The main text was taken from John, and it was based around John 20:23, If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Forgiveness. Peace. Reconciliation. All words meaning the same base concept, that the love of God casts out all that is evil in our hearts and replaces it with light, but what does this look like in our lives and the life of the world?
My point in my sermon... oh, stuff it, I'll chuck the whole thing in here.
There is a particular group of people
in the world, many of whom are sitting in this Church today. They
have experienced new life. They are filled with the joy and
celebration that comes from a world of possibility. Their lives are
overflowing with love, and they proclaim the good news... to the
point when it sometimes seems like it is all they can speak of. We
are happy for them, of course, but sometimes we worry that their new
found obsession is taking over their lives, and wonder if we will
ever be able to have a normal conversation with them again... of
course, I am talking about Grandparents.
New life is an amazing thing. It is
hard for anyone to see a new born infant sleeping with their
scrunched up little faces and not feel something stir deep within. So
I think the first Apostles can be forgiven for being so excited by
the resurrection of Christ, so filled with the potential of the life
that is to come, that despite the limits placed on them by law and
society they could not help but spread the good news. Not only did
they speak the words, but they felt honoured that they were able to
do so, privileged to be given such a task, even when death and
dishonour was to come.
We have been honoured with the charge
given to us by Jesus, as described in the Gospel today - “Receive
the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven
them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”. Jesus came
to the disciples, and his first and most repeated words are 'Peace be
with you”. I think we can understand that they would have been
quite agitated at the first appearance of the risen Christ, but why
does he repeat this again and again? What is this peace he is
granting? Could it be that the peace he offers has most to do with
forgiveness? That playing on their minds, even as they rejoiced in
his appearance of new life, was the sin and betrayal that had
preceded and followed his death?
The ensuing Pentecostal commissioning
would seem to support this. As God the Father has sent Jesus with the
power of forgiveness, so Jesus now sends them with the power of the
Holy Spirit - “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven;
if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”. A serious charge
– is Jesus now saying they have the ability to send people to
heaven or to hell?
I think not. How could these humans,
having participated in the betrayal and death of the son of God,
possibly retain the sins of any after experiencing themselves the
utterly gracious presence of Jesus among them as forgiveness? Had
they done anything to deserve forgiveness? They had not – and yet
Jesus did not for a moment seem to retain any of their sin.
Then there's the second part of that
calling. His disciples, those who had been closest to him and yet
denied and betrayed him at the very end, grief stricken, frightened,
and surely feeling guilty as sin...not only does he not try for
retribution or revenge, not only does he share peace, grace and
forgiveness, but he charges them to share his message of forgiveness
in the world! Later, when Christ is looking for someone to spread
this forgiveness to the ends of the world, he chooses none other but
Saul, persecutor and murderer of Christ's first messengers. Is Jesus absolutely insane?
No, of course not. Jesus is the Son of
God, and so he definitely does things differently than how we would
do them. Who better to preach the good news of forgiveness than those
who have been forgiven so much themselves? Jesus calls those, not who
appear blameless or somehow worthy, but those who truly know that
they have been forgiven.
You and I are called as disciples of
Christ. Not because we are somehow better than others, but because we
know how wrong we are, and we know how much we have been forgiven. We
have experienced the life affirming gift of the resurrection, and the
joy that is found in forgiveness. Our risen Lord comes to us in the
Sacrament of the Eucharist, says “Peace be with you”, accepts our
confession and grants us forgiveness. He calls us to spread the news,
to share this healing, life changing love with all those around us.
But what does this look like to those of us who don't have a captive
audience every week?
Let me tell you a story about a friend
of mine. Julee-anne teaches singing, and she has a new student who is
a member of her church and wants to sing. At his first lesson he told
her that he really wanted to glorify God through music, but that he
was worried that he couldn't really sing. Now, at this first lesson
Julee-anne admitted to me that he wasn't particularly tuneful, but at
his second lesson the next week the change was remarkable! Not quite
Australian Idol stuff, but the quality and substance of his voice had
grown beyond what she thought would be possible. She asked him what
the difference was, and this is what he said.
“Julee-anne, last week when I said I
wanted to sing for God in Church but that I was afraid I wasn't good
enough, you reminded me of the psalm “make a joyful noise unto the
Lord” and that all that was required was joy, not perfection. You
told me that I can sing, and so all week I just kept singing to God.”
And he is singing still.
Julee-anne is one of the priesthood of
believers. She risked, not death, but shame or misunderstanding by
sharing her faith with her student. She let the joy of music in God
bubble up out of her life into his, and what a difference it made!
She treated her student with love and peace, with forgiveness. And
she heard the fruits of her ministry in his voice.
We are not always fortunate enough to
see the results of our ministry as quickly or as clearly. But we have
been charged to get out there and share the good news, to get busy
forgiving people's sins as best we can, because unless people feel
the power of forgiveness in their own lives, they won't be able to
extend it to others. Peace begets peace, love begets love, and
forgiveness begets forgiveness. Thanks be to God.
Anyway, the point I was making was that retaining sin, both of ourselves and others, harms no one but ourselves It is in forgiveness that we allow ourselves to grow closer to God and to each other. The thing is, this is easy for me because I've had a remarkably charmed life. I've never experienced any kind of lasting abuse, never been personally involved in anything that would make forgiveness difficult. How does forgiveness look for people who have more to forgive than I can even imagine?
So I did what any good curate should do and spoke with my rector. What does forgiveness look like, I asked, for someone who has been abused? Who IS being abused? What does it look like for the parent of an abused child? For the women who died waiting for ordination? For the man in a wheelchair because of a drunken brawl? It is clear that there are two paths after trauma - to forgive or retain the sin. But what does this look like? It can't mean putting yourself or your children back in harm's way. It can't mean ignoring the crime and letting the perpetrator be unaccountable and free to abuse again. What does it mean to forgive?
Of course there is no short and easy answer to this question. Forgiveness will express itself in different ways to different people in different circumstances. But ultimately, to forgive means not allowing the sin, or the sinner, to have any power over you. It means acknowledging the past, learning from it, but not allowing it to separate you from living the fullest life possible in the power of the Spirit. And it is important not only for those who need to forgive others, but for those who need to forgive themselves.
Pastorally, this can taken many different forms. Sacraments ("an outward and visible sign of an inner reality", for those non theologians out there: basically, a ritual or ceremony) can be written in conjunction with the person involved to allow them to acknowledge the pain and then to allow it to go - fire, burial, water are all elements that can be used to heal. Sometimes a conversation with the sinner and the sinned against can be helpful, a recognition of the suffering can take place on both parts, but repentance is not necessary for forgiveness. Retaining a sin does not hurt the sinner, only the one who can not forgive.
I think the hardest thing for me is seeing those out there, those who I love, being continually hurt by the sins they can not forgive. But forgiveness is a journey. And it's one that we must initiate for ourselves, not alone, but in the company of the God who has and always will forgiven all of out sins.
Amen.
