What is forgiveness? Is it simply saying "I'm sorry" and moving on? How do we go about not only seeking but also giving forgiveness? Alcoholics Anonymous has a list of 12 steps towards forgiveness. People pay therapists thousands of dollars to try to learn how to forgive. God created the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous and God created therapists. In other words, God is not the only means available to us to receive or grant forgiveness. However, we cannot grant true forgiveness on our own. In order to forgive we must "let go and let God." This is not always easy for us to do, because very often, we are raised to believe that we are in control. We are taught to be responsible for our own actions and that if we ask for help we are selling ourselves short. Letting go is the root of Christian fellowship and forgiveness. To be able to grant true forgiveness all we can do is turn to God and build a relationship with God in order that we might forgive others. Forgiveness means letting go of all hope for a better past. We cannot change the past the only thing we can do is except whatever happened in the past and then hand it over to God.
What about receiving forgiveness? The route of Satan, evil and sin is the voice inside of you telling you that you are not God's beloved child and therefore you cannot be forgiven. However, The parable of the prodigal son teaches us of God's unconditional love for us. How often do we forget to ask for God's grace? How often are we like the older son in the parable, stubbornly refusing to forgive? Several of us during the Wednesday soup and discussion found ourselves rather uncomfortably relating to the older brother in the story. We don't know if the brothers in the story learned anything. It ends with the father and the older son still outside discussing the prodigal son's return. Just as we don't know when ask forgiveness of others whether or not it will be granted to us. Why is it then that when we seek forgiveness of others we forget to ask for God's grace? Unconditional forgiveness is the scandal of Christianity.
What about receiving forgiveness? The route of Satan, evil and sin is the voice inside of you telling you that you are not God's beloved child and therefore you cannot be forgiven. However, The parable of the prodigal son teaches us of God's unconditional love for us. How often do we forget to ask for God's grace? How often are we like the older son in the parable, stubbornly refusing to forgive? Several of us during the Wednesday soup and discussion found ourselves rather uncomfortably relating to the older brother in the story. We don't know if the brothers in the story learned anything. It ends with the father and the older son still outside discussing the prodigal son's return. Just as we don't know when ask forgiveness of others whether or not it will be granted to us. Why is it then that when we seek forgiveness of others we forget to ask for God's grace? Unconditional forgiveness is the scandal of Christianity.
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