People of Forgiveness

John 20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

This verse from the Gospel of John was in one of our lectionary texts last week.  My default, in this section of scripture, is to go to the story that follows of Thomas and how Jesus showed great patience and vulnerability in allowing Thomas to touch the wounds and the scars and how that patience helped Thomas to come to belief.  Or maybe we could look at the portion that preceeds and the way that the other followers also needed to see the side and the hands but we focus on Thomas because he was not together with them when Jesus first appeared to them.  What I often fly right past in my reading are these three "sending" verses. 

Jesus is sending the disciples in the same way that Father has sent him.  With peace as their only possession and full of the power of the Holy Spirit.  With this power, he call them to "forgive the sins of any".  He promises that if they forgive those sins, "they are forgiven them".  He goes on to say that if you retain, hold on to, or bind the sins of any, that they are retained, held or bound.  Now this is one of those points in scripture, especially if you have grown up outside of a "High church" setting, that feels a little bit uncomfortable.  "Hold on Jesus", you might say, "You mean we get to decide who gets to be forgiven and who doesn't and if we decide they don't deserve to be forgiven than those sins are held?".  Different traditions have differed on their interpretation of these verses as to whether it was an apostolic gifting to those who had direct contact with Jesus or a gift that a Priest may hold to forgive a person's sin.  I am not going to get into that aspect of the verse because I think that it at least contains something that we can agree on.  We do hold a power within us to forgive or to retain sin.  I think one way that we forgive or retain sin, is something that takes place within ourselves, our families and our churches.  

At our church, we have one part of the service that is shared with the children.  The scripture that they use is the same scripture that we are studying that Sunday.  They have some craft or activity that helps bring the scripture to life and the adults learn along with the children.  This week, we used these verses from John to create an illustration.  We gave the kids a basket to hold out in front of them and started naming some things that people may have done to them that could be difficult to forgive and we dropped these large stones in the basket.  By the time we had gotten to three or four large stones they were searching for something to rest the basket against.  We talked about how choosing to keep or hold another person's sin against them is like you carrying this weight around with you.  We then talked a little bit about how, even in our own life, the sins that we struggle with, the things we perceive as weakness, can become something beautiful if we live in a community that is forgiving.  Even our anger, our pride, our restlessness, can be turned into something beautiful. It just takes the part of a patient and forgiving community and the power of the Holy Spirit.  The kids painted the large rocks to represent the beauty of forgiveness. 

I think the weight of those rocks was something that the kids could really feel and understand pretty quickly.  They talked about being picked on or being yelled at.  Maybe it was a push from a bully or a sister who took their favorite toy.  To a kid, these things are real and difficult to deal with.  The kids, when they were finished painting, went to go and play and the adults talked about what the verse meant to them.  We found that whether you are young, old, or somewhere in between, forgiveness doesn't really get any easier.  Here are some of my reflections from our time together yesterday as a church community. 

Forgiveness is a Call

You couldn't possibly read this story from John and come away thinking that forgiveness is not part of our being sent into the world.  "Just as the Father has sent me..." .  With the gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples are sent out as forgivers of humanity.  Imagine, a people who go out into the world, a world that is hell bent on someone getting what they deserve, and we as the peculiar people of God, choose to just forgive.  That we echo the words of God found in Isaiah, "I will not hold your sins against you".  This type of forgiveness is a sign and witness to the cross of Christ.  If it is our call to be a Jesus, cross shaped people, should we not be a people who forgive.  To receive a gift of grace and not extend that same grace to our neighbor is sending a message that runs counter to the good news of Christ.  Forgive as if it is your calling.

The Forgiveness Epidemic

Luke:47Therefore I tell you, because her many sins have been forgiven, she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48Then Jesus said to her, Your Sins are forgiven" 49But those at the table began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”…

In a world where people are searching for real and genuine community that is marked by love, we see that love is what grows out of forgiveness.  If we see that our communities aren't very loving, I would guess that they also aren't very good at forgiveness.  As we see in Luke, because her sins have been forgiven, she loves much.  He who has been forgiven little, loves little.  Sure, I think what we are seeing in this scripture is a people who aren't loving because they don't feel as though they have needed to be forgiven.  I think that it works both ways.  People who don't think they need much forgiveness are the same people that are not so good at forgiving. People who have needed forgiveness their whole life, and were blessed to receive it, are the most loving.  

What if we started a forgiveness epidemic.  To just radically forgive, in our families, our jobs, in politics and around the world?  I think it would create a world that loves more than we could imagine.  We've done it the other way too long, it doesn't take too close of a look to see where that has gotten us.  Retention of sin, breeds retention of sins.  Forgiveness breeds love.   

Forgiveness is a Gift

Thinking about that concept of sins which we don't forgive being retained has captured my thoughts this week.  We often think about the responsibility when forgiving someone, to set them free.  I think we don't consider, often enough, the cage that unforgiveness can trap us in.  As we reflected last night on some of the sins against us or those we love that still bring about anger and disappointment, we felt the way the sins themselves can take up residence within us.  Maybe you have been hurt by the church and haven't been able to forgive the person who hurt you. Even if you still manage to go to a church, that old hurt has a way of keeping you distant from everyone there.  The pain is too raw to risk ever being hurt like that again.  You must ask yourself if you have really forgiven that person or if you need to walk through forgiveness with them again.  If you aren't sure if you have forgiven someone or not, think about them or that situation and see what happens to your blood pressure.  Do you start making people feel uncomfortable as you tell the story of what happened and your voice continues to raise, for the 10th time that week?  Maybe you think way back into your past and remember a person of another gender, race, ethnicity or social status.  Does that hurt or sin cause you to feel a certain way about all people who fit into that social group?  Do you have a hard time trusting again?  These are all signs that you may be retaining that past individuals sin. 

This is insanely hard, I get it.  I asked the people in our church to join me in reflecting on a sin that they may be retaining from their past.  I was alarmed that I kept thinking of person after person, scenario after scenario, before I feel narrowed it down to the one that seems to have the strongest grip on me.  It wasn't just one thing, it was many things.  Each one of those sins that were acted out against me could have been forgiven.  I could let go of it, I could set it down and use my energy in a more productive way.  This is the gift that Jesus offers through the power of the Spirit.  When we forgive sins, they are forgiven.  In some mystical, magical way, when we let something go, when we employ the grace of God for the sake of another, that sin leaves us.  We may need to decide again tomorrow to put that same sin down, for a time, but after a while we will see that it doesn't have the same power it once did.  Who knows, maybe those ugly retained sins we dragged around for far too long will begin to look like the painted rocks that the kids created last night in all of their glittery rainbow, bedazzled sparkle goodness.  Even if not, it will be good to give our arms a rest.