“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against,” that’s how I learned it growing up in the Methodist church. And my most immediate frame of reference were “No Trespassing Signs” that hung on lonely fences. Of course I had not even considered going in there until they put up the sign.

My friends in the Presbyterian church were Debtors, which I learned about in College. In the 1990’s credit card companies were handing out free t-shirts and high interest credit cards to any jobless student who would jot their name and social down (I know…It was a wild time throwing our Socials Around like that). This meant if you didn’t know about debt, you would learn quite quickly and perhaps painfully depending on how much you charged up. Debt is and was real, a painful transaction and a balance to manage, pay or perhaps if you really meant the prayer forgive of someone.

And then there are sinners. The first Church I served as a pastor used an ecumenical version, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” We know the word Sin, there is a top Ten List and seven deadly ones but mostly sin feels like something mean preachers say when they pound on the Pulpit. Sin can be a heavy word to say out loud in church, particularly when some folks have been calling you “SINNER” for marching at Pride Parade…or frankly any number of reasons. Sin is heavy language not because of its meaning but because of the context, which is why I always find it helpful to think of it as brokenness. The ways we hurt, harm, wound and mar ourselves, others and our world. Our seeking forgiveness for this is a part of our faith, which is hard because most of us are really good at pointing out the sins of others and not so great at self-reflection. We know what other folks need to fix, tend, change, nuance or grow into but we struggle to turn that same eye on ourselves or perhaps we do know but we are to hard or to light on ourselves. Knowing we need to seek forgiveness, knowing we have spaces to grow and heal requires deep work.

An equal challenge is the second half of that line, as we forgive those who sin against us. Because forgiving others, even as it may benefit us most of all is hard in a world that teaches us to keep up our guard, hold a grudge and take scores. The whole sin situation is further complicated by the fact that we so often struggle to know what we feel, name our feelings and understand ourselves. We may feel hurt and struggle to know why or even name it. We might feel hurt and with out reflection it may not able to set a boundary, name our needs and work towards reconciliation. Forgiveness is the hardest work.

So which one is right; Sin, Debt or Trespasses? The Truth is we need them all, Sins, Debts and Trespasses. They have different nuances that help us fill in the blanks when we translate this prayer into English but even more important when we translate this prayer into our life. Alone they are insufficient. Sins can be most easily spiritualized; evaporating the power of this prayer from everyday life. Even if we try to make them all metaphors, debts and trespasses help us stay grounded because they have legal implications and reflect our social contract.

In his text, The Politics of Jesus, Scholar Obery M Hendricks, Jr., lifts the Lord’s Prayer up as part of Jesus’ ongoing work to make earth as it is in heaven and reminds us that Jesus isn’t just teaching everyone to meditate. He is asking them to change everything and to start with themselves. Which is a big ask.

Jesus lived in a culture where debt was structured, rampant and dangerous. The tax system was set up in a way that most people, particularly farmers, would need a loan to pay their taxes…perhaps in addition to any capital they may have needed to plant the fields. If the harvest didn’t turn the profit they needed, their debts posed hard and harsh realities. The majority of the population colonized by Rome lived in this brutal reality of hunger and violence; even if they paid their taxes there wasn’t enough to fill their bellies. Prison and Slavery were real life consequences of mounting debt and torture was apart of both. In fact, significant debts meant the enslavement of whole families, sometimes even extend family and in at least one example a whole community.

Jesus knows people who have to choose between loosing a father or a sibling to prison or slavery, until the debt was paid. Even if a family manages to scrape by intact through all of this, the Roman Military presence means they may conscript your work animals, your sons, your laborers and whatever food they many want when ever they many want it.

Early Roman Historian, Tactius (55-120 CE) recounts an Anti-Roman rant, “We have sought in vain to escape the Roman’s oppression by obedience and submissiveness. They are the plunderers of the world…If the enemy is rich they are rapacious, if poor, they lust for dominion. Not East, not West has satiated them…They rob, butcher, plunder, and call it “empire” and where they make a desolation they call it peace” (Hendrick, p51).

Rome destroys the people they colonize and the result of compound traumas and taxes does the people in. This grieves Jesus, to action. It angers him. It inspires him to feed and heal and call people to start living a different way. Which is why he talked about money and budgets….A LOT..like all the time. (That’s right, contrary to popular belief, he is much more concerned about money than he is about sex.)

Money says something about values, individually and communally. In fact, this language used in Greek as more of legal obligation or documented transaction (Hendricks, p 65).

