Introduction from Pr. Matt Kruse: February 18

Introduction to St Matthew’s Reflections on Forgiveness

Ash Wednesday – February 18, 2015

Forgive me, Lover, for I have sinned.  For I have done You wrong.  For I have hurt beyond repair, and when tears occurred, and I didn’t care. Forgive me, Lover, for I have loved You Wrong. —The Swell Season, “I Have Loved You Wrong”

     I’ve included the words to one of my favorite songs above, in part because putting my need for forgiveness into words has been hard. In my own preparations for Lent, I have, time and again, found myself without the verbiage to express what it feels like to admit I have wronged another child of God. I cannot put into powerful words the feelings of pain I feel in my gut as I learn of the ways I am complicit in systems that oppress and dehumanize my own brothers and sisters. I sense in myself a great deal of reluctance to put forgiveness into words, in part because it means giving voice to my sins (misguided trust in things) against God that makes forgiveness so necessary.  It means also putting into words the brokenness I have helped to perpetuate and create.  

     I confess that I have sinned against you this day.  Some of my sin I know—the thoughts and words and deeds of which I am ashamed—but some is known only to you.  In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask forgiveness.  Deliver and restore me, that I might live in peace.

     By the mercy of God, we are united with Jesus Christ, in whom we are now forgiven.  We can rest now in the peace/wholeness of Christ, and rise anew each morning to love and serve.  (ELW Night Prayer, p. 321).

     As we enter into a Lenten Season where our worship and devotion are focusing on forgiveness, I commend to you these devotions, particularly because they each, in their own way—put forgiveness into words, into the flesh of human experience, into our consciousness each day.  I am so grateful for the deep wrestling each author has done with a bible story, and for their creative expression of their own faith.  Thanks also to Petey Lund and Sonja Mohr for their extensive work on compiling this inaugural devotional resource for our congregation.

     My prayer and hope for us this Lent is that we might, through worship, through study, through self-examination, and through corporate confession, learn what theologian Greg Jones calls, “The Dance of Forgiveness”—and may we help each other learn the dance steps of forgiveness God shows us through the gracious life, ministry, & death and resurrection of Jesus.  

—Pastor Matt