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"I believe in the forgiveness of sins." Sadly, there is not
a lot of forgiveness out there these days. Parents cannot
forgive rebellious children and abuse them; children cannot
forgive imperfect parents and neglect them; students cannot
forgive insults so they shoot up the school; the Chinese cannot
forgive America for the mistaken bombing of their Belgrade
embassy; Serbs cannot forgive Muslim Kosovars for the actions of
their ancestors 600 years ago.
Two little brothers, Harry and James, had finished supper
and were playing until bedtime. Somehow, Harry hit James with a
stick, and tears and bitter words followed. Charges and
accusations were still being exchanged as mother prepared them
for bed. The mother instructed, "Now James, before you go to bed
you're going to have to forgive your brother."
James was thoughtful for a few moments, and then he replied,
"Well, OK, I'll forgive him tonight, but if I don't die before
then, he'd better look out in the morning."(2)
Uh huh. "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." Whose
forgiveness? First and foremost, GOD's forgiveness. The
ancients counted on it. Listen again to the Psalmist:
From the pages of the Old Testament on into the gospels and
the story of Jesus and the cross, the love and forgiveness of God
are writ large. Luther understood it...finally. You and I do
too...sometimes. My friend Carlos Wilton writes(4), "Ours is a
self-confident, even self-promoting, age. Many people you or I
are likely to encounter will tell us they've had it with guilt;
that they don't want to hear any more about sin; that they
believe every person's got lots of good within them - deep down,
all you've got to do is help them 'realize their potential.' But
I'm convinced it's all a front, a façade, a masquerade. Guilt is
alive and well; you can't kill it that easily."
There is a true story of a Catholic priest living in the
Philippines, a much-beloved man of God who once carried a secret
burden of long-past sin buried deep in his heart. He had
committed that sin once, many years before, during his time in
seminary. No one else knew of this sin. He had repented of it,
but had suffered years of remorse for it, had felt no peace, no
inner joy, no sense of God's forgiveness.
There was a woman in this priest's parish who deeply loved
God, and who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with
Christ, and he with her. As might be expected, the priest was
skeptical of her claims, so to test her visions he said to her,
"You say you actually speak with Christ in your visions. Let me
ask you a favor. The next time you have one of these visions, I
want you to ask him what sin your priest committed while he was
in seminary."
The woman agreed and went home. When she returned to the
church a few days later, the priest asked, "Well, did Christ
visit you in your dreams?"
"Yes, he did," she replied.
"And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?"
"Yes, I asked him."
"Well, what did he say?"
"He said, `I don't remember.'"(5)
"...as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes
our transgressions from us." "I believe in the forgiveness of
sins."
"If our greatest need had been information, God would have
sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology,
God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had
been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our
greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior."(6)
This forgiveness in which we say we believe is not limited
to God, though. Forgiveness is part and parcel of human life.
In fact, in the Lord's Prayer, we affirm the necessity of a
forgiving spirit to even begin to experience the forgiveness of
God. "Forgive us our debts...our trespasses, our sins...as we
forgive those who sin against us." Throughout our study of the
Creed, we have been insisting that as we believe, so we behave.
Nowhere is that any more evident than in this issue of
forgiveness.
Last winter, after the impeachment trial of President
Clinton was finally over, the President spoke briefly on the
White House lawn. There was no gloating at the fact that neither
of the two articles had come close to passing, just the
suggestion that it was time for him, for the congress, for the
country, to move on. He turned away from the podium after his
remarks and began walking back to the Oval office without taking
any questions from reporters. But ABC's irrepressible Sam
Donaldson asked loudly, "In your heart, sir, can you forgive and
forget?"
The President paused, turned around and came back to the
microphone. He said, "I believe any person who asks for
forgiveness has to be prepared to give it." Preach it, Brother,
Preach!
A few years ago Michael Lindvall, a Presbyterian minister
who now lives in Michigan, wrote a delightful little book
comprised of vignettes from the life of a small-town pastor
called The Good News From North Haven.(7) One of the stories has
to do with the pastor's visit to the barber shop. During the
course of their conversation, the barber tells the minister how
his father used to come home every Saturday night as drunk as a
skunk and beat the tar out of him and his mother. The pastor's
response was to look at the man in the mirror, put his hands on
the hands that were resting on his shoulders and say, "Just
because you forgive someone doesn't mean that what they did to
you was right." That needs to be said.
Could you use some guidance on HOW to forgive?(8) Many of us
get caught so deeply in the web of resentments that we cannot
pick our way out of it. Here are some points from the literature
of one of the Twelve-step programs:
"Many of us have been told all our lives that we ought
to forgive those who wrong us, but rarely have we been
taught how to do so.
