I want to use another music metaphor this week: the idea of our playing a part in the great symphony of creation that the Creator has composed for us to play when relationships are broken or in disrepair; a part that if done right, builds to an amazing crescendo of God’s presence.

We are in the midst of Lent, a time not just of contemplation, but of action. A time of responding to Christ’s call to repent, that is change our ways, and then to actually do just that by turning in a new direction, a direction toward God.

Easter is in a few weeks, and I assume I will not spoil the story by telling you that Jesus ends up being tried, convicted, sentenced and executed by Roman authorities.

The authorities kill Jesus in an effort to prevent his radical message and his Way of love and peace from spreading. From the vantage point of history this is, of course, supremely ironic since the killing of Jesus did more to spread his radical message and The Way of love and peace than any act Jesus did in life.

The killing of Jesus thankfully led to his resurrection and the resurrected Jesus can’t be stopped by the authorities.

As we heard in today’s reading from John locked doors and walls cannot even stop the resurrected Jesus, let alone Pilate or Roman legions.

This is usually a story for Easter or after Easter, but, I have chosen it as one of today’s lessons because it raises one of the most radical teachings of Jesus’ and perhaps one of the hardest areas for us to repent, that is turn around.

Although the disciples are locked up tight in a house Jesus gets in.

The disciples had ever reason to be scared, angry and frustrated, not only at Jesus’s senseless death but at the threat facing them behind those doors. Jesus returns to them as they tremble barred in a house, and Jesus’ first other-worldly words are not about how to retaliate.

We are told instead Jesus first offers them peace and shows he is the risen Christ, and then gives them what seems a strange power. “ Jesus greets them again: “Peace,” he says. “Just as the Father sent me, so now I’m sending you.” And at this he breathed over them and says “Here’s some holy spirit. Take it. If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you do not release them from their sins they are not released.” (Scholars Version)

Jesus empowers them as envoys of God with the breath of the Holy Spirit and this amazing superpower– the ability to forgive. This a superpower already at their finger tips, just as it is at ours. I say “superpower” because Jesus notes that by forgiving we can make sins go away, what’s more Jesus notes that if we do not forgive then the sins will not be released, they will not go away.

In a way this talk by the resurrected Christ, should not be surprising. While alive Jesus taught and practiced forgiveness.

He said that whenever we pray – whenever we pray– we are to forgive if we have anything against anyone.

As we heard in the reading from Matthew Jesus also teaches us that we are to forgive over and over, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Then remarkably as Jesus is dying he asks God to forgive those who tortured and hung him on the cross. Jesus does not call upon God to bring a legion of angels to his aid or that God smite a single soul. Jesus and God do not respond in kind to the violence inflicted upon Jesus in the passion narratives, rather the Divine responses are victories through non-violence, through Love and through forgiveness.

Jesus’s amazing Grace in life and at the cross have resonated through the ages. On the cross Jesus’ sacrifice and love and forgiveness – what the world might think of as weaknesses – are turned on their head by God and made everlasting strengths and means of salvation. Today the very cross that led to Jesus’ resurrection can lead to our own new life in Christ.

And forgiveness is key to our new life. It is no accident one of the last utterances remembered on the cross was about forgiveness and that one of the first utterances by Jesus after the resurrection is about forgiveness. Forgiveness is critical to living and walking Jesus’ Way.

Have you ever really thought about what the heck forgiveness really is? We tend to think of it as just forgetting harm that is done, but, that is not what it is. Martin Luther King, Jr. notes that

Simply put forgiveness is the restoration of a healthy relationship with God and others. It is needed whenever a relationship with another being is broken and in need of repair. This can mean anything from a fight over the remote to horrific acts of violence. And forgiveness is rarely easy, and at best it seems to range from hard to impossible.

While forgiveness may be hard and sometimes very, very difficult it is, in fact, never impossible. The Gospels report that Jesus forgave those who beat him and hung him on the cross to die. It may take us time, but through Jesus’s example we too can forgive even the worse of those who have sinned against us. And we can be forgiven for the worse sins we ourselves have committed.

Consider the example of the seemingly impossible-to-forgive situations in the story of apartheid in South Africa where countless acts of horror occurred, yet, a process of forgiveness unfolded.

Thankfully apartheid was brought to an end in the early 1990s without a bloody coup. This was accomplished through a remarkable process. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu reports in his book No Future Without Forgiveness 2 that the new government intended to dismantle apartheid in a manner that avoided retaliatory violence.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to address acts of brutality by apartheid and its opponents in a way that “‘transcend[ed] the divisions and strife of the past.’” The way chosen was amnesty for “acts, omissions and offences associated with political objectives . . .”(Tutu, 45-46).

This mandate for amnesty resulted in the formation of the Commission and one of its tasks was to take testimony from wrongdoers. If the wrongdoers fully disclosed misdeeds, they were granted amnesty (49-50). Although wrongdoers were not required to repent, most “expressed at least remorse and asked forgiveness from their victims” (Tutu, 50).

Victims of apartheid were also provided a place to be heard and some 20,000 came forward with testimony (Tutu, 91, 108). For the wrongdoers, victims and South Africa Tutu tried to set a compassionate spiritual tone to the process with, among other things, prayer and the symbolic presence of Christ. (e.g., Tutu, 113-114).

