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Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: October 18, 2015 | 10:00am
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SERMON SERIES:
Painting God: The Parables of Jesus
One of the most succulent thoughts a person can dwell upon, perhaps you have a time or two, is the delicious possibility of exacting just the right revenge at just the right moment upon someone who has wronged you. Have you ever rehearsed these little plays in your head? At just the right moment, I will unleash the zinger of all zingers, you will dodge and then hit them with the upper-cut. Sometimes these orchestrations come too little too late.
As was the case for George Costanza, who, as he sat in a conference room in the Yankee Club house, was stuffing his face with delicious shrimp cocktail and was caught completely off guard. “Hey, George, the ocean called. They’re running out of shrimp.” Befuddled and without retort, George set to conspiring for the rest of the episode of Seinfeld what would be his perfect revenge. Revenge that would involve him traveling across country to this former co-worker’s new place of employment to deliver his perfect comeback. “Oh, yeah? Well the jerk store called, and they’re running out of you.”
There’s a French term that describes this moment (L’esprit de l’escalier) when the revenge you plan and orchestrate in your mind falls short in real life. Some of you know from experience that forgiveness can be difficult. It’s so much easier to entertain these little revenge plays in our minds, isn’t it? And yet, somehow, that revenge never quite lives up to the hopes we have for it in our minds.
Download the entire transcript here: Matthew 18 Parable of Great Forgiveness
