St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Easter 2: Witnesses to God's forgiveness, part two (John 20. 19-31)

What is the very first thing a baby does when born?
He takes in his first breath, and the baby begins his life.
In our gospel today, Jesus breathes on his disciples.
When his disciples take in their first breath afterwards, they have the beginning of a new life.
A new life of peace and forgiveness. A community of new life of peace and forgiveness.
It's the evening of the day of the resurrection.
Earlier in the day, Jesus appeared to his disciple, Mary of Magdala, and had a conversation with her.
The other disciples aren't sure what to believe and are in fact, we're told, afraid, so they have gathered that evening together with doors locked tight.
We know from Luke's gospel that there are other disciples present in addition to the 11 remaining men.
It's a small enough and a large enough group to gather in one space (like us today).
Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, stands in their midst (we're not told how he got there, the inference being that he just appears). He said he'd be back
What are the first words to them?
Peace be with you.
In case they didn't get it the first time, what does he say a second time?
Peace be with you.
He then adds, As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
Then he breathes on them.
Jesus says, Receive the Holy Spirit.
He explains what receiving the Holy Spirit will look like:
If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven them.
If you retain the sins of any, those sins are retained.
Jesus breaths into existence a new community.
A community of forgiveness.
Take a breath--Jesus' breath is in this place today.
Jesus' breath of peace. Jesus' breath of forgiveness.
Whether we feel it or not. Whether we believe it or not. It's here.
This forgiveness that we have to offer-whether we choose or not-through Jesus' power begins with the forgiveness that God has already given us.
When I was little, when I fell down and hurt myself, if I cried loudly enough or if I limped in to show my mother, she always washed my cut, put some ointment on it, and bandage it up.
The very last thing she did was to kiss it.
To make it all better.
The truth was that it didn't feel all better.
But the truth also was that it was well onto being all better.
Henry Ward Beecher, a nineteenth century pastor wrote, "God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness."
Kisses our offenses into everlasting forgiveness.
That's the forgiveness God gives us first.
When we fall down, God is ready to bandage us up and kiss and make it not just better, but all better,
but first we have to cry out and let God know that we want God to bandage us up.
Does God know without us crying out?
Of course. But for some reason, God knows that we need to cry out first.
That's repentance.
Then God cleans us up and bandages us up, and it may be very, very painful to allow God to heal us.
But God will kiss us and kiss us and kiss us until we know what God already knows.
That we are pardoned into everlasting forgiveness.
This everlasting forgiveness, Jesus says in the upper room the night of his resurrection, is the forgiveness we have the power to offer, or not, to one another.
If we won't believe Jesus, look in the Book of Common Prayer, in the Catechism, on page 855: The Ministry.
Where it says……"The ministry of the laity: ….is to carry on Christ's reconciliation in the world."
Couldn't the world use a little reconciliation?
Couldn't we?
Jesus breathed us to be a community of Reconciliation; a community in which forgiveness is firmly lodged.
That's why Jesus says, as the Father has sent me so I send you….
God sent Jesus as the ultimate gift of forgiving and forgiveness.
So we, as the Church, are sent out to be forgiven and to forgive.
We are Jesus' breath of reconciliation.
We are Jesus' words, Peace be with you.
Words that open doors and breathe new life.
It's what we're doing in our liturgy when we say Jesus' words to us to one another, The peace of the Lord be with you.
It's not really a time to say hello or get up and walk around and take a break.
We have just confessed and received God's forgiveness.
Liturgically, it's the time to remind one another that God's peace is here with us.
Right here. Right now.
We have been forgiven. So forgive!

So let's talk about forgiving.
Not the God forgiving part.
But the we forgiving part.
The retaining the sins of others part.
While Dietrich Bonheoffer, the great 20th century German pastor was imprisoned by the Nazis, not too long before the Nazis murdered him, he wrote a sermon for his sister's wedding.
He wrote, Forgive each other every day from the bottom of your hearts.
Martin Luther King, Jr., another 20th century martyr wrote, Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.
C.S. Lewis, the 20th century Anglican theologian wrote, Everyone says that forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.
Do we get it? Forgiving is the foundation of being Jesus' disciples.
How do we do this? Be forgiving?
I've written and told you about a method that my mother taught me.
I'm sharing it again, for those who have never heard it, and for those of us who need to hear it again.
Go back to our mother and child metaphor.
This time instead of falling down, let's say that someone has pushed us down.
How can we get better? How can we forgive?
We cry out and God tends to us.
We give the wound time to begin to heal.
Not forgiving too soon, but not picking at the scab so that it never heals.
Sometimes hurts are so big that we will need the help of a professional-a therapist, a priest.
But there will come a time-minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, even years later, when it is time to heal. We have to forgive. Then and only then, we say the prayer to God:
God, I know that I cannot forgive……………… on my own, but it is time for me to forgive them.
Help me to forgive …………… for the hurt he/she has done. [at this point, we even name the hurt].
Once and for all, today, at this very moment, with your help, God, I forgive completely and forever…………………….
God, please also forgive any part that I have had in this broken relationship.
Thank you God, that there is now rejoicing in heaven, because I was in prison, and you have released me.
Thanks be to God.
Then. When ill feelings for that person rise up. When we remember something they have done to hurt us, and it will, I can almost promise, we do this:
Ask God to bless them.
They have been forgiven by us, once and for all; we do not need to ask God again, so give them to God for God's blessing. And go on.
Everytime those thoughts rise, ask God to bless that person.
Over time, those thoughts will become less and less, until in time, we realize that those feelings are no longer there.
This prayer also works when it is ourselves whom we have to forgive.
It is the height of pride to not receive and not to give God's forgiveness
Who are we to say that our sin is so big, so very big that God can't forgive it?
When we hold on to our sin and not allow God to forgive we are saying that our sin is bigger than God.
When we don't allow God to help us to forgive someone else, we are saying that our holding on to forgiving others is stronger than God's power to help us forgive.
Forgiving others is not about having to have them to come ask us to forgive them first.
Our forgiving others is the kind of forgiveness that Jesus had on the cross when he said, Father forgive them because they don't know what they are doing.
Certainly our forgiving doesn't necessarily mean forgetting.
There may always be a scar.
We may not put ourselves in a position so that they can push us down again.
But we are free. We have peace.
Today, with every breath you breathe, breathe in the Jesus' power of peace and forgiveness and forgiving.
As the Father has sent Jesus, may we be sent, too.
AMEN