Forgive me. A common conversation item, interjected in the midst of a discussion with all sorts of intentions and moods and results. Forgive me, maybe you mean it and are genuinely sorry and want to heal what is broken between you. Maybe it is a way of getting out of an uncomfortable moment and you both know your apology doesn’t mean much more than the exasperated air you use to say it. Forgive me. Or worse, say you’re sorry. Remember that one? Maybe it was your mom telling you that you had to apologize for hitting your sister, or breaking your brother’s favorite toy, the one he told you not to touch ever. Say you’re sorry. Sorry. Did you mean it? If it gets me off the hook then yeah, I meant it. Then mom turns to the offended sibling. Forgive them. No way, he’s mean, she’s selfish, I hate you. Forgive them.
You’ve forgotten more incidents like that than you remember, I’m sure. It happened with troubling regularity. Conflict, confrontation, even violence and brokenness, it is our lot in life it seems. Even those closest to us find it difficult to live in harmony for very long. Something gets in the way. We get in the way. Everyone else gets in the way. If it was just us, each of us individually, we’d be fine. We could do our own thing, hold our own opinions, enjoy our own company, get along just fine. Except it isn’t just us, isn’t just me. There is you, and all the other yous out there. And something in me wants to be in relationship, as difficult as that is. And for this forgiveness thing to work, for this community thing to work, with all the wild variations of yous out there and mes in here, we’ve got to find a way to overcome the hurts and the slights and disappointments that are just a part of living in community. We’ve got a find a way to forgive. Together.
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
If anyone is in Christ. Anyone. We’d rather rewrite that line, wouldn’t we? If those like me are in Christ, those who agree with me, those who look at things like I look at things, those who value what I value and speak the language I can understand. If those who I choose are in Christ then, hey, let’s celebrate this new thing that is happening in us, between us, the new creation, the fresh start, the coming together and becoming community. Anyone is just too big, too much, too inclusive. I’d rather just worry about me.
There is a dimension of forgiveness that is individual, I don’t deny that. A part of forgiveness is a personal choice to not dwell in hurt. It is the ability to let go of anger and resentment, to not be destroyed by your own disappointment by what has been done to you. The willingness to forgive is a choice to live free from the burden of vengeance; to not be defined by the wound received. That is a healthy and healing choice. And necessary to the process of forgiveness. But only a start. Or a first step - as giant a step as it may be. There has to be more.
Historically the phrase we focus on from the Apostles’ Creed this week was added later. At least some historians argue that. It was not in the oldest depictions of the creed. It began to appear sometime after Constantine. (The Emperor, not the Demon Fighter from the comic books) When Constantine accepted Christianity, the church changed dramatically, almost overnight. And one of the first things the church did, after breathing deeply for the first time in a couple hundred years, was to count heads. Who was in and who was out. There were some who wanted to deal harshly with those who compromised during the time of persecution. They shouldn’t be allowed to remain a part of the community if they, to save their own skin, recanted their beliefs, bowed to the emperor or other diluting practices that were forced on the faithful during this time. Others argued differently. They said that it was a difficult time, and while we celebrate the few who were willing to give their lives for the faith - the ones we know as martyrs - for many, particularly those with children, or other family members they couldn’t bear to see suffer it was too much to ask of fallible human beings. Therefore we should be a bit more understanding. We should be a bit more forgiving.
We believe in the forgiveness of sins began to appear in the Creed. Just after a declaring a belief in the church and in the communion of saints, the idea of forgiveness began to appear as though explaining just how this church thing might work. We can only be the church, we can only be in communion with one another if we also believe in the forgiveness of sins. Without forgiveness there can be no community. Because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” because “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” That’s why we need forgiveness. Without it there is no community.
But forgiveness as we understand it here is not simply “getting over stuff.” It is about building bridges. About putting things back together. It is, says Paul in our passage for this weekend, about reconciliation.
That argument is that Jesus changed everything. From now on, he writes, from the event of Christ everything and everyone is different. And what is different is that we can no longer look at each other from the outside in. Which means that our judgements about the worth of any individual are not based on appearance or even actions or opportunities or choices. Instead we see Christ in each person, we see the image of God, no matter how obscured by the world. We love first. Anyone. That is our challenge and our choice. There is a new creation - in our understanding if not yet in the person we see before us. But even then it is there in potentiality, the possibility for new life is always there. And we live and act and relate in that hope.
The message of the church is the message of God in Christ which is reconciliation. We don’t have the luxury of a live and let live kind of policy. We are called to create community, to reconcile those who have wandered off. We are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is never off duty. Wherever he or she is she represents the sending agent. And whatever he or she does is not the ambassador, not the person themselves, but the one sending who is acting. Whenever we act, whatever we do we represent Christ. When we build bridges it is Christ working in us who builds them. When we refuse, when we burn those bridges because of our hurt or anger or jealousy, it is the cause of Christ that suffers through us. There’s another cliche we need to redefine: “You’re only hurting yourself.” If we are in Christ, to use Paul’s term, then that can never be true for us again. Yes we are hurt by our selfishness, but more than that Christ is hurt, the church is hurt, the community of faith is hurt by our not living out our call.
Whew, heavy stuff here, I realize. But also exciting when you think about it. Because of Christ I get to participate in the reconciliation of the world. I can be a bridge builder working alongside you and all the other members of the communion of saints in making the world resemble the Kingdom of God. What could be better than that? Don’t you long to live in true community? Don’t you long to heal the hurts caused by others or even yourself? Don’t you long for deeper meaning and wider impact?
Of course we do, on our best days. On the days when we feel Christ’s Spirit within us, urging us, enlarging us, moving us beyond the self until we begin to acknowledge anyone, everyone. We don’t do that on our own. God is making the appeal through us. We just lead with forgiveness. We just default to reconciliation, to building bridges, to healing hurts, to joining together, to being the church. On our best days. Forgive me. My best days. How about you?
Shalom,
Derek
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