Sermon: Allow People to Change

Allow People to Change
Seventy times Seven: How many Times to Forgive

Matthew 18: 21-35

Visiting: St. Clare’s, Ann Arbor

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Bonnie A. Perry

September 13, 2026

“What would it be like, (I say to myself) and to all of us who have ears to hear, if we were to: “Allow people to change.”

If we do not let people change, we will remain frozen, brittle, sharp, only able to crack and break. But if we allow people to change, if we move on, if our animosity melts, our ability to bend in the wind, sway with changes, will enable us to engage in imaging and even creating a new path forward, no longer driving while only looking in the rearview mirror. The only thing ensured, by that is an immanent crash.”

To download a transcript of this sermon, click here.