Not Un-Forgiven
Luke 7:36-8:3
At first examination, our Gospel and our old testament readings seem to be about as far from each other as the far corners of the moon…We read of Ahab and Jezebel, the ones who do deceit and murder over a field, and eventually get what is coming to them….and then we read of Jesus, how he radically saw the good in a woman that society had thrown out, and then we read of his going through the cities and villages, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.But maybe we need to remember that these two stories are connected.
One of the things we see in the story of Ahab and Jezebel, is that God is a holy and just God. There are consequences to our actions, and we had better know this.
And yet, Jesus went through the towns and villages, telling people that they were loved and forgiven. This is not a contradiction. Jesus died so that we, every one of us could be forgiven. So that God and each one of us that fall so far short of what we could be, can be reconciled.
There is right and wrong, and we are called to live a God intends. This applies to those who those who are murderers, those who are gossips, those who sin sexually, those who focus on things more than on people, those who don't see each other person as a special child of God.. But God calls us, and transforms us.
I'm not sure we always realize how radical God's forgiveness is. We talk about how we are a loved and forgiven people, but somehow we all end up trying to earn God's love don't we. I'm not sure we understand how deep Gods love and forgiveness goes.
I was reading this week about A small boy who had been naughty.
That evening his mother, putting him to bed, said, "Now, Johnny, say your prayers. " He said, "Not now, Mommy: you go away and I will say them then." Somewhat startled by his strange request, she said, "Why? Do you want to say something to God that you don't want me to hear?" Slowly the child replied, "No, Mommy, it isn't that. It's just that if I tell you about the bad things I've done, you will keep remembering them and reminding me of them. But if I tell God, he will forget about them and never remind me again."
Perhaps thinking that God will forget all our sins sounds a bit strong about a God who sees the beginning and the end of the world as one. But as it says in Jeremiah "Know the LORD…. for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
Know the Lord.
Do we know the Lord, know that God loves us when we are at our worst? When we are doing things, or thinking things that God is definitely NOT calling us to?
Often our answer is no. But the answer is really YES. God does call us to turn from our sins, to live in the light and not in the darkness. But this has absolutely nothing to do with whether we are forgiven or not. Whether we are loved by God or not.
We read in this passage from Luke about how the Pharisees get into trouble with God's love, and their love of God. Their trouble is not that they are hypocrites. At least not that they were any more of a hypocrite than you and I are. No, they were probably deeply pious men who devoted their lives to the study and living out of their scripture. The problem was that because they thought they were so righteous, they thought that they didn't need much forgiveness. Their problem was that their righteous actions were warmed by very little love.
They've made two errors really. The first being that there is any hope whatsoever of being by ourselves righteous before the holiness of God. And the second, was that as we live our lives closer to what God is calling us to, that means that we are to separate ourselves from the rest of the world. We are to be leaven in the bread, to be salt and light, each of these suggests to me being a part of the whole, not separate. We are to be in this world but not of it.
Every one of us is far less than what we are called to be…whether we acknowledge it or not. Every one of us lets God down. Are we more like the woman or the Pharisee?
It's too bad that often when we come to church, and start to learn about what it is that God is calling us to, that we can sometimes feel that this makes us better in the sight of God. We Christians are better in the sight of God, but it has nothing to do with what we do, or how we do it. It's not that we are performing in a way that is more pleasing to God. It is that we have said yes to a gift that God has given to us through Jesus.
God has made the universe, and knows all. He knows when we are truly loving. He knows when we are doing good things because of our love for him and our love for each other. He also knows when we are doing things out of fear, and when we do things in the hopes of getting something. He knows when we are doing things in the hopes of earning favor, in the hopes of being seen as a good person, in the hopes of earning love from someone or other, or in the hopes of earning love from God.
Every one of us is tempted to look at ourselves and think…well I am not that bad, I mean look at him, and her, and him. I'm really not that bad at all. And there is some truth in that we were each wonderfully made and are loved by God for who we are. But we are kidding ourselves if we think that we have made it, we are doing our part, we are just that little better than those others.
God is there for each of us, and he is truly calling us and encouraging us, and empowering us to live in the way we should. But we are all those others. We ARE those others.
There is a story of "A man in retirement who decided to visit as many cemeteries as possible to see the uniqueness of the tombstones. After his travel, he put together a slide show of the many unique tombstones he found. At each show, someone would ask what was the most impressive one. He always saved the answer to last. He would have the lights turned completely off, he would dramatically build the audience curiosity then he would show the slide. It was a very simple tombstone barely a foot tall. On it the inscription said one word: "Forgiven"
Amen
©2004 Steve E. Timpson
(613) 272-2360
P.O. Box 69
2764 Highway 15, Portland, Ontario
stimpson@ontario.anglican.ca