Forgiveness

About 30 of us have just finished four weeks thinking about grace using Philip Yancey's What's so amazing about grace as a guide. The whole area of forgiveness predictably gave us a few difficulties.

One of the questions I asked last night was: "Can you forgive someone who doesn't have a sense that they need to be forgiven?" Through the Gospel lens the answer to all our problems with forgiveness is always 'Yes' - seventy times seven etc etc. But this is never an easy yes...

A friend reminded me this week that forgiveness is usually costly... the one who makes the move to forgive may have to bear the burden for a long time, I think this is especially so if the one forgiven doesn't have a sense that there is anything they have done that needs forgiveness.

One conclusion we did come up with in the group is that forgiveness is a gift... a grace... our struggles with it are set within a broader context... God's gracious pardon of us... with God's help nothing is impossible... even the possibility that someone who considers themselves the most wronged can take the first step.

Here's a quote I found helpful... "Because it goes against human nature, forgiveness must be taught and practiced, as one would practice any difficult craft. 'Forgiveness is not just an occasional act: it is a permanent attitude,' said Martin Luther King Jr. What greater gift could Christians give to the world than the forming of a culture that upholds grace and forgiveness?"

p137 What's so amazing about grace

A Concert for George

Anne and I have been enjoying watching the Concert for George Harrison DVD, borrowed from our neighbours. What a fantastic concert... a remarkable collection of songs from the often under the radar maestro, brilliant musicianship - Eric Clapton in charge with Jeff Lynne. Dhani Harrison, Billy Preston on keyboards, Ringo and Paul... and Anoushka Shankar (Ravi's daughter & Norah Jones' half-sister) on sitar... and the sense of being part of a community grieving the loss of their friend.

My favourite song was the moving 'While my guitar gently weeps' - Eric Clapton was inspirational and clearly grieving as a camera caught him in a private moment looking away from the audience as the song ended... the version of 'Something' was also delightful.

The concert was in 2002, why does it take me five years to catch up?

Best song of all time

I had a wee yarn with Jim Mora on National Radio this afternoon which was a hoot. He has a 'what's the best song of all time?' slot each day after the 1pm news... I got in with U2's With or Without You from the Joshua Tree album.

So what's your choice of best song of all time??? Hit the comment button below and put in your choice! As long as you don't choose anything by Celine Dion I will make the list of replies into a blog in the next while!

I am working with a group of colleagues on a Sunday evening 'service' on the 7th October where we will use the music of U2 in the context of a communion service. One of our working titles is Sunday Bloody Sunday - "Yeah I'd drink bread and wine if there was a church I could receive in." - the title is from a U2 song - the sub-text is a line from their song 'Acrobat'. Keep on the lookout for the big event!!! I will have more details on this blog once they are firmed up!

- Mart the Rev

Sunday looming... on grace & forgiveness

Here's the first bit of this coming week's sermon (draft)...

At the Wednesday night study group we’ve been wrestling with ways to describe God’s grace. It is not an easy thing for Jesus didn’t seek to describe grace theologically but rather live it and tell stories that illumined it. Thus we get an idea of grace through what a collection of stories points to rather than through a simple proposition. One of the definitions offered to the group last Wednesday was this one: ‘Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.’ [Philip Yancey in What’s so amazing about grace p71]. One of the hardest things to grasp is the order of things – with God it is grace first and our bit later. Grace is unconditional; there is nothing we have to do in order to make God love us for that is simply how it is with God. But we want to reverse the order – we want to have to prove our worthiness. Take the notion of forgiveness for example – our logic is to forgive someone after they have confessed their wrong – if you acknowledge that you have hurt me then I can be in a position to forgive you. Our logic is ‘if-then’ – if you confess your sins, then I will forgive you. And we apply this logic to how the faith thing works – and get to what all the big evangelists seem to say “If you repent, turn from your ways and confess your sins then God will forgive you.”
However, in the logic of grace, this is all reversed. With Jesus, forgiveness comes first and forgiveness is what enables us to begin living lives accordingly to the ways of God. This is not an ‘if-then’ logic but a ‘because-therefore’ logic – ‘because you have already been forgiven, therefore you are freed to respond with a changed life, a heart that turns to God.’ [Paul J. Nuechterlein, Something to sing about].

