As we forgive

In days of injustice

In the midst of the spin of the daily news, it can be good to take a moment to re-center. Much of the work I do here revolves around sharing information—what I’ve uncovered in my research and observation—in the hope that it might lead to deeper understnading, and possibly also to action. But in moving from insight to action, it’s important to stay rooted in something deeper than the will to fight.

In the Civil Rights era, the notion of “beloved community” cultivated a deep sense of courage, and it also defined the course of action people would decide to take. Rooted in faith, the tactics of nonviolent resistance sent a powerful message in the face of violence and cruelty. It didn’t come easy.

I think often of the witness of Civil Rights activists these days, and find myself wondering if we are drawing sufficiently on the moral inspiraton to guide the actions we take, or hope to take. When the language of us vs. them abounds, when powerful interests provoke and benefit from division, and when confronted with real threats to life and liberty, how do we not become what we wish to defeat?

These thoughts surfaced again last Sunday as I listened to my pastor’s sermon. We are in the middle of a series on the Lord’s Prayer and were up to “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Over the course of Pastor Len’s sermon, I found myself thinking of the moral formation that is critical at times like this—especially for those who may feel compelled to act.

I encourage you to catch the whole sermon here, but I’ll include portions below.

Here’s my pastor, Len Vander Zee:

The more I get into this prayer that Jesus taught us, the more subversive it seems to get. The deeper I go, the more I realize how transforming it becomes. Pray this prayer from your heart and It will gradually turn you inside out….

God, the creator, absolutely refuses to let go of the world he has made. God will not let sin come in the way of his relationship with us. God loves, God forgives.

It is with this confidence that we come to pray, Forgive us our debts.

That’s it? It’s all just forgiven? No, that’s not it. Remember, the goal of our salvation is reclaiming of our true humanity. To become the true human image bearers of God.

One of my favorite theologians, Richard Beck, puts it like this. Becoming a human being is a grave and weighty task, and to reach that goal we each have to assume that burden. What we do with our lives and with our freedom in the world matters.

More than that, what we do affects others. Our actions can make the lives of others easier or harder, lighter or heavier, blessed or cursed, healed or harmed, loved or wounded, cared for or abused, filled with light or cast into darkness. There must be an accounting.

Even the grace and forgiveness of does not absolve us from taking responsibility for what we do in our lives.

Yes, Jesus died on the cross for all the sins of the whole world. But, as we say in the Creed each week, He will come again to what…to judge the living and the dead….

…The real punch line of the prayer [is] ‘forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us.’

Here is the next step in our transformation. Just as God in Christ freely forgives our sin, so now we become like him in forgiving those who violate or hurt or sin against us.

And Jesus really means it. In Matthew immediately after giving us this prayer, he chooses to comment on this one piece of it.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

This is not easy stuff. It really goes against the grain. We’ve all felt it when someone disses us, or lied about us, or hurts us in some way. We want to get even. We want to pay back. We want to see them suffer.

The way of human life is tit for tat. It’s revenge, it’s payback. It’s us against them. It’s love your friends and hate us. your enemies. That’s the way the world works.

We see this being played out in high definition before our eyes right now. When our leaders, who we might hope, would demonstrate goodness and respect for others, seem to glory in revenge and hatred. And they are making this kind of attitude seem normal and right, in a way that is infecting our whole society.

But before we get too smug, the same kinds of attitudes can be seen in us. Those of us who see ourselves on the right side of history by standing up against all forms of oppression and victimization. We can also fall into despising and hating the oppressors, and seeking retribution.

After 27 years of cruel mistreatment in South African prisons, Nelson Mandela said, “As I walked out the door to the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew that if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

Bitterness and hatred lock people in their own dark prison. It’s a place without real love, without mercy. It makes life a dead end game of constant hurt and retribution.

God’s gracious forgiveness is given to flow through us to others, even to our enemy. If forgiveness stops with us, it stagnates and makes us sick. That’s Jesus’ point.

But it can be so hard. Some of us have been deeply hurt or abused, maybe by someone very close.

Some of us have experienced injustice because of the color of your skin, or because of your sexuality or gender. Some of us have experienced terrible expressions of hatred or even threats because of our stand for love, truth and justice.

It's really hard to forgive that. It’s really hard not to become bitter with resentment and anger. You have to constantly fight the desire to get even. And this is especially when we can see no remorse, no repentance at all on the part of our oppressors.

Forgiveness is not forgetting the wrong, It’s certainly not excusing it. In forgiving we take a hard look at the wrong that’s been done. And it demands that same from those who have done the wrong to us.

Sometimes those who wrong us won’t face it and won’t admit they’re wrong. Do we still forgive? Jesus’ answer is Yes, even seventy times seven.

But at that point it may not necessarily be for their sake. It’s for ourselves, so that our lives might not be destroyed, as Mandela said, by the prison of resentment and hate.

In that case letting them go in forgiveness we release them into the hands of God. And they will stand one day before God’s face.

As Paul writes in Romans 12: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”

Instead, he says, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Forgiveness of others never means that we forget about demanding justice and calling out wrong wherever we see it. Not in ourselves and not in others. Forgiveness and the call for justice belong together. That’s true for God, and it’s true for us.

A couple weeks ago, I finished reading Jonathan Eng’s moving new biography of Dr. Martin Luther King. Non-violence and love of one’s enemies were King’s bottom line message through his whole life.

I listened again to what he said that night in church in Memphis just hours before he was hit by a bullet and passed over to the promised land. It’s good to hear it these days.

Of course it was a message for a specific people at a specific time. We, mostly white folks here, can’t simply adopt it as our own. In fact, it points to injustices we participate in.

But it’s also a universal struggle, and we might humbly learn from Dr. King and his movement how we can stand up to evil and injustice today with our souls intact.

“We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do…. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round." Bull Connor would say, "Turn the fire hoses on."

“Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out….

And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we'd just go on singing "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can…. and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome."

And every now and then we'd get in the jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs….”

Love and justice belong together. Forgiveness and the enduring protest against evil belong together.

Perhaps in these days of growing injustice, hatred, and greed, amid intensifying calls for retribution and payback and authoritarian power. In an atmosphere of degrading speech and hateful attitudes, it’s good to remember how Dr. King ended his speech that night.

“Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will.

And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. For mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

I wanted to share these words with you, and I love reading your insights as well. Please share the resources you’re drawing on right now for spiritual resilience in the comments below.

Also, perhaps consider signing up for the King Center Institute’s training course in nonviolent resistance. I have not done this yet myself, but I have heard good things from those who have. The training is online, and you can sign up individually or as a group.