A Better Way

Life is too short to live with ongoing resentment. Nowhere do we see more clearly the brokenness of our world than when we take stock of the ways in which we have been wronged or the ways in which we have wronged others. I have had people tell me that they can’t even look at or share space with the person that lives among us with the obstruction of offense between us. Emotions flare up when offending parties come together because as they approach one another, they are not really getting closer to each other. They are getting closer the offense that is between them. They both begin to relive the anger, the guilt, the pain, the shame…the wounds begin to throb. Once again we notice the wound. Once again we feel the destructive power of a broken relationship. 

What choices do we have when we face the reality of these broken relationships? Retribution is one of our go to tools. We imagine that justice is the highest ideal – an eye for an eye; that’s what the bible says. We believe that retribution makes sense. So, we punish. Then we wonder why the taste of bitterness lingers with us.  If an eye for an eye were the solution, wouldn’t I feel more whole; wouldn’t I feel more healed? Ignoring the offense, sweeping it under the rug, is popular. But is this solution real? Aren’t we settling for a life with acceptable chasms between us and those with whom we share broken relationship? How many “acceptable chasms” will we choose before we are on an island of our own making? How about taking the high road? Many times we choose to chalk the offense up to life – “oh well, he owes me one (or I owe her one).” But what happens when my accounting fails to match the accounting of others in my life? This is about to be an offense upon an offense. It is pretty clear. We have gone to great lengths to navigate the brokenness in our relationships and we have found many tactics that do nothing to lessen the brokenness in any way.

So let us state the obvious. There is a better way. It’s not the easier way. It’s not the cheaper way. It’s not even the way that we came up with on our own. This is the way that we hold up as God’s good news for the world that God loves. This is the way that we stand upon as a foundation stone of our faith. It is forgiveness. We believe that the Kin_dom of God is the future, that the Kin_dom of God is upon us, and that the Kin_dom of God is a place of shalom – wholeness, thriving, peace, & joyful life eternal. And according to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “There is no future without forgiveness.”

So, if all this is true, then why is forgiveness not a more prolific product of the lives those of us that call ourselves followers of Christ?  During Lent we will explore the process of forgiveness. We will learn from Marjorie Thompson, the experiences of religious leaders and communities in our history, and the wisdom and truth in scripture. 

 

We have many questions about the path of forgiveness. Here are some of the questions and answers we will sample on our quest together this Lenten Season. Do you really know why forgiveness  is needed? “If we are spiritually united by virtue of our creation, however, we are sorrowfully united as well in our fall from the grace of such unity.” Have you wondered what qualifies someone for forgiveness? “So much of what we see, do, and say is rooted in unconscious wounds and unmet needs.” Have you wondered how you will know when someone deserves forgiveness? “God’s forgiveness offers us a way to move forward: to challenge the assumed supremacy of our small ego-kingdoms; to discover our common humanity with others of all backgrounds; to wake up to our deeper identity in Christ.” Have you wondered how we get passed the emotional barriers that get in the way of forgiveness? Our souls “are interconnected in God, as though the many wicks of our lamps draw their oil from the same full cruse in which they are all immersed.” (Douglas Steere) I’ll bet some of us even wonder where forgiveness comes from. “Forgiveness is the healing stream flowing out from the life of Christ over a world that does not know how desperately it needs healing”

 

I look forward to this pilgrimage in the wilderness of forgiveness. We will find wonder and mystery, healing and hope, even new life on the path. I hope I am not under promising too much.

Enjoy God,

pg