Forgiveness Sunday 4 th January 2015 READ: Matthew 6:9-13 (&14-15); Luke 11:2-4 From Matthew: 9. This is how you should pray, Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. NOTE: Luke s reference is shorter. It also talks about forgiving anyone who sins against us. 1 P a g e
Jesus is not supplying just a form of words. His prayer provides us with a pattern. It teaches us to come to God simply, talking to him as we would our own father, sharing our concerns and confidently telling him of our needs. (see also Matthew 7: 7-11 Ask and it will be given to you ) We are to come as children to our Father, eager to please, conscious of our failings. Our prayer is to be simple, trusting. I pray this prayer every morning. It is part of my daily discipline; my receiving of my daily bread; my way of orientating myself to begin another day of my life here on earth. A lifelong study. Every day and in every way people trespass against me. There are days when I sense that the entire world is against me. Perhaps this is just an age and stage of life; the grumpy old man stage. Perhaps I have some sort of pathological condition that pre-disposes me to a state of constant paranoia. Or perhaps I simply experience what many experience because in reality this world is full of those who would go through life will little concern or consideration for others. I suspect that my daily experiences are in large part due to the fact that I live on planet earth with a bunch of people who are so focused on their own stuff and making their way through life as best as they can that they often act in a way that disregards my needs. So then, how might I live in a way that honours my life in Christ and gives me peace and a sense of joy? Two years and nine months ago I was confronted with a situation that caused me to embark upon a search for understanding of what it means to forgive. I now know that this will be a lifelong search; that having scratched the surface I have so much more to learn and to understand. I have embarked upon a lifelong study of forgiveness. I seek to understand all 2 P a g e
there is to understand about forgiveness; to become an expert and to be fully masterful of all aspects of forgiveness. I know now that I will never achieve this aim. I have started on a course I shall never complete in my lifetime and yet I am not daunted or tempted to give up. I am compelled to go on and to daily be seeking to understand more fully what it means to forgive those who trespass against me. And I will do this because I have no option; no other way of making sense of this life of obedience to Christ that I am called into. Your Kingdom come, I am reminded that Gods kingdom is being established through us who believe as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When I believed and was saved I became a royal priest. I began to participate in the purpose of God to establish his kingdom here on earth. As we pray Your Kingdom come we are acknowledging our role as a priesthood charged with the task of redeeming his creation here on earth. This is not therefore a request from us to God that he come and establish his kingdom here with us on earth, rather it is for me a reminder that every day I am charged with bringing into existence Gods kingdom here on earth. So what does this kingdom look like? How might an onlooker recognise that there was something going on in my life that sets me apart from the way the rest of the world operates? What is different? Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (those that trespass against us ) Forgiveness is essential for Christian growth. We are constantly reminded throughout the Gospels to forgive. The act of forgiveness is central and vital to an effective and healthy life in Christ. This prayer can be prayed in many ways; forgive us our sins is how it is recorded in Luke. I sometimes use the word trespasses and sometimes the word offences. The word 3 P a g e
offense is for me particularly helpful because I am easily offended. Being someone who is easily offended, I need to be reminded often of the need to be someone who quickly forgives. Forgiving is more than just therapeutic. It is actually life giving. By contrast, to withhold forgiveness, to harbour grievances is life sapping. So much energy is wasted due to the sheer effort required to deal with unresolved disputes and offenses that over time grow in magnitude until the anxiety and stress and pain they cause is way out of proportion to the original offense. It has been said that forgiving sets both the prisoner (the offended) and the jailer (the offender) free. I desire everyday to be set free, to experience the healing that comes from forgiving. This is not an easy process but the very act of regularly praying this request reminds me of how important it is to work on forgiveness. This is difficult work. Reminders of past hurts and offenses occur often and threaten to lead me back to a place of real despair and regret. Just when I begin to feel as if I am making progress, a bad day can take me right back to some of those conversations that occurred almost three years ago. I relive those days in my head and begin to invent different scenarios that only cause me to sink deeper into the mire of regret and frustration. This is soul destroying stuff. Literally, it is soul destroying. The frustration and anger that accompany regret can only lead to a dark place. A place of retribution and self justification; a place where there is no forgiveness and certainly no love for my enemies. I have experienced these departures into the abyss. I know in my head that this course is not good. I understand that what I need to do is to forgive. My struggle has been to bridge the chasm between having head knowledge of what needs to happen and a heart desire to make it so. 4 P a g e
