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One facet of Communion is the forgivEE remembering with gratitude what it cost The ForgivER to make communion possible. The Communion table – the bread and the wine – give structure and form – a way of keeping that gratitude and remembrance before our faces.
Continue reading “In Communion?”
I’ve also been thinking about the story of the woman caught in adultery in Matthew 8. It occurred to me to try and imagine what her life would have been had she not been outed. The religious leaders that dragged her, possibly naked, into the public arena of the temple where they knew Jesus would be, had precisely ZERO good intentions. They didn’t care about the law, they were misusing the law – after all, where was the dude? No justice there.
They didn’t care about her reform or status or situation in life (likely a prostitute – with no other means of survival). They were fully intent on trapping Jesus with what they thought would present Him an impossible call, and used force, shame, power and the perversion of justice to bring this to a head.
Very not fair.
Outrageous in fact.
So they brought her, guilty as charged, totally shamed before her community for either a judgement of death on her, or a means to create hatred and dissent toward Jesus.
And they failed.
In the end it seems everyone but Jesus and the woman left that place with a measure of shame. The leaders themselves caught in their own trap and the woman though guilty, was freed from her condemnation and shame.
What an incredible collision of intentions, actions and people.
Forgiveness – The ideas attributed to forgiveness are often pre-packaged with a whole host of assumptions, a tonne of pain, a few shovelfuls of offence, confusion about moving forward etc etc etc and when you’re in the middle of a knot it can be pretty tricky to figure out which is what. It’s also pretty often that the knot itself is what gets in the way of being able to forgive when we assume more is meant by it than is so.
Continue reading “Unpacking forgiveness”
Are you a good grudge keeper? About a week ago I started thinking about a common thing that people seem to do – and two possible alternatives.
Continue reading “Record of Rights”
Have you ever noticed that all the internet quotes on forgiveness only ever seem to focus on one side of the coin? They say things like “unless you can forgive you won’t move on” and how forgiveness frees the one who forgives from bitterness etc etc etc. I do agree with them but they only present one side of a coin – it’s almost as though we are all the forgivers and no-one causes the pains/offenses.
Continue reading “Sometimes the forgiv-EN”
When it’s not asked for and not given.
When it is asked for and not given.
When it’s not asked for and IS given.
When it’s asked for and given.
All are possible, some more likely, the asking and the giving can be longed for by the other, though none willing to take the first step.
What Jesus effectively did was build a bridge, cross it, and stand close enough to enable us to respond. He did whatever was in His power to do that.
Continue reading “Bridges”