Once upon a time there was a land of snow and cold. The winters were long and hard, the wind fierce and frigid. For months on end there was blizzard after blizzard. The snow piled up as high as the roofs so that the people could be trapped in their houses for weeks on end. This was hard on everyone, but it was especially hard for two young girls. Their names were Sophie and Nadia, and they were best friends.

Forgiveness can be hard. Sometimes very hard. So, Peter’s question is a good one. “If someone sins against me,” he asks Jesus, “how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Peter had clearly picked what he thought was an impossibly large number. And yet what is Jesus response? “Not seven times,” Jesus replies, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Essentially, Jesus was saying, “Don’t even ask. Just keep doing it.” This is how God forgives us, after all. Why should we expect to do any less for others? That’s the point of the parable that follows.

“Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be among them,” Jesus says in today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew. Many of us know this quote very well. We hear it often in church. Sometime people say it when it’s time to start a service. Other times they say it when not as many people have shown up as they expected. “Well,” someone is sure to say at some point, “as Jesus says, ‘Wherever two or more are gathered in my name…’ Often they don’t even have to finish it. We all knows what comes next: Jesus will be among us.