The testimonies included gruesome descriptions of horrific torture and murder. Tutu argues the disclosures demonstrated the “awful depth of depravity to which we could all sink, that we possess an extraordinary capacity for evil” (Tutu, 144). Tutu noted though that “however diabolical the act, it did not turn the perpetrator into a demon”(Tutu, 83). Amazingly Tutu went on to observe that:

As we place South Africa’s experience along side our own faith and the instructions from Jesus that we are to forgive– it is clear we are called toward forgiveness, that we all benefit from it – and suffer by failing to answer the call.

“Involvement in forgiveness” means a process that begins with either or both the victim and wrongdoer taking steps toward forgiveness. The process of forgiveness seems to have eight basic steps which can occur in any order:

Step Seven is when the victim sees the wrongdoer “as worthful again;“ 9

and finally Step Eight is movement toward repairing the harm 10.

Any one of these steps or combination of them in any order can begin or further the process of forgiveness.

Forgiveness doesn’t usually happen overnight, although the process can be short and lead to actual complete reconciliation or forgiveness, often forgiveness is a long process that may not bear the fruit of completion.

But whether short or long, complete or incomplete, with just one step, the process always moves the parties engaged in it toward shalom and God.

So, how are we supposed to get into the process of forgiveness? And do both the victim and the wrongdoer have to be involved? Well, ideally both should be involved. 11.

When both the victim and wrongdoer are involved, more steps in the process of forgiveness can be taken. This is important since the more steps taken the more movement there is in the process. But all parties to the incident are not needed. Either the wrongdoer or the victim can move toward shalom and God and healing alone by simply taking one or more steps.

A helpful image of this forgiveness process is to imagine the steps as a musical crescendo (that hairpin “<" above a music score) with the crescendo indicating the increasingly growing experience of the vibrations of God with each step taken. In other words, the more acts that occur, the more the vibration of God is experienced and the more movement there is toward healing, restoration, reconciliation, forgiveness, shalom and God.

The concept of the Trinity can also help us to envision how God is involved in forgiveness. In fact, the process of forgiveness is something humans are called to involve themselves in by each role of God. 12.

The Creator sets the agenda for forgiveness.

Christ sets the example of forgiving.

sets the example of forgiving.The Holy Spirit initiates and sustains our forgiving practices.13.

In fact our scripture reading from John suggests as much, we can see that the Father’s plan was to send Jesus who set the example for us and gives us the means and the power through the Holy Spirit to forgive.

Taking the music metaphor a step further: the forgiveness process can also be seen on the whole as a symphony. The Father as Creator composed the score; Jesus Christ as first violinist shows us how to play the score; and the Holy Spirit conducts us through the score. We are the orchestra and our role is to show up and play our part causing a crescendo to build with each step we take.

The trouble, of course, is that we often don’t show up, and even when we do we often lack the discipline or knowledge to play our parts as written, demonstrated or conducted by the Triune God.

As a church it is our call to help each other understand the need to show up and be motivated and disciplined and empowered with the knowledge necessary to play our parts in this symphony of forgiveness that God has written.

Any movement toward forgiveness helps to begin healings for us all. If we take even one step whether it be Disclosure, Confession, Repenting, Apology, Requesting Forgiveness, Abandoning Retribution, Restoration of Worth, or Reparation we are playing our part.

And when we play our part in the symphony it helps balance the music out for all of us. We can sense the vibration of God in the playing, it is music to our ears.

And one beauty of it is that a person can enter the process alone, and this unilateral option empowers victims to play the music of forgiveness and move toward healing without the wrongdoer causing more harm by not participating.

All of this forgiveness stuff is hard work. But as Bishop Tutu has pointed out:

Our part in God’s plan is to show up and work hard at playing our part – and helping others play theirs – in this movement, this symphony of forgiveness that God has written for us. AMEN! 15.

- ENDNOTES-

2. Tutu, Desmond, No Future Without Forgiveness, New York: Doubleday, (1997).

Tutu, Desmond,, New York: Doubleday, (1997).3 E.g., Augsburg, David, Helping People Forgive, Louisville: Westminister John Knox Press, (1996) 68-72; Jones, Gregory, Embodying Forgiveness, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., (1995)., 15, 247; Tutu, 27, 165.

4 E.g., Augsburger 17-18, Jones, 15, 19 151(summarizing Swinburne)184, 196, 274; Tutu 50, 270.

5 Augsburger, 65, 15; Jones, 21, 147, 274, 288; Tutu, 50, 177, 271.

6 Augsburger 40-41; Tutu, 50, 181.

7 Augsburger, 17-18; Tutu, 50, 261.

8 Augsburger, 15-16, 123; Jones, 217, 256, 264; Tutu, 272.

9 Augsburger, 15, 28, 96-98; Jones, 195, 246-248, 263, 267; Tutu, 144, 271.

10 Augsburger, 21, 55, 67, 117; Jones, 63, 288; Tutu, 229, 260, 273.

11 Augsburger, 6, 61, 97; Jones, 63, 194.

12 E.g., Jones, 101-162, 207.

13 Jones, 207.

14 Tutu, 158.

15. This sermon is based on a course at Eden Theological Seminary called Forgiveness that was taught in the fall of 2004 by Dr. Joretta Marshal. Parts of this sermon also appeared in a sermon I gave at Evangelical UCC in Webster Groves in the Spring of 2005.