The Christian life is not about perfection, keeping score, or determining how much forgiveness others deserve, but about recognizing that we ourselves live entirely by God’s extravagant grace and forgiveness. In Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant, Peter asks the wrong question—“How many times must I forgive?”—because forgiveness is not a debt to be calculated but a gift we are continually given and invited to share with others. The Kingdom of Heaven is therefore like an imperfect orchestra whose music is forgiveness: people bound together by grace, receiving God’s mercy and freely extending that mercy to one another.

For 50 years, Bob Peters was chair of the Music Department of  North Carolina State University.  

Then he retired.

Many of us, at one time or other, played an instrument of some sort.

My dad played the trumpet, which I wanted to play, but my teeth were too crooked for such a small mouthpiece.

I played the baritone for a minute.  

Took piano from Mrs. Myers, a lovely church lady, who made pomegranate jelly for me as a reward for practicing, which I didn’t do much.

Piano lessons didn’t last long, but I love pomegranate jelly to this day.  

I love music, but I’m no musician…

Why is it that some of us stick with it, practice practice practice, and others of us…well, just don’t seem to have the knack for music? 

Seems like a personality type or something; a kind of character musicians are born with, you know, a natural talent I guess.

For 50 years Professor Bob Peters taught music and led the orchestra at Raleigh Durham, worked with excellent musicians, good enough to get into the college of music, professional musicians in the making. 

When he retired, Bob went in another musical direction.

He said he worked with people who played music and excelled at it, but who didn’t’ really love music anymore–it had become something different for them: they aimed at perfection and were fanatically competitive.  

So Bob started  The Really Terrible Orchestra of the Triangle,
the triangle being Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill…

RTOOT for short…

There are no formal auditions for the Really Terrible Orchestra of the Triangle.

There is but one requirement to play in RTOOT–to have an instrument.

Some people get the old clarinet out of the closet,

Others find a flute or trombone or drum in a thrift store.  

You don’t have to play every note to play in RTOOT, you just play what you can.

Soloists are chosen at random…

More than 100 people show up for rehearsals each week.  

When RTOOT plays concerts, they usually sell out.

RTOOT website says, 

“The Really Terrible Orchestra of the Triangle exists to encourage those who have been prevented from playing music together with others, either through lack of talent or some other factor, to rehearse and perform in an ensemble of similarly afflicted players. Even folks who can’t play should be allowed to make music.  

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Peter asks Jesus how many times he is “required” to forgive bad notes.

He is focusing on notes, and missing the music. 

The Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus says, may be compared to….

Something like the RTOOT music of life together, of generosity leading to more generosity,

forgiveness given and received as the gift it is, not counted out 4/4 time, 

an inner disposition, an awareness that we are all bound together in time, the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus calls it,
like a orchestra whose music is forgiveness. 

The story Jesus tells is of a poor soul who owes too much to ever repay

–that is the point–10,000 talents amounts to about 150,000 years of labor….

He owes more than he could ever make in several lifetimes….

If he were a modern man, he would owe all of his pension, 

all of his mutual funds, the money he has saved for college for his children, his mortgage and house and cars, 

even if he sold everything he owned and gave everything he ever made over the rest of his lifetime, and if his children did the same, and if his children’s children did the same, still he could not repay the debt he owes….

Yet this unrepayable debt is forgiven.  

When the debt is forgiven is the time weeping for the beauty and joy of it,

Like Joseph weeping with his brothers, glad for the opportunity to forgive them, “Do not be afraid! He tells them.  Am I in the place of God?

The man whose impossible debt is forgiven, demands the little bit that is owed him–the equivalent of about 3 months of income, chump change, really, 

The gift he receives does not change him, and though he is given an opportunity to forgive the small debt owed him, he rejects this gift, refuses to forgive as he has forgiven, unlike Joseph, putting himself in the place of God.    

How many times  am I REQUIRED to forgive, Peter asks?  

Wrong question.  

Better to ask many times will I be ALLOWED the OPPORTUNITY to forgive, 

the opportunity to set others free, 

to be generous is such an honor, such a great power, such beauty, such healing.

Forgiveness is the music of life, and the heart of worshiping God.

Peter assumes the position of counting the sin of others. 

Like those who say they want the kingdom of heaven and yet pretend they don’t also need forgiveness…as if forgiveness is not always a gift, received and given.  

Like those who pretend they are too good to be terrible sometimes, like the rest of us. 

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The Really Terrible Orchestra of the Triangle does have auditions of a sort

–players who are too good are referred to other community orchestras, because a Terrible Orchestra can’t be too good.

Natalie Fulwider has played Oboe for RTOOT for 10 years.

When she was in High School, her dad bought her an oboe. 

He played the clarinet, and wanted to have a woodwind quintet with his four kids.

She was the oldest, so she was given the oboe because it was more difficult to play. 

Like most of us, she put her oboe away, made a career, had a family, and didn’t give it another thought.

But her dad at 70, started playing his clarinet with community groups, and then at 80, he took up the oboe, 

…bought it with him on his visits to see Natalie.

She would toot on it, which was really terrible. 

But then she took a hike with a friend who played with the Really Terrible Orchestra of the Triangle, and Natalie figured she could be really terrible, 

So she asked for an audition, and was terrible enough to be accepted, 

She then got an email telling her that she was going to be the principal oboe–first chair!

“I sat down,” she said, “I can’t do that!”

But she went, and it was like something she had never seen.

The rehearsals are hysterical, she says. We make ridiculous mistakes.

As the principal oboist, she tunes the orchestra, which is a great source of consternation for her.

She practiced playing a clear A, and got fairly good at it; then one day she played her A and a terrible squawk came out, and everyone laughed hysterically.

They thought she had done it on purpose, because that’s the kind of thing someone might do.  

Jesus wants us to see the Kingdom of Heaven is like that. 

This kind of common, life-giving joy of being terrible together, glad for a good note every now and again, playing our instruments as best we can.

Sure, we are terrible sometimes, but that is the point of forgiveness, to be generous enough to laugh and celebrate the terrible music we make together in the orchestra of the Kingdom of God.