ST. DAVID'S UNITED CHURCH: August 2012

Sunday, August 19, 2012

WISE THINGS

August 19, 2012

Pentecost 12

Psalm 111

Ephesians 5:15-20

(prayer)

Right about now, in Ottawa, Ontario, the triennial meeting of the General Council of the United Church of Canada (41^st) is coming to a worshipful and enthusiastic close. I had hoped that because we are two hours earlier, I would have been able to watch the closing worship service live on-line, but, alas, it was not streaming today. (post-sermon note: that's because the GC41 closing service was on Saturday!! ;) )

For the past eight days, ministers and lay people from congregations and conferences all across the church have been meeting to discuss life and faith and what it means to be the United Church of Canada in 2012 and the years to come.

I have been honoured to be a commissioner to two previous General Councils: the GC39 in 2006 (Thunder Bay ON) and GC35 in 1994 (Fergus ON). I was overwhelmed both times at what I can only describe as the very real presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit in those gatherings.

I have been able to have the live stream playing while I was in the office this week and I have been so impressed by our out-going Moderator, Mardi Tindal, and the kind and strong leadership she has offered to our church in the past three years and particularly how incredibly well she chaired this meeting. Mardi’s prayers after each of the five ballots of the election of the new moderator were awe-inspiring.

Mardi and I first met each other when I attending a United Church of Canada Camping Consultation at Naramata Centre about 20 years ago. She was a camp director from Camp Big Canoe and was mentored at Camp Quin-Mo-Lac in Ontario and I was a former camp director and was still active at Camp Maskepetoon on Pigeon Lake (where my daughter is a camper right now). We had many good chats over those great meals in the Naramata Centre cafeteria.

I like to think that Mardi Tindal’s experience (working at summer camp) has been a significant contributor to who she has been as our church’s Moderator for the past three years.

Living in a summer camp setting is like a large extended family, combined with the dynamics of a small town. Everyone needs to be treated as ‘kin’ and no one is left to languish on the outskirts of the community. At camp, we play together, we learn together, at church camps, we pray, learn the stories of faith and discover spirit together; at camp, we get to know each other, and it is an opportunity to let one’s guard down and just be yourself; we make lasting friends and we are changed. Or at least that was my experience.

Where we have been, what we have done, affects who we are and how we can connect to the world.

Along the way, we watch and observe and we learn some things. Knowledge is great, but Wisdom is something more all together. Knowing (in our minds) how to live well, to live with compassion, justice and humility is one thing – understanding the depth of what that means and why it is good...is something more. That where our experiences come in to play.

It can be said that Wisdom is Knowledge that is tempered by Experience. Wisdom is the combination of knowledge and experience. That is why not every ‘smart’ person we know is necessarily wise. And the importance of experience is why the elders of our families and communities are often looked to as sources of wisdom.

Deep with our faith tradition is the call to seek wisdom. It is a valid goal for the people of Jesus to be wise followers of Christ.

Over the past few weeks, in Sunday worship here at St. David’s, we have offered some focus on parts of the letter to the Ephesians, particularly instructions for the members of the early church on how to live (and how not to live).

In chapter five today, the people of the Ephesus church are encouraged to live with wisdom: they are asked to consider using their time well, to reject foolish, short-term thinking. The letter-writer is asking the people to make the most of every opportunity they have to live lives that are in keeping with God’s hopes and dreams for the world.

Through it all, the people of the church are encouraged not just to offer praise and honour for God when they are gathered together as the church, but to be “[singing] to the Lord in your hearts.” You know what it is like to have a song stuck in your head. “Wake me up before you go, go.” The Ephesians letter is literally asking us to let the songs of praise dominate our thoughts always.

As we look at the content of the letter, we can see that part of the context in Ephesus at the time (and maybe even among certain, specific individuals in the Ephesian church) was the pitfalls of alcohol abuse. It seems that the letter-writer wanted people to see that it is ‘wise’ for people to use their best judgments; not clouding their minds with too much liquor – or other ideas that get in the way of worshipping and serving God with joy. They [We] are invited to take what we have learned from studying our faith and meld that with our experiences of living out that faith.

Knowledge plus Experience:

We are to have a Wise faith!

The author of the 111^th Psalm offers words of wise praise: God is worthy of honour and has been faithful to the people and indeed all creation. God is steadfastly faithful, and just, and trustworthy.