Debts are tangible. They are drawn out in legal documents. There are slates to wipe clean. There are pressures that come with debt. While many of our modern neighbors may not face the physical trauma of finical debt they certainly face emotional weight and mental health pain. When Jesus invites us to pray forgive us our debts as we for give our debtors, I don’t think he means only spiritual or emotional debts/sins or trespasses with no regard for the realities of debts and trespasses. At the beginning of his minister in Luke he speaks of the year of our Lords Favor, the year of jubilee, when all debts are forgiven and land returned to families who lost it to their lenders. He has read the prophets who rally against the oppression of the poor through predatory lending and oppressive working conditions. He talks about salvation, one time and its not just spiritual, its when Zacchaeus gives his money way and repatriates, with interest the money he collected in taxes that oppressed his community. Jesus talks about money all the time and he asks his disciples to pray a prayer that invites them to reflect on the debts they carry and the debts they hold over others.

Seeking forgiveness invites forgiveness. Sometimes this may be a space of brokenness or boundaries that were crossed, sometimes it may be metaphorical debts or trespasses and sometimes this may be an actual debt. This is how the prayer changes us, how we become a part of earth as it is in heaven. The way we work on changing the systems around us, perhaps some debts and trespasses that we hold over others and harm their well-being.

How should we pray this prayer? Because it isn’t just ethereal, it is tangible. It is metaphor and it is more than metaphor. Praying this prayer begs living it with each breath, and that is hard to do. It means working on forgiveness as individuals that impacts our families, friends and community. How can we pray forgive us our debts and how can we pray to forgive others when we watch our neighbors feel the weight of compounding debt.

CNBC names that most Americans have 90,000+ in debt, with the Gen X caring the most and the most debt and the most student loan debt and the most mortgage debt. (https://www.cnbc.com/select/average-american-debt-by-age/)

32% of Americans have medical debt and half have defaulted on it. That’s with most Americans paying $5,000 dollars out of pocket and many also caring insurance at the same time. “45% of survey respondents say they feel worried or stressed when thinking about health care costs. A third report they have avoided going to the doctor and getting medical care due to the cost.” (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/one-third-of-american-workers-have-medical-debt-and-most-default.html) I have clergy friends who share the heartbreak of death with church members and while visiting a person in hospice say, “well at least I don’t have to fight with the health insurance companies any more.” There are people in this state who have made the choice to end their treatments because they worried the cost of their care would mortgage their families future, they chose hospice because of the cost. Medical debt should be a sin. Healthcare by pancake feed or go fund me should be a sin. We can do better.

We know student debt is a problem, it has been a part of political campains and there has been plenty of talk about student loan forgiveness programs. We think of it as something impacting young adults, which it is. But “student debt isn't just crushing young people: 6.3 million borrowers ages 50 to 64 and nearly a million people over 65 are still paying for a loved one's education or their own," Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told Insider. "Student debt is also one of the biggest contributors to the rise in the amount of debt seniors hold overall.” (Older People are giving up hope of pain of Student loans before they die: ‘There is a real fear of dying in this’ by Ayelet Sheeffey, Business Insider May 9, 2021)

At 59 years old, David Wise has $236,485 of outstanding student loans, according to documents reviewed by Insider. That's after making about $175,000 in payments over four decades and his initial debt after law school was $79,000. He struggled with divorce, took a second job, while working for a non-profit that didn’t pay all the bills, so he defaulted. "I feel like I've actually been responsible, and I've paid a considerable amount of money on my student loans," Wise said. "But it really is a debtor's prison."

Linda Navarro, 70, borrowed $20,000 in 1990 for graduate school, according to documents reviewed by Insider. She owes $145,000 and has an estimated payback of $212,544. "When student loans took over my life, I stopped looking forward to anything," she told Insider. "You are on a hamster wheel, and you will not get off. You know that you will never get off.”

In the New Yorker, Eleni Schirmer interviews a 91 year old woman, named Betty Ann who went back to school at 52 in 1983 and took out $29,000 in student loans to pay for her time at NYU law school, today she owes $329,309.69. She uncovered countless stories of suffering and sacrifices, juggling costs to stay afloat, selling anything they can, downsizing from house to apartment, having social security garnished, parents and grandparents paying off loans they took for children to go to college with few options for support and no relief, even when their child dies, they are still playing that debt. These folks bear this heavyweight, it steals their dreams and they have all paid more than their initial debt. Schirmer writes, “those who have the least end up paying the most. Debt, I have since understood, is also a time tax—it seizes the future, and corrodes the present, wearing down health, wealth, and pursuits of happiness. (https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-aging-student-debtors-of-america)

Perhaps there are steps we can take toward easing these burdens? Maybe student loan forgiveness is out of the political picture but perhaps reform on interest rates and collection policies around student loan debt can be changed so our neighbors are not paying Five or Ten times the amount of the loan they actually received. Perhaps reform of our medical system is a long time coming and still a long time to come, but perhaps immediate steps we could take and then take one more. We have done this work before with Pay Day Lending. We did research and learning and heard the stories of how this practice impacts the most vulnerable folks in our city. Coalitions of Non Profits like Appleseed and OTOC organized and our state made a change through the ballot box.

Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgive us our Sins. Forgive us our Trespasses. Forgive us as we forgive.

May we have the courage to do this in every way we can.

May it be so. Amen.