Remember, it is possible to be WILLING to do something we do
not WANT to do.
As one writer has it, "To forgive is to put down your 50-pound pack after a 10-mile climb up a mountain. To forgive is to
fall into a chair after running a marathon. To forgive is to set
a prisoner free and discover that prisoner is you. To forgive is
to reach back into your hurting past and recreate it in your
memory so that you can begin again."(9) Do you need to forgive
someone?
A story comes from in a little village in Spain. Father and
son argue, and say things they should never have said. The son,
a boy named Paco, runs away to the big city of Madrid. Weeks go
by, then months, and the father comes to regret his anger. He
rehearses, over and over again in his mind, the apology he will
offer to his son when he returns. Yet Paco does not come back.
The father begins to fear he has lost his son forever. Finally,
the father devises a plan. He travels to the city, armed with
posters that he puts up on every wall and tree. He takes out a
classified ad in the newspaper. Everywhere the message is the
same:
Dear Paco,
Meet me in front of the newspaper office tomorrow at
noon. All is forgiven. I love you.
Your father.
Now, "Paco" is a very common name in Spain - like "John" or
"Jim" in our country. Remember too that the father did not sign
his posters, or his classified ad, with anything except "Your
father."
By twelve o'clock the next day, as the story goes, Paco is
waiting outside the newspaper building; he and his father have a
joyful reunion. Yet along with the son, there are 800 other men
named Paco, gathered there, every last one of them hoping it was
his father who took out the ad and nailed up the posters.(10)
"I believe in the forgiveness of sins."
Do you? Again, as we believe, so we behave. In fact,
according to the apostle Paul, not only so we behave, so we
preach. Our lesson from 2nd Corinthians says, "God was
reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's
sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though
God were making his appeal through us" (NIV).
CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS! A high calling indeed. Not many more
responsible positions. An ambassador speaks on behalf of his or
her own country or sovereign. When a US ambassador speaks, his
or her voice is the voice of the United States. An ambassador
for Christ is the voice which brings the message of Jesus to the
human situation. The honor of a country is in its ambassador's
hands. The country represented is judged by the ambassador.
Words are heard, deeds are seen and people say, "That is the way
the country speaks and acts." Here is our proud privilege and
almost terrifying task. The honor of Christ and of the Church
are in our hands.
As ambassadors our message from our sovereign is
forgiveness. No need for the church to offer moral exhortations
that would come better at a Rotary or Kiwanis Club luncheon. We
can cut down on offering societal and economic judgments which
are better given at political conventions. We can tone down our
efforts at personal therapy which are better handled by
psychiatrists and psychologists.(11) We have a word that the world
is desperate to hear, a word that no one else can offer.
Forgiveness.
Forgiveness is power...the power to be renewed and to
renew...the power to be cleansed and to cleaned. Forgiveness is
the power to be restored and to restore to favor and wholeness.
That is what Luther came to understand, and that is our message
as Ambassadors for Christ. Nothing else can rebuild our
relationship with God the way forgiveness can. Nothing else can
so change an individual the way forgiveness can. Nothing else
can change international relations the way forgiveness can.
Power. It may be the most positive power in all the world.
No wonder we make our affirmation. Over and over we say it,
then over and over and over again. "I believe in the forgiveness
of sins."
Amen!
1. Quoted by B. Clayton Bell, Moorings in a World Adrift: Answers for Christians Who
Dare to Ask Why, (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990) p. 98-99 2. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc,
1988) p. 223 3. Psalm 103:1-3a, 10-12 4. Carlos Wilton, "Of Fire and Forgiveness," unpublished sermon delivered at Point
Pleasant Presbyterian Church, Point Pleasant, NJ, June 16, 1996 5. Bruce Larson in Robert Lee Davis's, A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World,
(Eugene, OR, Harvest House Publishers, 1984) 6. Bible Illustrator for Windows, diskette, (Hiawatha, Iowa: Parsons Technolgy, 1994) 7. New York: Pocket Books, 1992 8. Source unknown 9. Lewis Smedes, "Forgiveness: The Power to Change the Past," Christianity Today,
1/7/83, p. 26 10. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p. 218 11. John Leith, The Reformed Imperative, (Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1988), p. 22
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me,
bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do
not forget all his benefits--who forgives all your
iniquity...He does not deal with us according to our
sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as
the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his
steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the
east is from the west, so far he removes our
transgressions from us.(3)
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