Reading 'The First Casualty'

I'm immersed in Ben Elton's novel The First Casualty at the moment - what a great read!

Here's a summary I found... [The First Casualty] "...is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? As the gap between legally-sanctioned and illegal murder becomes evermore blurred, Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth. "

And, as I have now finished it, some thoughts of my own.

1. This is the second of Elton's books I have read (I'm a slow starter!) the other was High Society. I found both books got me hooked very quickly, kept me enthralled and both seemed well-researched.

2. the themes in The First Casualty are clever. The morality theme especially... as thing become blurred the conscientious objector becomes involved as a participant in the very thing he objected against. Don't we all? Elton leaves his reader with this unwelcome realisation. Some justification is offered that this is what happens in war, thus the title of the book - but Kingsley recognises that in his work as a policeman he has been part of another kind of war that he cannot any longer agree with in relation to the way that suffragettes and communists had been treated by the law and its agents.

3. some may not like the revisionist nature of his work - it is easier to see the folly of the Great War from this side of it and this distance (and I'm currently enjoying Elton's contribution as a co-writer of the Blackadder 4 series). But I believe that there is no possibility of looking at history through any other means than the eyes we have now... we will always revise history, and we should... if we can get as big a picture on what has happened before us then we might be more attentive to the things that might lead us into another folly - might.

I am looking forward to delving into Elton's nine other novels!

A Tony Campolo story on Grace

Tony Campolo tells about being invited to speak in Honolulu one time and having trouble getting his body to adjust to the ten-hour time shift from his home in Philadelphia. He wound up wide-awake at three o’clock in the morning drinking coffee in an all-night diner. Presently the door opened, and in came about eight women laughing and talking loudly. Campolo soon deduced that they were streetwalkers finished with their evening’s work and relaxing before going home to sleep. One, named Agnes, mentioned to her friend that the next day would be her thirty-ninth birthday.
After the group had left, Campolo got a bright idea. He said to the gruff proprietor behind the counter, “Did you hear that one woman say tomorrow was her birthday? Whaddya say we throw her a party? I’ll come back tomorrow night with some decorations, and let’s surprise her with a cake and everything!”
The man’s wife came out of the kitchen. Both of them said, “That’s a wonderful idea. Let’s do it.”
Twenty-four hours later the little diner was decorated with streamers and balloons. A festive sign was taped to the mirror. The couple had put the word out and a large assortment of night people were gathered. When the prostitutes came in for their usual coffee, the shout went up: Happy Birthday Agnes!”
The woman stood speechless as the singing began. Tears started to roll down her cheeks. Nobody had shown her genuine kindness in years. The owner brought out a birthday cake with candles. Agnes was in such shock that she had to be reminded to blow them out.
She paused again, “Well, cut the cake, Agnes!” the proprietor said.
She finally found words. In a whisper she said, “Please… I just… I just want to keep the cake. I’ll take it to my apartment down the street… just for a couple of days. Please let me keep the cake.”
No one knew how to respond, but no one could think of a reason to refuse her request. So out the door she fled, holding the cake as if it were the Holy Grail.
An awkward silence filled the room. Campolo finally broke in with a bold suggestion: “I have another idea - why don’t we pray?” Without hesitation he began to voice a prayer for Agnes, that God would bless her on her birthday, that God would bring peace into her life and save her from all that troubled her…
At the amen, the diner owner said, “Hey you didn’t tell me you were a preacher? What kind of church do you preach at?”
Campolo thought a moment, cocked his head sideways, and then answered with a grin, “I preach at the kind of church that throws birthday parties for whores at three-thirty in the morning!”
What happened next was the most poignant moment of all. The man squinted at Campolo and announced,
“No… no, you don’t. There is no church like that. I would join a church like that.”
[from The Kingdom of God is a Party by Tony Campolo p3-9]

Service with reflections on Mackenzie Thorpe sculptures

Have a look...
http://www.ststephens.co.nz/ministry/sermons/collection/20070603.1181003987.php