I want to continue with God as love being made flesh as forgiveness - salvation
for the world.
Wednesday
Someone quoted Rene Girard who noted that the first definition of the unconscious
is "Forgive them for they know not what they do." I looked at that for a while.
I wasn't so sure about calling that the first definition of the unconscious but
I sat with it and continued reading and thinking about the sermon. Trying to put
some more meaning behind the word 'salvation' so that it wasn't something that
had to do with what happens after death, I think Girard's statement hit me. Salvation
is about life. Salvation is about bringing to humankind the life that is meant to
be for all of us. It is the life that we have dropped in pursuit of other life -
life that is (as Luther notes) turned-in-on-self. That is life that is sin - broken.
Salvation is the power that breaks the cycle that keeps us spinning in our violence
and our hatred and our envy and our jealousy and our (continue forever with the
many sides of sin). From the cross - not as a piece of jewelry or a sign traced
on our body or a processional-like banner - we see the way of salvation. We do not
embrace the cross, we embrace the life that is up on the cross and the life that
God raises up from the cold, dark, grasp of death. Imagine this - all the power
of death and sin having to hear Jesus' last words. They were probably waiting for
him to say "Just wait, my Father will destroy you." And yet, the final line - the
final delivery is - a delivery. Father forgive them. Forgive them - forgive all
of humanity for 'they know not what they are doing.' All we can do at that point
is stutter. No power is left - save flat out forgiveness. Humanity is handed the
way of salvation - the way to transform life - the way to resurrect death and brokenness
- forgiveness.
Thursday
What do you do when you have been hurt by another - put down by another - disrespected
by another - shut out by another - insulted by another - treated like nobody at
all by another - falsely accused by another - lied to by another?
Oh, this list can go on and on. This list is one we each know. This is also a list
we may hate to embrace because it sounds quite horrible to see it written out. Add
to all this the descriptions that are used by someone like the Apostle Paul when
he is trying to remind a community of the way not to be - that is the way not to
be 'of the flesh' - that is, ruled by brokenness. He throws in envy - jealousy
- fornication (you know the lists). It is a list of actions - a list of thoughts
that bring about actions - a list of attitudes that bring about actions - a list
of perceptions that bring about actions. When we are honest, the actions are no
nice - they are not loving - they are not creative. In fact, it is as though we
forget about being children of this God of love. This week I have been made to wonder
if forgiveness is the power that breaks this endless cycle of sin. I wonder if forgiveness
- even when we have all the arguments in the world to not forgive and even more
arguments to hate and fight and work for retribution and revenge - stops it all.
What can continue beyond forgiveness? Isn't that always meant to be a new beginning?
Yes, it may be the end of us - but it is a reinstatement of the beginning - salvation
- right in the face of the power of humanity's broken and turned-in-on-self.
What I wrote yesterday caused me to shutter. I thought it just made me stutter,
but no, it hit me much more deeply. Salvation is the power for new life that is
meant to reach in and own our hearts. That causes the world to shudder because it
means the end of all things and the beginning of all that can be new. I cannot promise
to be ready for that. I hang on to anger and fear and hatred and envy (the long
list again) too readily. If God was anything other than love - there would be no
power to overcome the brokenness that is each of us. When Simeon sings that he
has seen salvation in the baby Jesus, he saw that all the power of God's Reign is
here - in the wide, open, expanses of our humanity. In that child - as that child
grows - there will be the salvation of our God - available and known through a vulnerability
that makes us all shutter because it will be so real for each and every day of our
lives. It is available and it is at hand, but I know myself and I often do not want
anything to do with it. I want warfare. I want one-upmanship. I want you to pay
for what you said or did and I want to be a part of the power that makes you pay
- somehow. So, to have this God as love pull at me from the cross during a last
breath of life - a life that is all forgiveness - makes me shudder. So what happens
next?
O God of love and new life, wrap us up with the power of your never-failing love
so that we can face the coldness of the power of death and turn to you alone.
Amen.
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