After a hiatus due to traveling that
kept me away from the book I am discussing, we return today to N.T.
Wright's The Lord and His Prayer and the particular phrase:
Forgive us our trespasses, as we
forgive those who trespass against us.
I used to reach this phrase in the
prayer and run through a mental examination of my life in the day –
or whatever time had elapsed – since the last time I confessed my
sins. The words of 1 John 1:8-10 weighed as a heavy burden in the
back of my mind. At times I would agonize over the possibility that I
might leave something unconfessed and therefore find myself excluded
from grace. This would lead to an exhausting examination of every
detail, wondering whether a particular act or thought constituted
sin.
At other times I would pass lightly
through these words, confessing my sin in broad, general terms
without feeling the need to do a thorough examination of my
conscience. Now I doubt that Jesus had either of these responses in
mind when he gave us this example.
N.T. Wright, not surprisingly, connects
these words with the events of Israel's past, reminding us that
Israel's oppression and exile were always related to their sins.
Therefore, proclamation of forgiveness from sin was to announce
freedom and this is precisely what Jesus brought through his life,
death and, ultimately, through his victory on the cross. Forgiveness
of sins meant not only something spiritual and existential, but
something real and tangible. It meant walking, or seeing, or even
rising from the dead.
It meant sharing bread and wine –
partying – with those whom “spiritual” people consider
outcasts.
"Healings, parties, stories and symbols
all said: the forgiveness of sins is happening, right under your
noses. This is the new Exodus, the real Return from Exile, the
prophetic fulfilment, the great liberation. This is the disgraceful
Advent of our astonishing God."
As those who have received and who
daily or regularly receive once again this forgiveness from God, who
now participate in the freedom of life in Jesus, we are rightfully
called to reflect that same forgiveness to others. We cannot expect
forgiveness for ourselves while withholding it from others. Not to
extend forgiveness to others would mean, as Wright says, that we
haven't really grasped what is going on.
"The only reason for being
Kingdom-people, for being Jesus' people, was that the forgiveness of
sins was happening; so if you didn't live forgiveness, you were
denying the very basis of your own existence."
Forgiveness is a key part of the life
of a Jesus-follower. It is central not only to the personal,
individual life of faith, but crucial to the very life and message of
God's people, the Church. Without receiving the forgiveness of God
ourselves AND extending that forgiveness to one another and to the
world, we cut ourselves off from the very grace by which we claim to
live. Our practice of forgiveness should draw people to this
astonishing God who practices forgiveness freely and abundantly.
"The church is to embody before the
world the disgraceful, glorious, shocking and joyful message of the
arrival of the King. When the world sees what the Church is doing, it
ought to ask questions to which the proper answer would be a story
about a father running down the road to embrace his disreputable son."
Now, ever-so-slowly, I am changing my
understanding and practice of this phrase. Yes, I still need to
examine my heart for the personal trespasses of any given day: the
anger toward another, the overeating at lunch, the bad attitude
toward my boss. But I also strive to allow God's Spirit to show me
where I have failed to be an ambassador of his Kingdom on a larger
scale, such as how I have perpetuated a lifestyle of privilege and
indulgence that harms his world and my fellow humans, or how I have
failed to love those who I find unlovable. At the same time I ask God
to help me forgive, to truly set free, those who have wounded and
hurt me, those who by their actions or inactions have placed me in a
position of bondage through my own anger, hurt or other woundedness.
I'm still figuring out what this looks
like in practice. I have found this chapter in Wright's book the most
difficult to work out in practical terms. But two thoughts he shares
in closing make a good starting point.
"It is our birthright, as the followers
of Jesus, to breathe in true divine forgiveness day by day..."
"As we learn what it is like to be
forgiven, we begin to discover that it is possible, and indeed
joyful, to forgive others."
How have you experienced the connection
between forgiveness and freedom?
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