Dear Friends,
This week I joined with people from all over the country at the ELCA Systems Academy.
I am in the third year of a four-year deep dive into all things family (and church)
systems. Basically, lots of thinking about how we show up in life and in community.
This week our presenter was a Baptist pastor (R. Robert Creech) who reminded us
Lutherans about grace as he presented concepts around spiritual formation.
Specifically, that grace and effort are not opposites. Rather grace fuels our efforts
towards living as Jesus invites us to live. Learning, and practicing how to live this grace
that we abundantly receive does not happen automatically.
For example, our engagement as a community of Christ, can be experienced as a
spiritual discipline.
Our engagement is proportional to our intentions and our actions.
In this context I think that engagement ranges from, “hmmm, maybe I will go to church and
worship today,” to “what can I be doing to have a deep connection with my church
community,” to “we are all connected and what affects one affects all.” This deeper
community is not experienced automatically. But the practice of showing up, over time
shapes us. More than showing up, we think about HOW we show up. How do we
interact within our community?
Here's an interesting example about life in community. What happens when something
goes wrong? Sometimes we find it “too easy to blame others.”
To refrain from automatic blaming is a practice that over time helps us to stay in relationship. This concept leads to thinking about forgiveness. How do we do it? How do we experience it? And, what about when the thing that needs to be forgiven is SO-SO-SO bad?
I’ve preached a lot about forgiveness. It’s hard not do as it lies at the heart of our faith.
God loves and forgives us as we love and forgive others. It is at the heart of the Lord’s
Prayer. Yet it as so hard to do. What if we think of forgiveness as a Christian practice?
As something we do often as a way of living our faith. It sounds easy, but it’s not
because to be able to practice forgiveness means that something needs to have
happened that needs to be forgiven. That is the rub!
According to Dr. Creech, “Where forgiveness is necessary something significant has
occurred and the wound is also to the community.” Often, in our culture, we talk about
forgiveness, but when we experience a relational wound, we are more apt to remove
the person who hurt us, or the community, from our lives. I can easily argue that we
should remove those who inflict relational wounds. That’s what we do for safety and for
protection. Right? Well, scripture has things to say about that.
Maybe a first step in the spiritual practice of forgiveness is to struggle with this.
I invite you to read Matthew 18 especially Peter asking how many times he must forgive and
the parable about forgiving. In this parable, by forgiving the debt, the king erased the
amount owed from his own ledger. In this he reduced his accounts receivable, and
asset by a lot of money. In effect, paying the debt. I had never thought of it this way. The
lesson?
“Every time forgiveness occurs the forgiver pays a price.”
Maybe that price seems too high from some offenses. Forgiveness is not easy! But we get better at it the more we do it. Who do we need to forgive? Who do we need to receive forgiveness
from?
I am still contemplating this, and if you are interested in a conversation, I would love to
hear from you.
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Nancy
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