Sermon for Lenten Evening Prayer Week I 2018 Forgiveness the Final Form of Love It is customary for Christians to spend time pondering the cross during Lent and Holy Week. This year we are not just gazing at the cross but we are immersing ourselves in what was said from the cross the words of Jesus final sermon. Because if all we see when we look at the cross is the sin of world, suffering, pain, loss, sorrow, betrayal, separation, death then I want to suggest that these things can become a veil or a lens that limits, even distorts our perspective of the cross. They can keep us from seeing why we call the day Jesus was crucified Good Friday. They can keep us from seeing the way forward and we can be blinded and disoriented by the suffering from seeing the love of God. This is one reason we need to listen to Jesus all the more and see his hope and love active in faith in midst of his suffering and as he is dying. The four gospels together give us what has come to be known as the seven last words. These are statements really, that Jesus spoke from the cross. Matthew and Mark record only one word ; Luke and John each give us 3 different and unique phrases. Some people find these differences troubling, but it makes sense to me. You see Jesus wasn t crucified on a cross high up on a hill with no around him. No, he was only a few feet off the ground right alongside a road, so people would have heard him speak, even if he was talking in a whisper. 1
With all the confusion and noise and different people coming and going at the foot of the cross, it stands to reason that some people heard one word while others heard something else he said. So what I am suggesting is that the difference in the gospels don t contradict each other but compliment each other. Different people heard what Jesus said, they remembered it and eventually wrote it down and so through the four different gospels we have Jesus final words from the cross his last and greatest sermon. Since no one gospel records all seven words, we aren t sure of the exact order but a traditional ordering of the words looks likes this: Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Today you will be with me in paradise. Behold your mother Behold your son. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? I thirst. It is finished. Into your hands I commit my spirit. And so we begin with Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. What I want to point out first about this is that Jesus is praying Abba, Father, forgive them Certainly we should not be surprised that Jesus is praying Jesus life was full of prayer and so, too, three of his dying breaths were prayers. And not just prayers for himself. Prayers for others... prayers for his friends and enemies alike. This is important... Jesus is fighting for every breath after all. 2
His final breaths carry the words he most wants us to remember about being his disciples. And the first word is a prayer of forgiveness. Some would say this is the most difficult word of all for Christians to enact the granting of forgiveness. When Peter asked Jesus how many times he had to forgive his neighbor and suggests seven times, Jesus answers him, no seventy-times seven which was really a way of saying always. Forgiveness, for Jesus, is not a quantifiable event. It is a quality, a way of being, a way of living (and dying), a way of loving, a way of relating, a way of thinking and seeing. It is nothing less than the way of Christ. If we are to follow Christ, then it must become our way as well. See... it is the most difficult aspect of a being a Christian. Everyone, I suspect, is in favor of forgiveness, at least in principle. Every one, C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until there is something to forgive What do we do then? What do we do when there is something to forgive? We have all stood in a difficult, seemingly impossible place where memories of pain and losses, images of suffering, betrayal or fear and anger intersect with Jesus teaching (and example) of forgiveness. Both roads of this intersection are true, and both are hard roads to travel. 3
Look at your own lives and you will find broken promises, hurt feelings, betrayals, harsh words, physical and emotional wounds. Every one of us could tell stories of being hurt or victimized by another. Beneath the pain, the wounds, the losses, and the memories lies the question of forgiveness. It s something I certainly have struggled with and continue to struggle with today. We struggle with the desire to strike back, seeking revenge. We run away from life and relationships. We may let the darkness paralyze us. These are not criticisms or judgments but are parts of my own experience. Certainly I ve felt and done them all. I know how hard forgiveness can be. Like many of us, I struggle with it and sometimes want to avoid it. But I also know that none of those answers are the way of Christ. All of them leave us stuck in the past, tied to the evil of another, and bereft of the future God wants to give us. Forgiveness is the only way forward. That does not mean we forget, condone, or approve of what was done. It does not mean we ignore or excuse cruelty or injustice. It means we are released from them. We let go of the thoughts and fantasies of revenge. We look to the future rather than the past. We try to see and love as God sees and loves. Forgiveness is a way in which we align our life with God s life. To withhold forgiveness is to put ourselves in the place of God, the ultimate judge to whom all are accountable (Romans 14:10). 4
God s forgiveness and human forgiveness are integrally related. This should not be news to us. We know it well. We acknowledge and pray it every time we pray: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. I pray these words with ease and familiarity but... I ask myself, do I live the words I pray? Am I truly willing to forgive others as I have been forgiven? Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. That s a lot of forgiveness but the pain of our world or individuals and nations is great. We need to forgive as much, maybe more, for ourselves as for the one we forgive. Forgiving those who trespass against us is the balm that begins to heal our wounds. It may not change the one who hurt you, but I know that forgiveness will make us more alive, more grace-filled, more whole and more Christ-like for having forgiven another. Because forgiveness creates space for new life. Forgiveness is an act of hopefulness and resurrection for the one who forgives as much as the one who is forgiven. Forgiveness takes us out of darkness into light, from death to life. It disentangles us from the evil of another. It is the refusal to let our future be determined by the past. It is the letting go of thoughts, hatred, fear that entrap us so that we might be liberated to live and love again. So how do we begin to forgive? There is no easy road to forgiveness. 5
Don t let anyone tell you, Just give it up to God. Forgive and forget. Simplistic trite answers only demean those who suffer and insult the wound. Forgiving another takes time and work. It is something we must practice every day. It begins with recognition and thanksgiving that we have been forgiven. We are the beneficiaries of the Crucified One. Hanging between two thieves he prayed, Father, forgive them. That is the cry of infinite forgiveness, a cry we are to echo in our own lives, in our families, our work places, our parishes, our day to day life. Forgiveness does not originate in us. It begins with God. We do not choose to forgive. We only choose to share the forgiveness we have already received. Then we chose again, and then again, and then yet again. For most of us forgiveness is a process that we live into. Sometimes, however, we just can t. The pain is too much, the wound too raw, the memories too real. On those days we chose to want to forgive. Some days we chose to want to want to forgive. But we choose because that s the choice the love of God in Christ made that is the choice he makes for us forgiveness. 6
Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness. And there it is. Father, forgive them... From the cross we are saved by the final form of love forgiveness. 7