The psalmist ends with the proclamation that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

“Fear of the Lord” is a phrase that can be easily mis-understood. Fear in this context is not simply ‘being afraid’ as in the way we usually use that word today. I don’t believe that the Psalmist (and other biblical authors) is asking us to cower and hide from God - worrying if we will be harmed. Although, you may find a preacher here or there where that is the centre of the message: not me.

Fear, here, I believe, is synonymous with words like honour respect, praise and reverential awe - in the way that ... we are impressed by the magnitude of another’s presence: people may have experienced this with a teacher, or politician, or church leader, or someone else celebrated within our culture.

“Wow!”

Being able to say “wow” about God is the beginning of wisdom; to move the experience of faith from the head (from what we’ve heard and read and studied) into the heart and soul (where the impact can be felt and more fully understood) is something we are called to seek as people of Christ.

Faith cannot be simply the domain of the mind; nor can it really be only of the heart. It is the combination, the mix, the melding of deeper understanding ... is where wisdom is found.

Over this past week, your General Council has listened to various reports and proposals and has called on the Spirit to reach deep into our hearts, and guide, and inspire.

As a result of the discernment and decisions of the General Council, the United Church of Canada has a new more colourful and historically representative official Crest. [slide-crest] Acknowledging that at church union in 1925, within the founding denominations, there were many aboriginal congregations, who did not necessarily have the same opportunity to vote on union as did their non-aboriginal cousins.

The four sections of the Crest now bear the colours of the aboriginal medicine wheel: colours that speak of a unity of the world in all directions and a unity of people of all races. As well, the crest now includes a Mohawk phrase:

Akwe Nia’Tetewá:neren.

It is presumed that it was the Mohawk people who first encountered the Methodist missionaries in this land. That phrase means “all my relations” which within aboriginal culture reflects the kinship of all human kind. On the new Crest it is held alongside the latin phrase that has been on our crest since it first appeared in the 1940s: Ut Omnes Unum Sint – a quote from John 17:²¹, Jesus’ prayer “that all may be one”.

The General Council had a record fifteen candidates for Moderator. [slide-moderators] The church’s Moderator offers leadership to the church for a three year General Council cycle: he or she chairs meetings of the General Council and its executive, is the main spokesperson for the church, and serves, in a way, as pastor of the whole church.

Early in the week, all of the candidates were all given red stoles to where so that people could spot them in the crowd and get a chance to meet them so as to make a wise decision on who to vote for.

It took five ballots and the church can look forward to the leadership of [slide-gary] The Right Reverend Gary Paterson. Gary is one of the ministers at the big downtown United Church in Vancouver: St. Andrew’s-Wesley United.

The news media’s first storyline was to note that Gary is the first openly gay minister to be elected to our church’s highest office, but the most impressive part of the whole process was how much sexual orientation was NOT an issue to the General Council Commissioners. I never got any sense as I watched things online and paid attention to the social media chat, that people were voting for or against any candidate based on their sexual orientation.

I remember Gary from 25 years ago when I was a student at the Vancouver School of Theology. He was the chair of Vancouver-Burrard Presbytery, which occasionally held their meetings at the college and I would sneak in the back and observe the goings on.

Gary Paterson has wonderful pastoral and leadership skills – and we will be well-served with him as our Moderator for the next three years.

At GC41, the church looked at how we relate to world we all share.

[slide-kitamat] The General Council spoke out against the building of huge pipelines to transport massive amounts of raw oil for export: particularly noting the potential for harm to the land with the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline to Kitamat.

Also on the agenda for GC41 was a deep and detailed discussion the Israel-Palestine issues: [slide-wall] particularly the impact of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the building of security barriers (aka The Wall) well inside the boarders of the West Bank and the violence propagated by all sides. This discussion has been part of at least the last three GCs, highlighting that it continues to be an issue for our world and for people of faith – especially for those people whose faith traditions emanate from the region.

[slide-wiseman]

The General Council also looked inward at how we live as a church:

· The church’s official doctrine now includes four historical faith statements: the 1925 Articles of Faith, the 1940 Statement of Faith; the 1968 (and amended) New Creed, and the 2006 Song of Faith. You may recall that your St. David’s Church Council studied this issue and voted yes on adding each of these statements to the doctrine section of the Church’s Basis of Union. The majority of churches and Presbyteries (and ultimately the General Council) agreed with us.

· The GC passed a comprehensive Statement on Ministry, describing the uniqueness of the various streams of ministry within the church as a guide to what policies the church should have with-respect-to ministers.

