The power of forgiveness. Sermon. Pent. 14. Pr.16.Yr C. Fr. Hugh St. George. 8/25/13 Psalm 103 and the Lord s Prayer

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1 The power of forgiveness. Sermon. Pent. 14. Pr.16.Yr C. Fr. Hugh St. George. 8/25/13 Psalm 103 and the Lord s Prayer An older priest knew the time was coming for him to die. As he lay in bed, he motioned his daughter to come closer, and in a weak voice he said: There are two people I want to see before I die. He asked to see his lawyer and the IRS agent who had audited him for several years in a row. They both lived in the same town as him and they both responded to his request. They were surprised because neither of them ever had the impression that the old priest particularly liked them. But they were touched that he would want to see them in his final hours. They were ushered into his room and stood by the bed. The lawyer asked, Why did you want to see us? The old priest mustered up his failing strength and said: My Lord Jesus died between two thieves. I want to go out the same way. And with that he breathed his last. My personal favorite of the early psychologists is Dr. Roberto Assagioli. He warned: Without forgiveness, life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.

2 That does not sound like something we want to be caught up in. And it is certainly not something that God wants us to be caught up in. Today s readings underscore the importance of getting right with God, of forgiveness and the healing that washes over us in the wake of forgiveness. Psalm 103 that we just said / sung is a wonderful Psalm, and one of the two Psalms we say every year on Ash Wednesday. Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits. He forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities. Jesus talked a lot about forgiveness the power of it and the necessity for it. There are three very important parts to the process of forgiveness 1. God forgives us 2. We accept that forgiveness 3. We forgive others. So the first part is that God forgives us. God knows that forgiveness of sins is the gateway to spiritual and emotional freedom, and the opening to eternal life. God wants to forgive us. He does not want us to stay feeling guilty. He wants us to feel guilty just long enough for us to want to repent and seek His forgiveness. That s all. I have had a huge number of conversations with people who cannot fully accept God s forgiveness; or they say, Well I believe that God forgives me, but I just

3 cannot forgive myself. But when you think about it there is something wrong with this picture. So, turn to your neighbor. Look them in the eye and ask them, If God sees fit to forgive you, who do you think you are to disagree with God? So that s part one and part two. God offers us forgiveness and we need to receive it. Part 3 is that we pass forgiveness on. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. If we don t practice forgiveness frequently and consistently, we hold onto anger; and even though we might not think of ourselves as negative people, we end up becoming negative. Negativity in turn leads to further anger, or to depression. There s no avoiding this downward spiral. God s demands of us include extending forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an option. It s a commandment. Keeping score of old wounds; getting even or getting back, diminish who you are. Unforgiveness is guaranteed to keep you distanced from God. The secret to having peace in your life is to forgive everybody, everything, every day. It is healing to forgive and forget. It is slow poison to resent and remember.

4 In fact, refusing to forgive someone is really like taking poison and expecting some other person to get sick from it. To forgive is not easy. It is an inner spiritual battle - but we all know that much that is important in life is not easy. 18 years ago, in 1995, a scene occurred in Burma that 50 years previously nobody would have ever imagined. It happened at the bridge over the River Kwai. Everyone knows that Allied prisoners from Britain and Australia had been forced to build that bridge. Sixteen thousand Allied prisoners died there from the atrocities inflicted by the Japanese soldiers. In the 1980s a former Japanese soldier, Mr. Takeshi, went on a personal campaign to get his government to admit to these atrocities. After many years his efforts finally came to fruition. In 1995 a ceremony was arranged at the site of the infamous bridge. On one side of the bridge stood a group of Japanese, including 5 veterans of the war, Mr. Takeshi, and a group of school teachers. The teachers had with them 200 letters written by school children, expressing their sadness and regret over what had happened. On the other side of the bridge a group of British and Australians assembled. A couple of old WWII British soldiers then made a declaration that the horrendous business of fifty years prior was finished.

