Skip to main content

Again?

And we're off... After much plotting and planning behind the scenes the theme for next year's 4 Corners Festival has been announced... Scandalous Forgiveness. Some, who know me better and have experienced/suffered under my ministry might well say "Oh, are you off on that old hobby horse of yours again!?" I have reflected, spoken and written a lot about this subject and particularly how it applies to this wounded little part of God's world, but I consistently suggest that it isn't my hobby horse but Jesus' hobby horse... he consistently pointed to this as a key teaching, and if we are authentically trying to follow him then we need to take this seriously... 

Well, not always too seriously... My friends and colleagues Steve Stockman and Jim Deeds have already shared their reflections on this in different forms... Here's my starter for ten... I've posted it before and it owes something to both John Bell and Graham Maule and Riding Lights... but most of it is straight from Jesus...

Peter:        Eh... Jesus...?

Jesus:       Yes, Peter?
Peter:        How many times did you say I should forgive my brother?
Jesus:       Have you and Andrew been fighting again, Peter?
Peter:        Oh, you know what he’s like... I know you want us to forgive each other, but I really am ready to deck him... And I can’t remember, are we supposed to forgive others 77 times or is it 70 times 7?
Jesus:       Who’s counting?
Peter:        I am… Remember… I asked you how many times should I forgive him and you told me 77, or 70 times 7 or some other ridiculously huge number… And well, I’ve already forgiven him 76 times so I’m wondering if the next time is the last?
Jesus:       How do you know there will be a next time?
Peter:        Oh, Don’t you worry… There’ll be a next time… If I haven’t drowned him first…
Jesus:       That’s hardly the right attitude… I didn’t mean that you only had to forgive someone 77 times, or 70 times 7 times before hitting them with a baseball bat…
Peter:        A what?
Jesus:       Never mind…
Peter:        So if it’s not 77, or 70 times 7, how many times is it then? 77 times 7?
Jesus:       No… Think of a number…
Peter:        What?
Jesus:       Just think of a number…
Peter:        OK.
Jesus:       Double it.
Peter:        Right.
Jesus:       Square it.
Peter:        Yes.
Jesus:       Multiply it by 3 million, raise it to the power of 10 and then add the number you first thought of.
Peter:        I’m sorry Jesus… I never was very good at maths…
Jesus:       But you’re still good at keeping score of the number of times someone has wronged you.
Peter:        So you are saying I should just forgive and forget.
Jesus:       The words never crossed my lips.
Peter:        You can’t just keep letting people off... Pretending that what they have done doesn’t matter.
Jesus:       I didn’t say you should… Forgiveness isn’t about saying that when others do something wrong it’s OK... It’s about saying that what they have done is not OK but you will forgive them anyway.
Peter:        but how many times?
Jesus:       As many times as you need to...
Peter:        But knowing Andrew that could be forever!
Jesus:       And…
Peter:        Well there have to be limits Lord…
Jesus:       Do there?
Peter:        Yes… Otherwise people can take advantage of you…
Jesus:       OK then Peter… How many times do you want to be forgiven?
Peter:        What?
Jesus:       How many times do you want to be forgiven?
Peter:        But this isn’t about me?
Jesus:       Is it not?
Peter:        No… It’s about Andrew…
Jesus:       Well do you remember that prayer I taught you?
Peter:        Our Father and all that stuff?
Jesus:       Yes…
Peter:        What about it?
Jesus:       Well how do we ask God to forgive us in that prayer?
Peter:      “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us?” And…?.
Jesus:     What about that?
Peter:      But this is nothing to do with trespassing… 
Jesus:     Don’t try to wriggle out of it… You know what it means…
Peter:      OK… I know… But when do I have to stop forgiving Andrew or anyone else… 
Jesus:     its simple…
Peter:      When… 
Jesus:     When you want God to stop forgiving you…
Selah

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more