1-29-2014

Good Morning to All,

     Luke 6:37c; “forgive, and you will be forgiven”

   “Quid pro quo.”  This is a Latin phrase that gets a lot of use and misuse.  It means a transfers of goods or services where the transfer is contingent upon the other, huh?  Basically, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.  If you watch Congress work, you vote for my bill and I’ll vote for yours.  You give a little, I give a little and we all make something.  It is a way of life for many.  Our verse sounds like that but in our faith we understand it differently.  We tend to look away from these verse that make us struggle.  

    This is always one of those “struggle” verses.  We tend to struggle with understanding them.  We teach that you are forgiven, by God, without condition.  Remember the verses, “God who is faithful and just will forgive your sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”  That sounds like unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness.  So when we read verses like the one we have today we struggle.  It sounds so conditional so quid pro quo.  If you forgive then God forgives yet that goes against the rest of the Bible.  We know that Scriptures interprets Scriptures; there are no errors or mistakes. But what do we have; well we have a struggle.

    Forgiveness is the core of Christianity.  God forgives us of our sin.  He wants us to then forgive others but why?  Partly because he wants us to do this; it is part of the reconciliation that God wants for us.  This reconciliation allows us to live in harmony with each other; part of God’s plan.  Forgiveness also relieves pain and suffering in our heart and soul.  Holding onto another’s sin keeps us angry, hurt, sad and lonely.  It separates us from one another.  Forgiveness frees us from that pain.

    We also see that if we refuse to forgive; it means that there are some things that cannot be forgiven.  It means that we see things that we do that cannot be forgiven by God.  We reject God’s forgiveness because we don’t believe it can be forgiven.  We lack faith so we don’t cling to God’s promise to forgive.  We cling to a lie that there are just some things that cannot and will not be forgiven.  When we forgive, truly forgive, we are stating that forgiveness of all sins is possible; we believe it.  We once again have faith.

    This may or may not be a conscious decision but what it does is show us how a “struggle’ verse can work.  It is not an action but faith.  We receive forgiveness because we cling to God’s promise of forgiveness.  The forgiveness is there but only if we cling to the promise, only if we believe.  Faith moves us to receive God’s forgiveness and faith moves us to forgive others, just like we are.

Father of all mercies, move us by your Spirit to forgive.  Forgiveness frees us from the pain and loneliness of this sinful world.  Give us the courage to forgive.  Give us the faith to forgive so we can boldly forgive others.  Guard us by your Spirit.  Be with those who struggle to forgive.  Grant them your peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret