Maybe this week the devotion should be on the people of Israel following a pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness. It seems easier to talk about these outward signs of God’s presence in the wake of the exodus, rather than the gift of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a quality of God that God loving folks rejoice in and yet find so very difficult to really take into our lives.
Last week I compared the importance of direct communication to being a parent and so again, what I've learned about forgiveness I learned in my family. I think that’s because love has something, possibly everything, to do with forgiveness.
Who we love, how we love is directly related to how we forgive and who we forgive. Only in love can we forgive. So, when others are seen as unlovable, are they less like to be forgiven?
Where are we in this cycle? Love more, forgive more. Love less, forgive less. Can we change who, how we love, and therefore who, how we forgive? Is the threat of God of treating us in the same way as the king treats the unforgiving servant in the parable enough to change our behavior?
Like many of you, I don’t really respond well to threats. I'm more likely to become oppositional. l dig in my heels, hang on to my rightness, develop some entitlement, build my cause or my case. That sounds terrible. And yet beloved, we see it all around us.
Then what are we, good people of God, supposed to do? These weeks in the Gospel there is a strong message of who we might want to be, what might it take to be in community, to live with and love one another.
Forgiveness is tricky because it’s all wrapped up with punishment, with retribution, with self-protection. And yet our hearts, meaning who and how we love, impact our ability to forgive. I believe this is God’s work. Yes, we must be available to it, leaving space for God to act. This is time spent in prayer, time spent in solitude.
It’s God’s good will for us to forgive. Over and over God forgives us. Maybe, it is not in our capacity to forgive or maybe for this moment all we ought do is to agree to a process of trust and desire to live in a state of forgiveness and love. It is a discipline, one as important as exercise and healthy eating or following traffic laws.
I’m constantly amazed at people who forgive. God knows how difficult it is to forgive. The skill required may be as strenuous as learning to pole vault or snowboarding tricks or mastering a foreign language – so we practice over and over and over. That’s discipline and the alchemy of turning hearts of stone to hearts of flesh is possible!
Practice makes perfect so I’m committed to keep trying, to keep practicing. God forgives perfectly and we receive that forgiveness and from that we can practice the art.
Exodus 14:19-31
Psalm 114
+Rev. Alison