· The next edition of the United Church Manuel (out in 2013) will be more effectively organized with simpler language and as such will be shorter. The electronic version of the next Manual will have links to various relevant procedural documents and forms.

· A General Council has so much business to deal with that many of the proposals are dealt with in one of three fully empowered commissions, who meet separately at the same time. A number of important decisions were made in those commissions and the details are becoming available on the web. In one of the commissions, a lively debate about gossip and its destructive force in The United Church of Canada led the General Council to approve a proposal encouraging church folk to stay away from gossip. The vote was so close it had to be counted. The proposal calls for the General Council to take a stand against spreading gossip, in the same manner that it has taken a stand against other evils of society, like say, gambling, and encourage congregations to raise awareness of the harmful aspects of gossip and to open discussion regarding how to differentiate between gossip and caring pastoral conversation.

In my view, the work of this 41^st General Council was deeply rooted in worship and prayer and in awe that God is our helper and guide.

I see GC41 as symbolic of the whole church, indeed all of the children of God.

Wisdom is among the most ancient of biblical concepts. In the book of proverbs, we hear the origin stories told in the context of wisdom. Wisdom is personified as a co-creator with God. In other words, the origins of the universe, the origins of life, begin with wisdom.

What we are trying to learn along the way is...

When we see ourselves as spiritual beings, we are on the path of wisdom.

When what we have studied is strengthened by our actions lived out in love, we are on the path of wisdom.

When we are confident enough to know that we there is still mystery to behold, we are on the path of wisdom.

The readings for today remind us that God calls us to be mindful of the ways in which we spend our time, whether in leisure or in work or in worship. Time is a precious gift and resource to our lives that we are invited to manage wisely.

This may include (for some of you) a re-aligning of the priorities of your life.

For others, it may be the call to pause and not just smell the roses, but ponder their value in grand scheme of existence.

We all are encouraged to not relegate our faith-focus to those occasional Sundays we might find ourselves in church, but to sing the songs of God in our hearts, always.

These are all wise things for us to focus on.

Prayer:

Great God of wisdom, you share with us ways in which we can know ourselves, each other, and the greater world. Open us to learn – always – of your goodness and your glory. Amen.

#10MV

“Come Seek the Ways of Wisdom”

Sunday, August 12, 2012

NOT WHO YOU WERE

August 12, 2012

Pentecost 11

Ephesians 4:²⁵-5:²

John 6:^{35, 41-51}

(prayer)

The mission of St. David’s is to welcome all to participate in its nurturing Christian community and to inspire its people to serve others as Christ taught.

These are the words that this congregation has used for the last decade and a half to express what it hopes this church will be about. It flashes by on the screen each Sunday morning; it is front and centre in the printed order of service; it is even nicely framed in the south entrance way.

“The mission...is to welcome all...”

Our church motto is:

Welcoming In – Reaching Out !

In the dozen years which I have been minister here, I have witnessed how wonderfully seriously this faith community seeks to live out (and live up to) this mission. Each time we have encountered a barrier of exclusion, we have worked to remove the barrier, rather than build the wall higher.

Jesus’ Way, the movement of Christ is not the private domain of the purely righteous, of those who have all the answers, of those who have achieved spiritual perfection.

In fact, Jesus went out of his way, to reach beyond an ideology of a perfect faith to find those who were unsure, those who were questioning, those who not necessarily liked or respected.

Jesus reached out a hand of welcome that shocked one lookers, but was pure grace to those on the margins and beyond the edges.

The letter to the Ephesians may have been an adapted form letter that was sent to a number of early Christian communities. In fact, the earliest Greek manuscripts the letter is not addressed to a specific congregation. There are some strong similarities between the letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians, which suggests that they may be adapted versions of an older form letter or at least written to express a similar instruction for how one can live out their faith.

In the latter part of Ephesians chapter four, which is our reading for today, there is a call to faithful living. A similar call is found in Colossians chapter three.

When we hear phrases like:

Thieves give up stealing; and everyone put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, and all malice,

we might wonder how messed up this little church in Asia Minor was. :)

What I get from this is ... that the welcome did not exclude people with interpersonal and social issues.

And yet, there was an opportunity for growth and transformation within the community. And that these changes are not a precursor to the gift of God’s grace, but in response to it.

