Forgive

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

—Lord’s Prayer

Ahh, forgiveness. The difficult, complicated and yet, oh so indispensable gift of forgiveness.

In his song, “Forgiveness Waltz,” Minnesota Lutheran singer, songwriter, and pastor, Jonathan Rundman sings:

      it's like a dance

      it's like a wheel

      less like math

      less like a deal

       more like a heartbreak

        beginning to heal

        we can start over

        we know forgiveness

The forgiveness of which Jonathan Rundman sings, the forgiveness which Jesus gives us is a bit hard to trust isn’t it? Oh, we talk of it, even announce it each Sunday. On a certain level, we want to believe it is true. Yet, on another level, we still wonder.

      Am I really forgiven?

      Are we really forgiven?

      Are all people forgiven all of their sins?

And, if so, if God forgives all our sins, and not just our sins, but the sins of the world, then, wow! What a difference that makes.

Don’t get me wrong. I realize the complexity of it. I realize that we’re talking about sin, which has consequences. Sin which ends up breaking down relationships and community. I realize we’re talking about a lot of baggage.  We’re also talking about the need to protect ourselves and maintain healthy boundaries, and the need for mutuality and cooperativeness in seeking reconciliation and healing.

Then again, carrying that baggage around, carrying that judgement and resentment and anger around, carrying around the shame and guilt, carrying around the lack of forgiveness for the other or for ourselves ...well, after a while all of that just weighs you down.

     It's so easy to drown

     in the numbers and judgments and earnings

     keeping score, keeping track, keeping time

     as the hours keep turning

     but you can turn a new way

     it's a new day

     it's like a dance

     it's like a wheel

     less like math

     less like a deal

     more like a desert

     becoming a field

     we can start over

     we know forgiveness.

The forgiveness of which Rundman sings, the forgiveness which Jesus gives us, even in its complexity and difficulty, it is still a gift worth attending to... because of the difference it can make...in your life, in the life of the other, and in the life of the world. In hearing those words…or speaking those words... I forgive you…You are forgiven, that is the gift which frees us. Thus, forgiveness is a message in need of sharing.

Episcopal Priest and author, Robert Capon often states that the church is not to be in the morals business. The world, he says, does a pretty good job of that. What the world can't get right is the forgiveness business…which is the church's proper job.

Even in its complexity and difficulty, forgiveness is something Jesus wants for us to receive, to attend to, and to share.

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Song Lyrics, Forgiveness Waltz, Sound Theology 20th Anniversary Highlights, © Jonathan Rundman, 2020.

Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash