Lay That Burden Down Already
You are good people. Faithful people. I suspect you've heard this story before. You come on Good Friday, and during Holy Week you meditate on this story which we call The Passion.
And if I asked you, why did Jesus have to die?
You might say as the sacrifice for the sins of the world. You might say because he was threatening the Roman Emperor. You might say to take away my sin and you would be right, but that is kind of a sterile or maybe vague way of explaining why Jesus died. The more specific reason is deeply personal to each of us. Jesus died as an act of love for the forgiveness of sin.
FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness is not something Christians want to talk about. I have served as a leader in five churches in the last 25 years.
In every church where I have served, I have brought up the Forgiveness Project, which started in Europe. The Forgiveness project is a traveling art exhibit that includes, uh, long banners that you can hang from the tall ceilings of your church. On each banner is a photo that is silk screen and the story that accompanies the photo. Each banner is dedicated to the story of a heinous crime committed in the family or the individual who ultimately forgave the perpetrator of the crime. It is moving. it's comes.. you pay a certain amount. They send you the banners and tell you how to put them up. They stay in your church for up to 6 weeks and then they tell you how to package them and send them either on back to them or on to the next place.
These banners have hung around the world in art galleries...
and very few churches, even though,
they were designed for churches. They were designed to hang from tall cathedral ceilings.
I brought the Forgiveness project up as a possibility for every church I served.
I suggested we could hang them during Lent,
and invite the neighborhood in to have a conversation about forgiveness. How hard it is.
How stunned we are when people are able to do it.
How difficult we find it to be.
Nobody bit. Nobody wanted to discuss that as a possibility
even though it is extremely affordable.
One church even said to me, what's your other idea?
Forgiveness is something Christians know we should do.
and we're not real fond of doing it, are we?
In Matthew's version of The Passion, we read, 'then Jesus took a cup and after giving thanks he gave it to them saying drink from it all of you. For this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. In Luke's version of The Passion we read, 'when they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals one on his right and one on his left left and Jesus said, 'Father forgive them
for they do not know what they are doing.' And in today's reading of The Passion in John, uh, at the time when Jesus is actually resurrected and appears to his disciples he breathes on them and says, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any are retained. And every time we share in Holy Communion we hear the words again from Matthew, 'This is the New Covenant in my blood shed for the forgiveness of sins.' And I just wonder how that hits you when you hear it so often? Do you have this vague idea of 'for the sins out there'?
For the sins of all the world that was a good move on God's part. Blood for the forgiveness of sins; that's good or forgiven. Is it something like that? How often do we link The Passion Story to that; that Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness that we don't want to talk about. I have been reading a series of books by Louise Penny. She writes mysteries. And,... ...some of the quotes in the book are profound. The one I just finished was called A Trick of the Light No. 7 in an 18 book series. And this as well as the first six were anchored by a refrain from a character who was an old crotchety, vulgar, hard-drinking, famous poet. Her name is Ruth Zardo. She's irreverent. She writes beloved poetry, and in every book, this part of one of her poems keeps coming up like a refrain to a Good Friday hymn. It says, 'You're lying on your deathbed. You have one hour to live. Who is it exactly you have needed all these years to forgive?
Who is it exactly you have needed all these years to forgive? And after being a pastor, all these years, and talking about forgiveness, myself, and believing the church need to talk to about it more, it hit me seven books in. That the person, perhaps, that we need to forgive sometimes is ourselves, and ourselves doesn't come to mind when people say who do you need to forgive. If in fact Jesus died, at least in part, poured out his blood for the forgiveness of sins who are we not to accept or consider that forgiveness in our own lives? Doesn't that strike you as just a little bit arrogant, instead of humble? That Jesus would go through this whole thing, but we would say I know Jesus forgives me, but I'm doing no such thing. I will not forgive me. I know Jesus forgives you, in fact, I'm going to leave it up to God to forgive you, because Lord knows I'm not forgiving you.
It's directly connected to this story we save for Good Fridays.
Desmond Tutu writes this in his book on forgiving.
Forgiveness is nothing less
than the way we heal the world. We heal the world by healing each and every one of our parts. The process is simple, but it is not easy.
Right?
It seems like such a simple thing, but boy do we do a good job of avoiding it. Later in this same book, I was telling you about by Louise Penny, a character does decide to forgive, and this is what she says when she turns that corner.
I'd held on to that hurt. Coddled it. Fed it. Grew it, until it had all but consumed me. But finally, I wanted something even more than I wanted my pain.
I wanted peace.
I challenge you, this Good Friday, this holy weekend, to answer Ruth Zardo's challenge. Who is it exactly you have needed all these years to forgive, and decide to lay that burden down? To forgive them. It doesn't necessarily mean calling them, writing them a long letter, stirring yourself up even more. It may be you and a mirror. When you say, 'I'm sorry you didn't get there in time. I'm sorry I didn't get there in time. I'm sorry I didn't take care of the love that we had. I'm sorry I used silence as a weapon to punish. I'm sorry I ignored your calls. I'm sorry that my grudge never had a better nurse.
And finally I wanted something even more than I wanted my pain. I wanted peace. Peace the world cannot give. Peace we are offered by Jesus in his passion at the Lord's Supper. Peace that comes from embracing forgiveness. Peace that comes from deciding to accept Jesus' gift of forgiveness,
perhaps by,
or maybe at last by,
forgiving ourselves.
Peace
in which we rest in death and peace
in which we rise to New Life