As I have struggled with these things I have come to appreciate that forgiveness is an act of love. Perhaps it is the ultimate act of love. When God so loved this world he sent his son in order that man might be forgiven. This is the model; forgiveness as an act of love for others. In learning to forgive I am also learning to love. And of course the reverse is true. If I love then I can forgive. Forgiveness does not stand alone; it requires that love is involved. A conscious and deliberate intention to love in order that forgiveness might be possible. And so my quest has led me also to consider what it actually means to love my neighbour. We are called to be a community of peoples. Church is a community; a place where we are learning to live together. A family of individuals; often very different in our outlook and way of interacting with the world, but thrown together in this family we call Church. I appreciate Tom Wright s (the Bishop of Durham) definition of church. He would say that church is about learning to live together today in a way in which one day we will all be called upon to live together for all time. This is our training ground. This is where we learn to love. And there are many opportunities to practice. Often it is those closest to us that cause us most offence. It is our nearest and dearest often that trespass against us. I have found, and I know I am not alone in this, that within Church life there are many opportunities to practice forgiveness and thus to learn how to love. Forgiveness is not just related to the big events of life; the large trespasses that cause obvious harm. Trespass occurs all of the time. Not deliberately necessarily, but as a result of the fact that we constantly rub shoulders and spend time in each other s company. It is necessary that we learn how to be in a constant state of forgiveness. Stated in another way, it is important and very necessary for an effective church life, to love one another. This love is demonstrated in that we can forgive and overlook and accept that people consumed with their own stuff may at times tread on our toes, but that is ok because we want to love that person. 5 P a g e
I recall a brief conversation I had one day with Brian Hathaway. We were talking about some people related things that were happening at the Chapel and Brian s comment to me in relation to the issue at hand was a statement that.. they are just people. I never fully understood at the time the meaning behind what seemed like an obvious statement of fact, but since I have come to understand that what Brian was saying, I believe, was that one must overlook sometimes and allow people to be people. I think Brian was talking about forgiveness; the acceptance and love of people that enables you to forgive and overlook stuff that might otherwise cause you to be offended and resentful. Acceptance, forgiveness, love; these are all interrelated ideals and those that we are called upon to strive for each and every day. And lead me not into temptation, A daily reminder as I recite this prayer is to be wary of those things that are for me temptations to be led into a state of being offended. Temptations are not just about sex, drugs and rock and roll. They are for many of us about far more subtle but potentially just as damaging things. There is the constant temptation to brood. The temptation to see the worst in a situation and to let it overcome me until I start believing that in fact this is just typical; the world has ganged up on me and I am once again dealt the short end of the stick. There is a kind of perverse comfort in convincing oneself that bad stuff is inevitable. I begin to believe that I am a victim. When I pray lead me not into temptation I am led to a place where I begin to think about and to focus on what is going right. I am beginning to understand why we are urged to give thanks and praise. Being thankful; being able to give praise leads us in a different direction to that in which we travel when we allow ourselves to always assume the worst. 6 P a g e
But what about justice?. What is justice? As I have wrestled with this question over these past nearly three years, I have come to understand that the more relevant question for me is what part do I have in this thing called justice? I am not the judge. I do not meter out the punishment. I do not have a moral prerogative to ensure that others get what they deserve. I can never fulfill this role because I can never with full objectivity and integrity decide the fate of another. I see nowhere in God s word any reference to my role as a judge. Certainly I am called upon to discern ; to apply to myself a sober assessment of what is acceptable or not acceptable in any given situation. I see many references throughout the gospels to the call to love my neighbour as myself. Indeed this is the greatest commandment; the commandment that sums up the law and provides the measure by which we might all assess our own standards of right behaviour. John 3:16 God so loved the world that he gave his only son.. Christ died for the forgiveness of sins. The greatest act of love by the God of the universe was to forgive us our sins; our trespasses. Does it not therefore follow that the greatest act of love we might extend to others is to forgive them their trespasses against us. To be in a constant state of forgiveness; to everyday be able to say to our Father in heaven; forgive me as I forgive those who trespass against me. Is this not justice? I have received forgiveness therefore I will extend forgiveness to others. Two questions I have asked myself throughout this journey: When I forgive, what do I give away? What have I lost? When I forgive, what do I gain? 7 P a g e
Let s now take some time to meditate on forgiveness. To think about how these things might apply to us. I invite you to do some homework this week. To consider these two questions and to meditate on them and to try and answer them for yourselves; and in doing this to hear what the Father might be saying to you about these things. Next week: Acts of service. 8 P a g e