The following article is the heart of a message I shared at our large, multi-generational, bi-annual family reunion during the evening banquet in August 2010.
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Edwin Hubbel Chapin, a 19th Century American minister once said, "Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive injury."
I posit to you that a family that is rooted and grounded in love; a family that practices unity, is a family that exercises one of the greatest exchanges humankind has ever known: forgiveness.
By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul writes to those who believe on the name of Jesus in his letter to the Ephesians, "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, [along] with malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you" (4:31-32). Jesus commanded His disciples to forgive, and by extension commands us to do the same, in the Gospel according to Luke, "Watch yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him." And His disciples said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you" (Luke 17:3-6). No matter how small the faith, God has given us the power to forgive. It is in the forgiving of those who have offended us that we begin the process of healing.
Esau forgave. Joseph forgave. Jesus forgives. The healing of wounded relationships also involve humility on the part of the offender. Jacob humbled himself before Esau, though he tricked him into forsaking his birthright. The children of Israel humbled themselves before Joseph, though they sold him into slavery and considered him dead. And we must humble ourselves before Jesus, though we were still sinners, the sinless Christ having died in our places. For the penalty of sin is death.
Finally, the exchange happens when in humility we are ready to forgive others' offenses; prepared to seek out forgiveness, to admit wrongs, and to confess our own offenses; and ready to accept and provide love, grace, and mercy.
Someone once posited that "time heals all wounds." I declare to you that time alone heals nothing. Some wounds cut deep, leaving the offended damaged, maimed, disabled, even dead: lacking trust, bearing trauma, emotionally shipwrecked.
Rose Kennedy, the matron of the famed Kennedy political dynasty and mother of both John F. And Robert Kennedy, did not agree either. Knowing the pain of losing three sons, she once said, "The wounds remain. In time, the mind, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."
Our family is not the church, for the church is the body of Christ. We are members one to another if Christ dwells in us, members of a new family with brothers and sisters whose sin is forgiven. And His love covers a multitude of sin. When we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for us who were ungodly. He was wounded for our iniquities. See the nail prints is His hands and feet? The scar on His side? God demonstrated His own love towards us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The great exchange is life on life. We rejoice because those who are Christ's have now received reconciliation. And we too can be reconciled one to another.
Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The Lawless and the City
1 John 3:4 - Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
Matthew 24:12 - "Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold."
Romans 4:7,8 - [7] "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN,
AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. [8] BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT."
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God ordains local authorities to serve and protect its citizens as well as to enforce laws. Although the Law-Giver condemns abuse of power and those who practice injustice, he is NOT in the business of condoning all-out anarchy, or in other words, lawlessness. That said, I am angry about recent incidents in the city; incidents that Chicago police and local news agencies have called "flash mobs," where large groups of young people commit random acts of violence upon unsuspecting "law-abiding" citizens in outdoor locales near or along Lake Shore Dr. I hate to write it this way (and many might say, "Then don't write it"), but these thug, teenaged, thrillseekers are terrorizing people who never accepted the invitation to terror. And unfortunately I have to report (and some may say, "You don't HAVE to") that sadly most of these young people are African American and male. Sadder still is that a few of them have been as young as thirteen years old.
Now I would be naïve to say of such a phenomenon like this, "It is what it is," shrugging it off with nonchalance. As an African American writer, I would be naïve to defend mob action by a few groups of black youths with a veil of excuses (many that enable rather than empower) that point out lacks of opportunity toward transition to productive adulthood. However, someone else's civil liberties have been violated, and the victims have the potential to be as ethnically diverse as is Devon Avenue. These youths' crimes are targeted, yet colorblind. But the violence only further perpetuates the deep-ceded stereotypes of black youths being violent and having no regard for the law; and it gives more fodder for the careless or perhaps racist writers, pundits, spin doctors, and commentators to fuel more fear on top of the terror that seems to already reign on the Magnificent Mile, in the Gold Coast, in Lake View, and mind you, in Englewood where violent crime is never new. But that never makes it right. These writers might write, "Take that back to the South Side. It doesn't belong here." But does violent crime and "lawlessness" ever really BELONG anywhere?
