to the Jewish people.
After hearing the confession, a detailed confession, Simon leaves the room without giving forgiveness. That experience, of not forgiving, haunted Simon for a long time
After the war Simon located Karl’s mother in Stuttgart, German, & visits with her & listens as she tells him of Karl’s youth, his Catholic upbringing, & Karl’s rejection of his parents’ values in joining the SS.
Simon decides not to tell Karl’s mother rather, as he says, “than shatter her illusions about her dead son’s inherent goodness.”
Simon has writes of the insolent replies & mocking grins of many of the accused Nazi’s. He says, “it is difficult for me to believe that my repentant young SS man would have behaved in that way . . . yet ought I to have forgiven him? Well, I kept silent when a young Nazi on his deathbed, begged me to be his confessor . . . was my silence at the bedside of the dying Nazi right or wrong?”
The central point, the critical point in this issue is the question of forgiveness. One can forget something, that is something that time alone takes care of. But forgiveness is an act of volition, it is an act of will, of choosing; one makes a decision to forgive. Simon makes what may be considered, for us, a critical comment, that “only the sufferer is qualified to make that decision.”
I would reply to that, “yes & no.” Simon than asks of those who have read “this tragic episode” in his life, if you change places with him then ask yourself, “what would I have done?”
The second part of the book called, “The Symposium,” is made up of the responses of fifty-three distinguished men & women from theologians, political leaders, jurist, psychiatrist, victims of attempted genocide in Bosnia, Cambodia, China & Tibet.
The responses are as varied of the experiences of respondents - I haven’t read them all, but of the ones I have I found the reply of Edward Flannery to be, let me say, more in line with the gospel. Flannery was a Roman Catholic Priest, an outspoken opponent of Anti-Semitism. Known well for his book “The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three Centuries of Anti-Semitism” -
Flannery writes that “The Sunflower” presents us with the important moral question: Is it permitted to refuse forgiveness to a sincerely repentant malefactor?
Our author refuses a forgiveness requested by Karl, an SS man who had been actively involved in a heinous military action, but who now is close to death & repentant. Simon refused simply by walking away from Karl. But apparently not so simply from himself -
The decision to visit Karl’s mother gives evidence of his uncertainty & guilt feelings & his refusal to reveal to her the atrocities Karl had indulged in, tempted as he was It is difficult not to see these waverings as a leaning towards atonement.
Flannery continues saying that though he can understand Simon’s refusal, he finds it difficult to defend it.
It is here where I noticed a difference between some of the other respondents and, I’ll call him Father Flannery.
He continued by saying that anyone holding “allegiance” to our judeo-Christian heritage & has any sense of the horrors & of the savagery of the Nazi perpetrators can’t come easily to a decision on Simon’s very painful dilemma -
A cardinal principle of Judeo-Christian ethics is that forgiveness ‘must always’ be granted to the ‘sincerely’ repentant.
Here I stalled for a time on the word ‘sincerely’ in that, that would involve in knowing the heart of the person and which for us is really not possible - for only God knows the heart.
Flannery does add that in the New Testament there is an exception being the ‘unforgivable sin’ against the Holy Spirit in Mark 3:29; But this refers to a person’s rejection of God & therefore precludes any relation to forgiveness of humans.
Transition
Flannery does quote from one of our Scriptures for today, when Jesus answers Peter’s question of how often must one forgive - Jesus answering, “seventy times seven - That is to say, Always -
Well, Flannery answers Simon’s question saying: “what would I have done in Simon’s predicament? I would - I do hope - forgiven him and, as an obstinate believer, suggested to him that he make his peace with God by asking Him, [God], for His forgiveness, and taken full advantage of the situation and uttered a prayer for the repose of his soul . . .”
Let me here ask those here and those who may be viewing this message; I’ll make it personal, if we were face to face with Leslie Van Houten, what would you truly do? I know how one in particular would respond and it is sad.
In Closing
As of today, in the past week 50 people were killed in ChristChurch New Zealand, three in the Netherlands along with countless Christians in the continent of Africa.
Going back eighteen years to September 11, 2001; 3,000 people killed by Islamist terrorist and the subsequent Islamist terrorist attacks on U. S. soil, in Europe and in the Middle and Far East.
With very few exceptions, I have yet to see, of all the rhetoric on social media by “Christians”, any single word on “forgiveness” for the perpetrators of any terrorist violence here and in the world. Even among “Christian preachers” there is a caveat thrown in.
One of our Scripture verses today is from Matthew 6:12, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors -- This request, St. Augustine called it, “The Terrible Request” - He realized that if one is asking with an unforgiving heart, one is actually asking God not to forgive them - In verses 14 & 15 Jesus continues, if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And in Matthew 18:34 & 35 as He finishes the parable of the unforgiving servant, in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
There is no doubt that Jesus meant what He said & said what He meant . . .
I want to be clear, I want all to know that I speak from my heart , we need, I include myself above all, to be very careful of our words of condemnation against any & all people that may have done wrong. Our words determine where our hearts are. Jesus said . . . the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45). And we can read His words in Matthew 12:36-37, I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
Now, If your heart is hard, then it will show by what you say. Hebrews 12:15–16 warns, “Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
One can stay silent, like Simon Wiesenthal, but then again God still knows your intentions. Psalm 44:21 tells us that He knows the secrets of the heart, I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).
Can you, will you, forgive?
Let’s pray, Almighty God, with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. You have said in Your word that you will give us a new heart, and a new spirit You will put within us. And remove the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. Above all, help us Lord to guard our heart, for it is the wellspring of life”
We beseech you Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, Amen!
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