ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 8, 2022
This past Sunday I preached on God’s forgiveness. Though I acknowledge a few passages in the Bible where God is not presented as forgiving, the preponderance of passages suggest a God whose capacity to forgive is well beyond anything we could imagine. In Collisions 3, we read: “As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other.” How people perceive God’s forgiveness dramatically influences how they understand those words. If someone believes God is only forgiving and kind to those who have the correct brand of Christianity and attend church 50 out of 52 Sundays each year, then that becomes the lens through which they will understand their own responsibility when it comes to forgiveness. At the same time, when someone captures a glimpse of the immensity of God’s forgiveness and how that gift is given freely, there tends to be a shift in how the person understands forgiveness. There are many pieces of advice I could give in regard to how we move from being recipients of God’s forgiveness to being those who can offer forgiveness. One that I find helpful is remembering that forgiveness is not suggesting the person who caused the injury was in the right. We’ve somehow confused mercy with freeing people from responsibility. As you’ve probably heard often, forgiveness means no longer allowing the actions of another to hold sway over us. I’ve heard people say, “I cannot forgive him because what he did was wrong.” There would be no need for forgiveness if there had not been a wrong.
As a recipient of your gift of mercy, O Lord, provide me with the faith and resolve to learn how to better forgive others. Amen.
