What We Believe: forgiveness

28 July 2019

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 11:1-13

It has been said, “We are most like beasts when we kill.  We are most like humans when we judge.  We are most like God when we forgive”.  (William Arthur Ward)

We Christians are fond of saying forgiveness is the core of Christianity.  While forgiveness is an essential component of the Christian faith, the greater Truth is forgiveness is the core – and the heart - of our Father in heaven.  Whether in the First Testament or the New, the heart of The Father is steadfast.  More than anything, He wants a dynamic, ongoing relationship with His people, but there is also great purpose in that relationship; He means for us to live into our calling and our gifts so others can also become all they are created to be.  It is about the Fullness of Life – in this world and the next.

Yet we must also come to know this: if we are not forgiven, we cannot be of a mind and a heart to offer forgiveness.  Jesus does teach that if we will not forgive the offense of those who have harmed us, “neither will your Father forgive you”.  So it would seem that in order for us to be forgiven, we must first learn to forgive.  Given the depth of pain and the extent of harm many have experienced, that is a pretty tall order AND a very bitter pill to swallow.

A few years ago I found an old rosary I had long forgotten about.  One afternoon when all was quiet, I went into the sanctuary to pray.  Trying to remember the proper rosary order, I finally came to The Lord’s Prayer which, like the Hail Mary, is repeated several times. 

At first I was just mechanically reciting the Prayer.  After a few recitations, I began to replace “thou”, “thee”, and “art” with the language I am more familiar with.  Soon it became my own prayer rather than the Church’s.  Once I was able to make the prayer my own expression and in my own language, I began to recite it more slowly, more thoughtfully. 

Verse by verse, line by line, I began to see some elements of that Prayer take on a whole new meaning – or maybe it was the clarity I needed at the time; the clarity we all need.  Especially the part about asking forgiveness “as we forgive those who trespass against us”.

Rather than, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, it became, “Forgive my sins, Father, so I may be freed to forgive those who have hurt me”.  It didn’t come easily at first because I kept trying to remember the Prayer in its proper order.  Sort of like trying to sort things alphabetically, you get somewhere in the middle and have to stop and say, “ABCDEFGHIJK …” until you come to the letter you’re looking at.  I know I’m not the only one!

At any rate, the order became less important.  “Forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive others”.  And as Luke’s version expresses, “Forgive us our sins, for (because) we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us”.  The first one expresses a simultaneous thing happening; that AS we forgive others, we are forgiven in that moment.  But Luke’s version seems to presume we have already forgiven someone; and because “we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us”, we may expect to be forgiven our own offenses – that is, if we have truly repented.

Carrying the burden of past mistakes, sins we hope will never be discovered, sins we cannot escape because of our own consciences, is an overwhelming albatross about the neck that weighs us down.  We cannot function as we should, as we must, because something is holding us back.  And this is why it matters: until that weight is lifted, we cannot – we CANNOT – be free to become what we are created to be.

We are often more consciously aware of what we’ve done than of who we really are (the price of conscience), and it is the same principle which applies to those who have hurt us.  We are more aware of the harm they’ve done, perhaps the things they still do, than we are aware of who they really are.  I get that there is some wisdom in believing one acts like a jerk because one really is a jerk, but I also think this can be a more shallow glance than a good, long, hard look.  There must be more to that person – just as there is more to us.

It seems to be the whole point and purpose of forgiveness to aid us to self-discovery, becoming more aware of who we are created to be rather than what we choose to do.  If the very essence of our being is found only in the One who created us, we must come to know why we were created to begin with.  As I have long held, there is no such thing as an accidental or incidental life.  There can, of course, be an unintended pregnancy, but that biological thing does not diminish the sacred value of that life which is called forth.

The psalmist expresses the depth of this concept: “It was You who formed my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are Your works!” (139:13-14).

Do we see it?  Can we see the praise of the “wonderful works” wrought by His mighty Hand?  Our very being as the “wonderful works”?  No, we don’t see that often enough.  Not if we are not fully aware of who we really are, who we were created to be from the beginning.  Not if we are unwilling to see even our enemies as His “wonderful works”.  

It is true enough that forgiveness relieves us of the burden of pain and anguish we have suffered in the past.  It is also true that our willingness to forgive is directly connected to the forgiveness we seek and need.  More than this, however, is the reality that until we break completely free from our own misdeeds and the misdeeds of others, we cannot live into what The Lord had in mind when He breathed His Life into us.

We believe in forgiveness – but not simply forgiveness for its own sake or even for our own sakes.  There is a calling found in forgiveness which can never be fully realized until we repent, turn away from our past, and let go of our misdeeds and the misdeeds of others and pay more attention to souls – the better part of our being, the essence of God With Us – because that is who we really are, and it is the Life we are called into. 

Always to the Glory of The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.  Amen.