I read a quote in the Red Eye from a heart-broken father about the death of his son, and essentially it went like this: "The police got scared, they over-reacted, and they killed my son;" this in relationship to another recent incident where a teen confronted police after being ordered to drop what was in his hand. It was dark, the youth had reached for the object as he made charge, and, according to Chicago Police, had been warned. An officer shot him dead. The object: a cellphone. In our own disobedience when confronted by God about our own lawlessness, we only kill ourselves because we falsely believe that we can save ourselves from His sovereign presence and authority. We make excuses for our own lawlessness rather than own up, "I was scared, I overreacted, and now I killed myself for disobeying the righteous commandment."
All of us, humanity, by nature practice lawlessness because lawlessness is sin. "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory;" have never met his standard of righteousness (Romans 3:23). Sin has never truly BELONGED. It was never truly God's intention for sinful man to remain sinful, but to renounce sin and be reconciled unto Him. This reconciliation is found through the blood of His Son Jesus who bore our sin and lawlessness and nailed them to a tree. Thieves, like the "flash-mob," only come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. However, Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). And yes, this promise is for everyone, including the thug, teenaged thrillseeker whose lawlessness is just as evident before man and media as our lawlessness is before a holy and righteous God.
Matthew 24:12 - "Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold."
Romans 4:7,8 - [7] "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN,
AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. [8] BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT."
------------------------------------------------------------
God ordains local authorities to serve and protect its citizens as well as to enforce laws. Although the Law-Giver condemns abuse of power and those who practice injustice, he is NOT in the business of condoning all-out anarchy, or in other words, lawlessness. That said, I am angry about recent incidents in the city; incidents that Chicago police and local news agencies have called "flash mobs," where large groups of young people commit random acts of violence upon unsuspecting "law-abiding" citizens in outdoor locales near or along Lake Shore Dr. I hate to write it this way (and many might say, "Then don't write it"), but these thug, teenaged, thrillseekers are terrorizing people who never accepted the invitation to terror. And unfortunately I have to report (and some may say, "You don't HAVE to") that sadly most of these young people are African American and male. Sadder still is that a few of them have been as young as thirteen years old.
Now I would be naïve to say of such a phenomenon like this, "It is what it is," shrugging it off with nonchalance. As an African American writer, I would be naïve to defend mob action by a few groups of black youths with a veil of excuses (many that enable rather than empower) that point out lacks of opportunity toward transition to productive adulthood. However, someone else's civil liberties have been violated, and the victims have the potential to be as ethnically diverse as is Devon Avenue. These youths' crimes are targeted, yet colorblind. But the violence only further perpetuates the deep-ceded stereotypes of black youths being violent and having no regard for the law; and it gives more fodder for the careless or perhaps racist writers, pundits, spin doctors, and commentators to fuel more fear on top of the terror that seems to already reign on the Magnificent Mile, in the Gold Coast, in Lake View, and mind you, in Englewood where violent crime is never new. But that never makes it right. These writers might write, "Take that back to the South Side. It doesn't belong here." But does violent crime and "lawlessness" ever really BELONG anywhere?
I read a quote in the Red Eye from a heart-broken father about the death of his son, and essentially it went like this: "The police got scared, they over-reacted, and they killed my son;" this in relationship to another recent incident where a teen confronted police after being ordered to drop what was in his hand. It was dark, the youth had reached for the object as he made charge, and, according to Chicago Police, had been warned. An officer shot him dead. The object: a cellphone. In our own disobedience when confronted by God about our own lawlessness, we only kill ourselves because we falsely believe that we can save ourselves from His sovereign presence and authority. We make excuses for our own lawlessness rather than own up, "I was scared, I overreacted, and now I killed myself for disobeying the righteous commandment."
All of us, humanity, by nature practice lawlessness because lawlessness is sin. "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory;" have never met his standard of righteousness (Romans 3:23). Sin has never truly BELONGED. It was never truly God's intention for sinful man to remain sinful, but to renounce sin and be reconciled unto Him. This reconciliation is found through the blood of His Son Jesus who bore our sin and lawlessness and nailed them to a tree. Thieves, like the "flash-mob," only come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. However, Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). And yes, this promise is for everyone, including the thug, teenaged thrillseeker whose lawlessness is just as evident before man and media as our lawlessness is before a holy and righteous God.
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