This week starts with the resurrection and the the kingdom of peace and forgiveness - by Stanley Hauerwas.
It is crucial that we understand that such a peaceableness is possible only if we are also a forgiven people. We must remember that our first task is not to forgive, but to be the forgiven. Too often to be ready to forgive is a way of exerting control over another. We fear accepting forgiveness from another because such a gift makes us powerless - and we fear the loss of control involved. Yet we continue to pray, "Forgive our debts." Only by learning to accept God's forgiveness as we see it in the life and death of Jesus can we acquire the power that comes from learning to give up that control.
Hauerwas then directs us to Matthew 6:25-27 (not to be anxious about your life...)
"Such a gift (being forgiven) makes us powerless - and we fear the loss of control involved." To be forgiven means our hands are thrown up into the air and we no longer are able to pull strings or begin to demand things of others. We begin our next step within a new world. What has been becomes powerless over us - even the power we expected to carry over others. Being forgiven is to understand what it is to be on the bottom and yet to be completely embraced by our God who forgives without end. Being in such a position helps us to see others with new eyes. Therefore, the ones we thought we could stand over and be the controlling agent of forgiveness are no longer ones beneath us. Rather, we are standing eye-to-eye.
Connection: Do we walk differently through the day when we remember that we are a forgiven people?
When you forgive us, O God, it is as though we begin to see with new eyes. It is not always what we want to do but when we do it, we notice how clearly the world looks when it is uncluttered by our brokenness. Be our vision, O God. Amen.
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