Vince Prantil - March 7

Week 3  Matthew 5:43-48

Saturday, March 7, 2015

A Reflection on Forgiveness from Vince Prantil

During one of Gandhi’s hunger strikes he was approached by a Hindu fighting the Muslims. He  said, “I’m going to hell. I killed a Muslim boy.” Gandhi said, “I know a way out of hell … find a boy whose parents were killed and raise him as your own . . .  BUT make sure he is a Muslim and you raise him as one.” Ask yourselves this: Why do we often dislike our enemies? Because they are “different from us”? Our humanness can let “differences” fester into animosity. Our culture pits old vs. young, white vs. black, straight vs. gay, male vs. female. There is wisdom in all genders, ages, races, and sexual orientations. Why is it hard to admit we’re richer for the differences? Those differences can be platforms for learning and tolerance and open-mindedness. I think Gandhi was right when he said, “The only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts. And that is where all our battles should be fought.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. said “There’s some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.” Gandhi is echoing Matthew when he says, “It is the weak who cannot forgive … forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Whatever differences we have, we are stronger for them, not weaker. When we label someone as our enemy, we too often fail to see what we may have in common with them. In raising a small Muslim boy, we may learn we are not as different as we thought. When Luke Skywalker is trained by Yoda to be a Jedi Knight, he confronts Darth Vader and beheads him with his light saber. The ominous helmet falls to the ground, unmasking the face of Luke inside. What we see in our enemies too often lives within our own selves. Often we fail to recognize it. The only devils running around “out there” are also “in here.” Matthew says, “Don’t even tax collectors pull out their light sabers?” We can do better. We’re all children of the same Father who wants us to stop fighting and start forgiving.

Father, let us be wise enough to recognize ourselves in others, open enough to admit that our differences strengthen us, and strong enough to forgive when it’s the right thing to do.  Amen.

Sandy Cristan - Friday, March 6

Week 3 - Matthew 5:43-48
Friday, March 6, 2015
A Reflection on Forgiveness from Sandy Cristan

To forgive is to set the prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. ~ Lewis B. Smedes

Everyone, Lord? I know you give your best to everyone in the warmth of the sun and the nourishing rain. I’m supposed to react in love to everyone too? Really? You know I have forgiveness issues, right? It’s a challenge to forgive and love as a way of life. Everyday? Everyone?

I visit my dentist every six months for a check up. I love my dentist, yet going to see him is not a favorite way to pass time for me. He checks me out, points out my dental faults, drills as needed, and fills the space with new material. I regularly need to seek God’s supernatural powers to drill and remove decay from my heart and fill that space with love and forgiveness. This will free the forgiveness prisoner that is me!

When I seek you for a check up, God, as my ultimate loving example, I can more easily see how to reflect your perfect character to others in all circumstances. The world’s example sneaks in rather often. Remind me to keep my eyes on your perfection, not the worldview.

Prayer:
Father God, help me to strive for your perfection, which guides me to react in your love even to those I don’t necessarily feel love for! Teach me to respond in prayer, Lord, so that your light and love shines through all I do today. (I’ll be sure to need that again tomorrow and the next day and...). Use me today, Lord, to reach out in your love to at least three people. Guide me to identify those people that need to see your perfection. Hold me close, God; I need lots of practice here. I seek your glory as I reach out in faith. Amen.

(When you have a spare moment, read this passage in The Message. It may offer a fresh perspective for you.)

Pastor Ray Stubbe - March 5

Week 3 - Matthew 5:43-48
Thursday, March 5, 2015
A Forgiveness Reflection from Pastor Ray Stubbe

Our enemy might be someone or a group that threatens, makes life miserable, or diminishes our life. Enemies exert more than mere human power; or as St. Paul writes, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” but against spiritual forces, confronting us in people or institutions. More frequently, the enemy is within us--fears, guilts, doubts, vexing memories, worries, impulses, or habits that emerge from within our heart.

