June 20, 2015

“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive him.” Luke 17:3-4

“Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away…the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

“But when you have returned with your heart to G*d, when you have put away the old person and have put on the new one, then testify to the new person by virtues as you have earlier testified to the old by vices. Nobody becomes a master at once.” Johannes Bugenhagen (1485 – 1558) On the New Person “For All The Saints” volume II, (p. 112)

It is one thing to sin, and to repent to the one to whom you have sinned — forgiveness comes easier the first time then it does the tenth. But to continue to sin over and over again to one person, and to continue to seek forgiveness, well this seems so Sisyphean in logic. Why would we continue to do something sinful over and over and over again to someone, and then expect that our offers of repentance would be met with anything but skepticism? And yet we are commanded to forgive not seven times, not seventy-seven times, but an eternal number of times. So we have trouble — trouble for the forgiver, and the one who seeks forgiveness.

The trouble for the forgiver comes in the act of forgiving someone hoping that this time they will change. But that is not why we forgive — we forgive because Jesus commands us to forgive — an unlimited number of times.  As we watch the community of Charleston, South Carolina deal with the tragic events of the shooting in the AME church, we watch families who are struggling with an enormous loss offering forgiveness for the shooter, and requests for repentance.  A terrible act of hate that transpires in a church, is met with love that is taught in the church.  The seemingly immovable object of hate is obliterated by the irresistible force of G*d’s love in Jesus.

The trouble for the one seeking forgiveness is that, as Paul says, “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away…the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) So, if we are a new person, we should be a “changed person” — and by changed I mean someone who learns a new way to live.

What needs changing in your life so that you will be a “new creation in Christ?”

Pastor Dave