Forgive Us Our Debts

Forgive us our debts by Dean J. Seal

Christians love to fight. We seem to be able to fight over anything. I think the Hundred years War was about the different viewpoints on Communion between Catholics and Protestants. Good thing to be killing each other about, innit?
Another example. I have a son, and we say the Lord's Prayer together almost every night. He learned the Lutheran way, somehow, and I still go the Presbyterian Way. He justifies his take on theological grounds, that God forgives sins; I justify mine on text analysis and metaphor. The true translation is "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" and this is especially true now. What if we did forgive debts? I read somewhere that before the latest crash, up to 30% of the profits of Corporate America was on interest and debt service, so this reading is going to make many Corporate Christians uncomfortable. Sins can be kept off the books.
So every night when we get to that part, he pipes up a little louder "... forgive us our SINS..." and I say "... forgive us our DEBTS..." and we then continue on in ecumenical harmony.
What is the dif?
I think it is important to know that taxes, loaning and debt service was how the Roman Empire financed its wars, and was a huge piece of motivation for conquering people. They hired Tax Farmers to go out and collect money from people, and if they couldn't pay they would have to borrow money. Now remember, taxes in the Roman Empire were not about building schools and creating parks. They were about national defense and building hghways, but that part was about posting armies in your town to keep an eye on you. And although they built highways, and had a postal system that actually worked better than what Europe has now, the main point of taxes was to enrich the Governor and the Roman Senate. So the goal was not necessarily to rub out your business, because then you couldn't pay taxes . The goal was to squeeze you, though, and it you got too far behind, they could take your land. Oops.
So when Jesus was saying "forgive us our debts" he was making an economic statement. A lot of what he taught came out of economics. Give money to anyone who asks. Loan money to those who cannot pay you back. Give something to God, even if it is your last two copper coins. Invite to dinner people who cannot return the favor. Render to Caesar that which is Caesars, and render to God what is God's. And don't get the two mixed up. Forgive us our debts was both fiscal and metaphorical.
The metaphorical content is clear as well. If you are in debt to someone for a favor, you want to pay them back. If you forgive me my debt to you, fiscal or non-fiscal, I am freed to move on in my life. But if I am trapped by a sense of indebtedness, it becomes a drag, an anchor on me.
This is actually the core of the Good News, the Gospel, that God loves us enough to forgive us our indebtedness to God. To me, the idea of forgiving our "sins" leaves a lingering sense that we are sinful, which we are, but I don't think we have to obsess over it. My Norwegian Lutheran upbringing was focused on making us feel bad about ourselves all the time."Don't make such a big deal of yourself." "Oh, so now you're all hoity-toity." "Who do you think you are?" My new understanding is that God created us in God's image, male and female he created us, and he saw his Creation and said it was Good. And when we fail God, and are indebted to God, God forgives us this debt. It is a cleansing forgiveness. At that point we should feel good about who we are, and go on in a life of joy. Jesus asks us to live life abundantly. That doesn't mean making ourselves as small and miserable and as invisible as possible.
God forgives both sins and debts, and we need to do likewise. Otherwise we are like the manager who was forgiven a debt and then threw people who owed him money into a debtor's prison. I don't know if you have ever asked a Christian to forgive you a debt, but it is not a pretty sight. The look reminds me of someone saying, "Don't you quote scripture to me!" We need to forgive, because we have been forgiven. We need to not hold differences against each other, even if we know the other person has it all wrong, because we may find out later we were the wrong one, on another occasion or even the one that is in dispute. And because God has forgiven us, we have the wherewithal to forgive others.
So the next time you find yourself disagreeing with another person of faith, find a way to silently forgive them for disagreeing with you. It's a way to acknowledge the debts you have been forgiven.