5 A woman whose father had been killed there spoke her forgiveness. A son of a POW spoke his forgiveness too. A man named David Barrett said that he made the pilgrimage because he knew that to hold onto his hatred would destroy him. The two groups walked the narrow planks of the black iron bridge. They met in the center, shook hands, and embraced, and wept together. The school teachers handed over the letters from their children, and finding themselves unable to speak, they turned and ran off. Forgiveness transformed a place where abject horrors had been inflicted, into a place where God s mercy and forgiveness finally won the day. It s important to realize that no-one ever feels like forgiving. You don t get up in the morning, look out the window and say, It s a beautiful day - I think I ll forgive three people this morning. You don t forgive because you feel like it. If you wait till you feel like it, you ll never do it. You forgive because God expects you to. You do it as an act of spiritual discipline. Everyone in this life has suffering. Everyone has emotional pain.

6 But the most important quality of the soul is compassion. It is only when you yourself are touched with God s gift of compassion that you are able to truly make a difference to other people. We are commanded by God to love one another. God measures how much we love Him, by how much we love others. There are of course some people that you cannot imagine loving. But there is a first step and that step is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the bridge between hatred and love. Holding on to unforgiveness keeps you stuck. It keeps you spiritually attached to the wrong thing. The only spiritual attachment that you want is to God, and to His Way of love. Lack of forgiveness chokes your spiritual life blood. Resentment and unforgiveness are like spiritual cholesterol, clogging up your system. Refusing to forgive restricts your access to the throne of Grace. Right after Jesus taught His Lord s Prayer, the very next thing He said was: For, if you forgive people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father in Heaven will not forgive you.

7 Being cut out of God s forgiveness is a terribly high price to pay for the very shallow gratification of staying mad at people. A couple of years ago, many people acknowledged and celebrated the 100 th birthday of our past president, Ronald Reagan. His daughter once spoke of her father s extraordinary attitude following the 1982 attempt on his life. She said, The following day he said he knew that his physical healing was directly dependent on his ability to forgive John Hinckley. He showed me that forgiveness is the key to everything, including physical health. He gave me an example of Christlike healing. Forgiveness is the balm of spiritual healing. It is the methodology of healing. Where there is no forgiveness there is no healing. Even here in our church there are people who are holding on to some slight or other with someone. But we should not do that. It s bad for you. It s bad for them. It s bad for the whole church. Some people have a brother, or sister, or someone who used to be a close friend, who they have not spoken to in years, maybe decades.

8 But according to Jesus, a believer at war with his brother or sister cannot be at peace with his Father. Gosh, even the IRS, not anyone s favorite government organization, doesn t hold onto grudges for more than seven years back. Surely we can do better than that. Whatever resentments we might have against anyone, we are expected to rise above them and to forgive. It doesn t mean that you say you now approve of what someone did. No. But it does mean that you re not going to hold on to ill feeling against them anymore. Jesus gave us the ultimate example by forgiving the people who tortured him to death. If He could do that, we can forgive people too. You can only be truly free when you are up to date on forgiving people. Actually, we have an obligation to be up to date on forgiving every time we come to receive Holy Communion. Jesus said, as you approach the altar; be reconciled to your brother and sister. That s why every Sunday we say the confession, then we listen to the declaration of forgiveness.

9 We priests don t say this absolution just because it comes next in the Prayer Book. We say it because we want you to receive God s forgiveness. And after that we share the Peace as a way of getting right with everyone before we come to Holy Communion. It s saying: OK. I may have been mad at you, but I m not going to stay there. God expects more of me, and I m going to give that more. I forgive you right now. A word we use a lot in Church, to confess does not merely mean to tell. It really means to agree with God and His viewpoint. To agree with God means that we re willing to see our behavior as God sees it that we look at things with God s eyes, and see them for what they are that we can see any lingering unforgiveness as an impediment to His Spirit being present among us; and that we would then ask for His forgiveness, and pass it on to other people. As our Lord told us: If you are offering your gift at the Altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then, come and offer your gift.