Forgiveness implies forgetting; some enemies, however, leave lingering memories as though we had been branded with a searing iron. Many years ago, an elderly lady in her 90’s told me: “My uncle sexually molested me as a young girl. I can forgive him, but I can’t forget.” Assault by an enemy affects our whole being, like cloth immersed in a vat of dye, or an iron rod placed in a furnace in which heat thoroughly penetrates the rod. For the woman in her 90’s, remembering sculpted her whole life. The act of remembering shapes our life and results in action. God forgives by not recalling the sin as the basis for actions toward us. God sees us through Christ and does not count our trespasses against us.

What we see shapes our life. My paternal grandmother believed that if a pregnant woman looked at beautiful pictures, her child would be beautiful. While some might laugh, modern science teaches that a brain constantly re-wires itself through new experiences. Perhaps it was not that the child would be beautiful, but that the mother, who has learned to see beauty, would see her child as beautiful.

When Jesus teaches, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” the “be perfect” is a simple future. This is not law, commandment, or a burden, but gospel, good news. We may not see our self or others as perfect, but God does. We look at people from a human perspective, but God looks upon the heart. Right now, we are God’s children, although this isn’t apparent, but will be. We are no longer an old car with dents, scratches, and defective parts, but a gleaming, desirable showroom car!

To see another person creatively involves spinning possibilities around that person, fantasies of who they might become (or are, though not yet). Even though not expressed, they awaken potential. God sees us as already “perfect” and whole, complete, and all together.

Lord, give us power and grace TO SEE OURSELF AND OTHERS AS YOU SEE US. Amen.

Lora Dow: Wednesday, March 4

Week 3: Matthew 5:43-48

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

A Reflection on Forgiveness from Lora Dow

Often when we think of forgiveness, we think of the big hurts of betrayal, insult or abandonment. We think of the spouse or sibling or friend who has hurt us and with whom we are divided. When Jesus talks of “loving your enemies,” he’s also talking about a broader sort of forgiveness. He is calling us to see the whole of humankind as our family and to heal the hurts that divide our world.

“Pray for people who persecute you” is a call to pray for the Other, the one who doesn’t look or sound or worship like we do. Jesus challenges us to be open and loving with those with whom we disagree, or whose perspectives conflict with ours.

“[He] sends rain on the just and on the unjust,” reminds us that His love and forgiveness is available to all. It’s easy to let injustice harden our hearts and blind us to the suffering of others. However, as a congregation and as followers of Christ, we are called to reach out, especially the vulnerable and disadvantaged. 

Understanding forgiveness in these terms acknowledges that we are all broken, but that redemption is possible when we dare to love as God loves us. 

Heavenly Father, help us to follow your loving example; to be courageous and to forgive first; to fight injustice without allowing it to harden our spirits against our neighbors. Let your perfect love teach us how to love others with a generous and open heart. Amen.

Pr. Michelle Townsend de Lopez: Tuesday, March 3

Tuesday, March 3, 2015  Psalm 51

A Reflection on Forgiveness from Pr. Michelle Townsend de Lopez,

Pastor of Cross Lutheran Church, Milwaukee

This psalm is one of my favorites because it is a candid and personal song of redemption.  We see a mighty man, King David, with all of his power, grapple with his guilt that is then juxtaposed against the darkness of shame that has been cast due to his actions.  Yet through true repentance we see the jubilance of God's love for him and for us.

During this Lenten time of self-reflection, we are invited to be honest with ourselves as we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, "Why do we so often try to deceive ourselves and God when we know that God knows the truth?"

Perhaps because on most days we wake up with the best of intentions and somewhere along the way sinful, selfish human nature shows up with great bravado, and we make a mess of it all.  Thanks be to God that God provides a way for our hearts to be made clean when we place ourselves on the altar as that great sacrifice and relinquish our very pride and surrender our hearts to him. It is here where we gain the intimate connection to God's love and experience that renewal in the shadow of our most grievous transgressions. 

Most merciful God, continue to show up in those in-between and uncomfortable places where we want to hide.  Transform our lives and forgive our transgressions that we may have a clean heart.  Amen.