The fourth verse of Psalm number four is a short memorable proverb from Jesus’ and Paul’s faith tradition that says: When you are disturbed [or when you are angry],^* do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent.

This is kind of echoed in Ephesians: be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. Maybe the New Testament is taking it a step further: ‘ponder your anger before you get in your bed’.

It is nice to see that the letter-writer recognizes that the goal is not having situations where no one ever gets ‘disturbed’ or ‘angry’, but that angry and disturbing situations are to be responded to with due reflection – this implies a calm in the midst of chaos. In 2012, we call this anger management. People can even take classes to assist them in controlling the volcano-within. Although, there is still enough of a stigma, that most of the participants in such courses do so on the direction of a court of law.

Several years ago, I wanted to deal with my own personal volcano and was the only voluntary participant in the class. For me, I try to remember that essence of the proverb – Angry/disturbed? Ponder! And do it so that the next day can bring new and fresh hope.

That is the promise of our scriptures today, that the grace of God welcomes us as we are, who we are, in the moment. It is this experience of the unconditional love of God that can reach deep into us and encourage us to live that love out in our lives.

As we are fed, we go out and feed. I think that is part of what Jesus mean he spoke about living bread – the bread of life.

The early chapters of the gospel of John are meant to paint a picture of the impact of the Risen Christ on the Christian communities of the late first century. Stories of Jesus’ life are intermixed with teachings about how they apply to life in the time the gospel was written. I love that John’s gospel doesn’t try to be strictly an historical record, and is more about the message and the meaning rather than what exactly happened where and when.

In John chapter four, Jesus meets an ostracized Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. In the midday heat, they talked about ... water of course, but Jesus moved deeper and invited a discovery of what it means to be truly alive in the flesh and in the spirit. To her, Jesus spoke of living water to quench the thirsts of the soul.

Today in chapter six, sustenance is the topic. In the early part of the chapter John relays a story of a mass feeding that was seen as nothing short of miraculous. This was such a significant event in the life of Jesus that it is one of very few passages (outside of the Good Friday and Easter accounts) that is repeated in all of the four Biblical gospels in one form or another.

Our passage for today is part of the discussion about the meaning and message in that act of physical feeding. Some on-looking scholars took offense to Jesus’ liberal use of the story of Moses and the gift of morning manna; which was an edible, flaky, bread-like substance that appeared with the morning dew during the people’s years in the desert of the exodus – it was call bread from heaven. And here was Jesus (who had offered actual bread to eat) going deeper and speaking about bread of life (living bread). They really didn’t like Jesus, himself, being described as bread from heaven that feeds the soul.

They tried to convince the crowds that Jesus was nothing special – “we know his parents. His father is a carpenter from Nazareth. Jesus did not descend, like manna, from heaven.”

John chapter six also includes some of the developed beliefs of that late first century church for which it was written. By the year 90AD or so, they we convinced that, in Jesus, the Risen Christ, they had life beyond the physical. Living water and bread of life were not just for this world, this existence – but spoke of ‘eternal life’ – a theme that the gospel had developed back in chapter three, when it says that “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Like a crowd groaning with hunger or a woman in need of water on a hot day ... to the early church, Jesus was the source of all safety and security – in this world and the next. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.

The bread of life is given to us as a gift. We are invited to respond by ‘loving as Jesus loved’ or as Ephesians puts it: be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another (as God in Christ has forgiven you).^* Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us.

We all come into this faith community (just for this Sunday or as part of an on-going journey) with our own stories, our own histories of the good and the bad, the hopeful and the regretful.

But in the welcome of Christ, we welcome each other and we are not who we were. Well, we are ... but we’re more. We are enveloped by the love and grace of God. And so we can be more – we can be people of love with all kindness, who work for justice and fairness and who know the gift of humility that allows us to let God be our companion on the Way.

Let us pray...

Holy God, may your peace fill our minds and hearts. We are grateful that we are not alone. Amen.

***offering***

Sunday, August 5, 2012

THE BIG PICTURE OF FORGIVENESS

August 5, 2012

Pentecost 10

2^nd Samuel 11:²⁶- 12:^13a

Ephesians 4:^1-16

(prayer)

If you were in church here last week, you would have been blessed to hear Esther preach on King David’s misuse of power surrounding his (Clinton accent) sexual relations with ‘that’ woman: Bathsheba.

In case you missed it, here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

For some reason, King David was home and not out on the battlefield with his army.

