May 2, 2004

Luke 17:1-6 , as read by Anne Robertson

"Confession and Forgiveness"

(29 minutes)

Portions of the sermon ©2004 Anne Robertson

TEXT: Luke 17:1-6

Apologies to those who come here to read the sermons, as I am now in a "teaching" series where the sermons are a teaching conversation with those in the congregation. We pass the microphone and people respond to me and to each other around the topic of the day. You can still hear the audio at www.stjohnsdover.org. If you would like to share your thoughts, please post them on the Sermon talkback page at www.annerobertson.com.

May 2 was the day to talk about confession and forgiveness. We talked about the strong point made in Scripture that if we accept God's forgiveness of our own sins, God expects us to be willing to forgive the sins of others. In our relationship with God, we are given gifts in order that they might be shared with others, not hoarded for ourselves. The love, talents, material resources...everything we get from God is meant to be passed along to others. Those of us who have entered a relationship with God become the channel through which God is able to pour out blessings to the world.

That said, we acknowledged that forgiveness was very hard. We talked about whether you had to absolutely forget what happened in order to forgive and compared that concept to the Chinese proverb that says you can't keep a bird from landing on your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair. When the memory (bird) lands, acknowledge it, and send it on its way. Don't sit down with it and nurse it all day.

We talked about the ways in which lack of forgiveness hurts us more than it hurts the person we will not forgive. Someone quoted the phrase, "Resentment is a cup of poison I prepare for someone else and drink myself." On a very basic level, forgiveness is good for us. It enhances our well-being. I read some from C.S. Lewis' chapter on forgiveness in Weight Of Glory, especially the section where he talks about the difference between asking forgiveness and making excuses. We recognized that forgiveness is only proper for the things for which there is no good excuse. If there is a good excuse, it is only fair not to hold a person accountable. Forgiveness is precisely for that which is inexcusable. There must be actual sin in order to talk meaningfully about forgiveness.

Forgiveness isn't saying that what happened was immaterial. It is exactly the opposite. To talk about forgiveness at all is to say that there was a sin. Forgiveness also doesn't preclude restitution. We talked about how part of true repentance is the refusal to benefit from our sin. So we return or "pay for" whatever we can as a sign that we are truly sorry and mean to change our behavior. Forgiveness doesn't get us off the hook for changing our behavior or making restitution. It does mean that whatever cannot be repaid is forgiven...is taken off the ledger books and is not available for future leverage in the relationship.

We looked at the specific language of the Lord's Prayer and saw that the most accurate translation is "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." It is economic language in the Greek. When we sin, we incur a debt...we take something from someone else. In addition to the possible stealing of material resources, we steal life, reputation, well-being. In harming a child we steal not just that day but future well-being and trust. In horrors like slavery we steal humanity. When we sin as Christians we can sometimes steal faith.

Sometimes we can give back what we have taken. Often we are unable to do so...the debt cannot be repaid. To forgive the debt is to stop holding the offense over someone's head...to take it off the books. As C.S. Lewis points out, if a person has broken a promise, forgiving it doesn't mean you have to believe the next promise...forgiving abuse doesn't mean you have to continue to live with the abuser. But it does mean, in Lewis's words, "that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart-every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out."

These are just some of the points that were made. Feel free to add your own!

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