Pater Noster: Forgiveness

"Only one petition in the Lord's Prayer has any condition

attached to it. It is the petition for forgiveness."

William Temple

Everybody needs to forgive but also to be forgiven. It is part of our human condition – we  trapped in a vertigo of endless evil and suffering and that demands a deep forgiveness. Jesus identifies forgiveness with breathing (Joh 20:22-23). It is the one thing you will have to learn from your birth until you die.

 

The problem is that forgiveness has no logic. It is the final breakdown of what we recon as just and fair.

 

Two-thirds of Jesus’ teachings are about forgiveness. More than a third of the parables that Jesus told, points to forgiveness. When we fail to forgive and be forgiven we create grievance stories. Grievance stories causes wounds that we inflict on ourselves and other. Richard Rohr says “pain not transformed will be inflicted”.

 

Forgiveness is not denying or minimizing our pain. It is not forgetting. It is not the elimination of all the consequences. It is melting into the mystery of Gods unearned love. It is ultimately a gift of grace and not a simple act of your will.  It calls for deep brokenness, weeping and the letting go of power over people. It is to refuse destructive power. When you refuse to forgive you hold unto the power you have over another person. To forgive is to give the power back to God.

 

God’s forgiveness is like breathing. It is something He does; it is who God is. God can do no other.

 

That is also Gods invitation for the human journey… 

Lectio Divina

Pray with Simplicity

⁵"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

⁶"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

^7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

   Our Father in heaven,
   Reveal who you are.
   Set the world right;
   Do what's best— as above, so below.
   Keep us alive with three square meals.
   Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
   Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
   You're in charge!
   You can do anything you want!
   You're ablaze in beauty!
      Yes. Yes. Yes.

^14-15"In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.

Notes:

The Law of Lameg

Want Kain sal sewe maal gewreek word, maar Lameg sewe en sewentig maal.

Gen 4:24

 

“And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it's not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive--only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins."

Mark 11:25

 

Why must conversions always come so late? Why do people

always apologize to corpses? David Brin

 

The Law of Christ

 

En wanneer julle staan en bid, vergeef as julle iets teen iemand het, sodat julle Vader wat in die hemele is, ook julle jul oortredinge mag vergewe.

Mark 11:25

 

As julle die mense hulle sondes vergewe, dan word dit hulle vergewe; as julle die mense hulle sondes hou, dan is dit gehou.

Joh 20:23

 

 

Forgiveness is not:

Pardoning.

 

Forgetting.

 

Reconciliation.

 

Forgiveness as...

 

1. Powerless:

 

“Look at times you have withheld

forgiveness. When you have withheld forgiveness, it has been

your attempt to hold a claim over the one you won’t forgive.

It’s the way we finally hold on to power, to seek the moral high

ground over another person. I will hold onto unforgiveness and

you will know it just by my coldness, by my not looking over

there, by my refusal to smile, or whatever. Oh, we do it so

subtly to maintain our sense of superiority. Non-forgiveness is

a form of power over another person, a way to manipulate,

shame, control, and diminish another. God in Jesus refuses to

use such power.

 

The utter powerlessness of God is that God forgives. I hold

myself in a position of power by not forgiving myself or

others.

 

God does not hold on to that position of power.

 

Richard Rohr

 

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of

the strong. Mohandas K Gandhi

 

kom die wraak toe en die vergelding, op die tyd as hulle voet sal wankel; want die dag van hulle ondergang is naby, en wat oor hulle beskik is, kom gou.  Deut 32:35

 

 

2. New Possibilties.

 

Forgiving is the only way to heal the wounds of a past we

cannot change and cannot forget. Forgiving changes a

bitter memory, a cowardly memory into a courageous

memory, an enslaved memory into a free memory.

 

Forgiving restores a self-respect that someone killed. And

more than anything else, forgiving gives birth to hope for

the future after our past illusions have been shattered.

When we forgive, we bring in light where there was

darkness. We summon positives to replace negatives. We

open the door to an unseen future that our painful past

had shut. When we forgive, we take God’s hand, walk

through the door, and stroll into the possibilities that wait

for us to make them real. Lewis Smedes

A New way of seeing:

 

1. See God in the person who harmed me....
2. See God in myself who helps me with forgiving the other...
3. Meeting the God who is more than  the judge!!

Zechariah 12:10

New International Version (NIV)

Mourning for the One They Pierced

 ¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

 

 

 

3. Let go…..and Let God! 

Forgiveness is not a passive act - but a love-act that serve and pour oneself out in the opposite spirit.