Forgiveness in the Year of our Lord 2025

 

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. 

Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

John 20:19-23 NRSVue

This morning I am leading worship at Trenton United, our home congregation. We'll be ushering in the New Year on the demanding subject of forgiveness. I can say with confidence that during almost four decades in ministry I had more conversations with parishioners about forgiveness or unforgiveness than anything else, other than physical illness. I could add that it probably began when I was a chaplain intern at Kingston Penitentiary during seminary, which was forgiveness boot camp. 

I chose the story from Genesis about Joseph forgiving the brothers who sold him into slavery and the John passage where the Resurrected Christ tells his astonished disciples that there was a give and take to forgiveness. While the former has a Hollywood ending the latter has always intrigued and even mystifed me. 

I also shared about the forgiveness project of the early 2000s in schools in a conflcted area in Northern Ireland. Even though the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998 anger and hatred continued to simmer and erupt. The school project was to establish Forgiveness schools with intentional practices for reconciliation, including kids in conflict putting on Forgiveness Glasses (above) to see their adversaries in different ways. Despite the skepticism of teacher and principals the tone of the schools changed.

In a world of anger, hatred, and violence at every level of human encounter we can pray that forgiveness is a "down to Earth" necessity and possibility, not "pie in the sky" wishful thinking. I suppose we're all in the school of forgiveness for a lifetime, seeking mercy, offering it to others, starting again. 

A poster in one of Irish schools begins with "in this class" but it could say "in this family" or "in this congregation...

In this class 

I am loved 

I am smart 

I am brave

I am thankful

I am forgiving

I AM CHOOSING LOVE