The Language of Forgiveness - November 20
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); PM Psalm 33; Isa. 65:17-25; Rev. 22:14-21; Matt. 18:21-35
Today’s Reflection
Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. –Matthew 18: 21-22
Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray this: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This version of the prayer is not the one I grew up with. I grew up praying, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” But the version that I prefer is neither of these. The version I prefer is the one in the right-hand column in the Book of Common Prayer, the one translated into more contemporary language:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours,
now and for ever. Amen.
I prefer this version because it makes it more clear why we are asking to receive forgiveness and to extend it to others: sin. We make mistakes. We fall short. We fail to follow Christ’s example of self-emptying love. We do not take seriously enough the commands to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This simple prayer, prayed by Jesus himself, helps us to re-center ourselves and our faith on what is most essential: honoring God, submitting to God’s will, trusting in God’s provision, asking for God’s forgiveness, and following that up by asking for God to save us and deliver us from those circumstances in which we might be more likely to fall into sin.
We also have beautiful language in our Prayer Book to guide us as we confess our sins against God and our neighbor:
Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.
In this prayer of confession, we are given a structure for acknowledging our sins, mistakes we have made “in thought, word, and deed,” those things “we have done” as well as those “we have left undone.” Alongside this language of acknowledgement of our sins, we are also given language to guide us toward asking for God’s mercy and forgiveness, and toward the hopefulness of delighting in God’s will and walking in God’s ways. We are not required to stay there in that place of wallowing in our sinfulness. Rather, we are guided toward acknowledging and letting go of our sins so that we may find rest and delight in the gracious, merciful presence of God.
Forgiveness is hard work. We human beings like to be right and sometimes we like to hold onto grudges. That makes forgiving others hard. And as hard as it is to forgive others sometimes, it can be even harder to forgive ourselves, to show ourselves grace and mercy. Peter asks Jesus how many times do we have to forgive someone before we’re not required to forgive anymore? Seven times? No, seventy-seven times! In other words, you must keep on forgiving—even when you are tired of forgiving, even when it doesn’t seem to be making a difference in the world. Forgiveness is not optional, forgiveness is required.
The Good News is that God offers us unending forgiveness through all that he has done for us in Christ. God isn’t keeping score. God isn’t going to stop forgiving us once we hit sin number 78! Which is a good thing, because I don’t know about you, but I know for certain I’ve sinned way more than 77 times! Being confident in God’s unending love, mercy, and forgiveness gives us an unending wellspring from which we can draw the refreshing, life-giving waters of forgiveness that we can in turn pour out to others (and to ourselves) when they (and we) are thirsting after mercy and grace.
Today’s Gospel focused on God’s forgiveness and ours reminded me of some lines from a song I haven’t heard in many years, “Just Come In” by Margaret Becker. I hope these lyrics that floated back into my mind as I was reflecting on forgiveness will be encouraging to you today, too.
You think you’ve crossed
Some sacred line
And now I will ignore you
If you look up
You will find
My heart is still toward you
Look at the sky
The east to the west
That’s where I threw this
When you first confessed
Let it go now
Just come in
Just leave that right there
Love does not care
Just come in
Lay your heart right here
You should never fear
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Reflect on a memorable moment in which you extended someone forgiveness (or they offered you forgiveness, or mutual forgiveness was extended). How did that moment of forgiveness allow you to remain in relationship with that person? How did it change the nature of your interactions with one another moving forward?
Daily Challenge
You can find the full lyrics and audio to Margaret Becker’s song here and can listen to it through most music streaming services.