As he looked down from his palace, he caught an arousing naked view of Bathsheba, bathing. David learned that she was the wife of Uriah, one of David’s loyal soldiers. That didn’t stop the king: he sent for her and ‘lay with her’. If coveting his neighbour’s wife and committing adultery wasn’t bad enough, David’s actions led to Bathsheba becoming pregnant.

No big deal, David thought, he’ll just reward Uriah with a little furlough. Uriah would come home, he’d sleep with his wife and no one would suspect that anyone other than that Uriah was the father.

What David didn’t count on was Uriah’s unfailing loyalty. When he came back to the city, he refused to ‘go home’ while his comrades in arms were still camping in a field.

David’s plan B: send a note to his general to place Uriah on the frontline when he gets back to the encampment. It worked, Bathsheba became a war widow. We can add conspiracy to commit murder to David’s list of sinful crimes.

Today’s reading from second Samuel picks up the story at that point. With Uriah dead, David took Bathsheba as his wife. She gave birth to his son.

// // //

Nathan was a prophet of God, who served the court of King David. He had observed David’s sexual and murderous behaviour and expressed what he described as God’s displeasure with the king’s action.

Nathan does this is a smart way. He shows David the meat of the situation by telling the story of two men: a rich man who had many flocks and herds and a poor man who had but one ewe lamb which was more of a pet than livestock.

When the rich man had a visitor over for supper, he was so self-absorbed and greedy that he did not want to use one of his many sheep for the meat at the meal, so he just took the poor man’s pet lamb.

A credit to Nathan’s storytelling ability, David really got into it: ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’

Nathan wasted no time in getting to the point: ‘You [David] are the man!’

The whole situation moved David to seek to live more faithfully.

Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of confession:

Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon

A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
³For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
⁴Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
⁵Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶You desire truth in the inward being; ^*therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right^* spirit within me.
¹¹Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing^* spirit.

As he confessed, David saw that his actions affected more than just himself. In his state of greedy entitlement, he had neglected to view God as his sovereign and to enjoy the blessings of humility. Nathan, the prophet, was pleased in the contrition he saw within the king and proclaimed him forgiven.

As an aside: sadly, history would interpret the untimely death of David and Bathsheba’s infant son (after a week long illness) as some form of divine punishment.

However, not long after Bathsheba and David had another son, who they named Solomon (who, as David’s eventual successor, would play a big role in the history of Israel).

// // //

David acted as if he was entitled to do whatever he wanted, to take and use whatever he saw fit. Power can have that effect on people.

Wise advice and personal tragedy allowed him to be more humble and see a wider picture of God’s love and justice.

In the early Christian Church, the Apostle Paul wrote to believers who were experiencing their own battles with feelings of entitlement. Some were looking inwardly at their own skills and gifts for ministry and claiming some level of comparative status: my gift is bigger and better than your gift! Paul’s message: ‘lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’

Humility, gentleness, patience, love, unity, peace. These are not characteristics of ‘entitlement’. We have, each, been gifted by God, Paul says, in ways that serves the whole body of Christ – it is not any one individual gift that is needed, but the balance combination/ He compared the church to a maturing body – as it grows, it needs to value every ligament, every joint, every connection, so that the Body of Christ (the church) is joined and knitted together by building itself up in love.

The big picture of forgiveness is that it is not something that we can provide for ourselves. Forgiveness is a gift that someone else gives us.

Or from the other side of the coin, when we forgive, it is a gift that we have chosen to bestow on someone.

Now the biblical history of forgiveness is complicated. For the ancient Hebrew people, there were Levitical practices of sacrifice and atonement for ‘sins’ for both individuals and for the assembly of the people as a whole. These almost exclusively related to actions or in actions that got in the way of the people’s ability to live faithfully within God’s Torah (law).

Often God is described as merciful to a fault: in the book of Nehemiah, while recounting the time of Moses and the Exodus, it says you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

One of the central characteristics of God, is the ability to forgive, even after the most horrendous of sins or crimes. We might even, fairly, question whether God is being just in such cases, whether a more punitive response might be called for. Case in point: Jonah. He hated the Assyrians for the way their empire encroached on Israel. He detested everything about them. And so, when God told him to offer the people of Nineveh (the Assyrian capital) forgives, Jonah just knew that God would forgive them and he didn’t think that was the right thing to do, so he ran away from his task and indeed, he tried to run away from God. In the end, when the Ninevites repented and God did forgive, Jonah was miserable and went and sulked under caster bean plant.

It seems, quite often, that God is able to forgive, in situations that make us uncomfortable.

So opportunities for forgiveness between people is different than forgiveness coming from God.

When it comes to conflicts between people, the Bible also offers some wisdom:

Proverbs 17:⁹says One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.

Ecclesiates 28 seems to imply that God’s forgiveness is tied to our ability to forgive: Forgive your neighbour the wrong [your neighbour] has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.

That is somewhat similar to one of the most well known forgiveness passages in the Bible...forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

The disciple Peter famously asked Jesus, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Peter thought he was being generous offering so many second chances, but Jesus responded by saying the number is closer to 500 times (seven times seventy) – Jesus clearly was being hyperbolic: there is no realistic limit to the times you can (or should) forgive.

Having said all that, there are at least as many examples of passages where people encouraged God not to forgive or where people are told to give up on people who aren’t interested in making peace.

That last point seems to be the key when it comes to inter-personal forgiveness. Forgiveness is sown in changes of heart.

In this church, as in many others, each Sunday, we take time to share the “Peace of Christ”. Now the modern practical purpose of that time is to welcome each other and saw hello, but the meaning behind the ritual is that we are setting aside anything that might be dividing us. We are proclaiming (with those handshakes and hugs and waves and pleasant eye contact), that we are of one body here – like Paul wrote so wonderfully, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

Forgiveness among people is often much easier when there is a sense of contrition and repentance and a desire to live more peaceably.

And yet, there are some who are able to forgive, in spite of another’s lack of repentance. That must be because, there is a blessing and value in simply offering the forgiveness, regardless of whether it is sought or even graciously received.

I have witnessed the sense of deep and lasting peace that comes to people willing to let go of their anger, when it would be perfectly understandable for them to resentful forever.

Jesus caught a lot of criticism for expressing his beliefs about God’s forgiveness. When Jesus would declare someone’s ‘sins forgiven’, his opponents would say he had no jurisdiction to say such things: forgiveness belongs to God alone. Now we can look at this passage in a couple of ways: (1) Jesus was the incarnation of God on earth, so his proclamations of forgiveness were really God’s anyway; but also (2), the fact is that the Biblical history was that the Torah was set up to allow the priests and the prophets to announce forgiveness, when the appropriate atonement had been completed (in the same way that Nathan declared David forgiven). Jesus’ announcements were prophetic in nature.

I think it was the statement Jesus was making about God through his words and actions that really upset the authorities.

A pattern of Jesus’ acts of forgiveness was also the invitation to ‘sin no more’. Jesus sees forgiveness as more than a moment in time, but part of a process of transformation, where we are part of (as the Apostle Paul wrote) a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2^nd Corinthians 5:¹⁷).

It was one of the earliest teachings of the Christian movement...Jesus lived and taught and showed a forgiveness that was broader than a lot of people thought or even wanted.

There are those in the world (in Jesus’ time and in ours), who benefit from an atmosphere where fear and anger are more dominant than peace and forgiveness.

Forgiveness is an incredibly powerful thing. It can close gaps between people; it can make violence harder to justify; it can keep people afraid and therefore easier to manipulate by those act as if they are entitled to the power that fear and anger breeds.

Forgiveness is powerful because, humility is honorable and noble. When we can humbly see our own shortcomings and when we can see the potential for reconciliation that must be given a fresh start to others, we are standing up to fear and disarming its effects.

This is why Jesus’ declarations of forgiveness were so threatening to those in power in his day; it is why the early church was puzzlement to those outside, when a theology of universal atonement took root. We all are forgiven and right with God because of Jesus.

To not live in the shadow of condemnation is and should be very freeing for us. How can we not offer that to others in our midst?

The big picture of forgiveness is that forgiveness is healthy for us.

Forgiveness is part of a healing transformation. When we set aside entitlement for humility, we can begin to experience this truth.

Let us pray:

How difficult it has been, O Creator, for us to be humble and caring. We so easily forget your teachings of the just and right relationships that we are to have with each other, as brothers and sisters, in this land and around the world.

May we find peace so that we might share peace that is genuine and real, and help others to know peace-within. Spirit of life, help us to walk the road of integrity back to the circle of life. Let your breath,

O God, fill us with life anew, that we might love as you love and do what you would do. Let us know the peace that comes from good relations with each other and with you. Amen.

#79MV “Spirit, Open My Heart”