Letting God Do the God Things

 

Romans 12:17-19, The Message - Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

 

The goal of forgiveness is healing and freedom – for you and for your relationships.  We keep repeating this because it’s important to keep in mind when you are working the forgiveness process.  If the benefits of healing and freedom for you is the goal, then it makes sense that doing things that do not promote healing and freedom would be counterproductive.  This is why revenge/payback never accomplishes the goal.  Adding more hurt/punishment/negativity to the equation pushes healing and freedom further away. 

This is why God instructs us, “I’ll take care of that.”  God wants our healing and freedom as well, so God pleads with us to not self-sabotage the forgiveness process with revenge.  Instead, God instructs us to replace those vengeful fantasies and actions with actions that promote healing and freedom.  Look for beauty in the other, which we talked about last week when we discussed rediscovering the humanity/commonality of the offender.  Work on making peace with the offender and promoting peace in your own heart.  Leave judgement and justice, which are God activities to God. 

 

Questions:  What do you want more of in your heart and your relationships? What would it look like for you to do more of that and less of what you don’t want in your heart and relationships?

 

Prayer:  Lord,  show me the current state of my heart.  Where there is negativity and hopes for revenge, help me replace them with thoughts and actions that promote peace, healing, and freedom.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the victims and families of the multiple acts of mass violence in our country in the last week.

 

Video:  Instead of a song today, I’m sharing a video about looking at the content of our heart.  I hope you are helped by it as I was.

What Is A Heart At War? - Wilderness Therapy at Anasazi Foundation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o3LLDJUQhs          

Forgiveness is Not Justice

Isaiah 61:8, CEB - I, the Lord, love justice…

 

Psalm 130:3-4, CEB - If you kept track of sins, Lord—my Lord, who would stand a chance?  But forgiveness is with you—that’s why you are honored

 

    “I can’t forgive her! If I did, that would be the same as saying what she did is okay.”  While this kind of logic is understandable, it betrays the true nature of forgiveness.  In order for forgiveness to be necessary, there has to be an offense.  If there is an offense, it follows that that what happened was NOT okay.  To forgive an offense does not neutralize a transgression.

    This highlights the distinction between forgiveness and justice.  They are not mutually exclusive.  We can pursue justice and forgiveness at the same time.  In fact, pursuing one without the other diminishes both.  If we pursue justice without forgiveness, it sows seeds of more injustice.  If we pursue forgiveness at the expense of justice, it sows fertile ground for more offenses to be committed where even more forgiveness will be needed.  But more importantly, if we pursue justice and forgiveness together, both the process of forgiveness and the arc of justice are strengthened.  I am better able to let go of an offense if I know that as I do, the seeds of justice have been planted.  Likewise, as I pursue justice, I feel even better about the result if at the same time forgiveness takes place.  The newfound justice stands on more solid ground than it would without forgiveness.

    However, it is important to note once again that while the processes of justice and forgiveness can help one another, they are still separate pursuits.  An offender can receive a just punishment for their ,crime and while their sentence may provide some sense of justice for victims, that vindication does not equate to forgiveness.  The offender cannot be punished enough to make forgiveness occur.   Likewise, forgiving someone will not equate to justice served.  To say it more simply, forgiveness does not “right” a “wrong.”

    The Hebrew notion of shalom (often translated peace) includes both forgiveness and justice.  A more literal translation of shalom would be “right relationship” among all people.  This implies that there is justice and forgiveness present.  Transgressions are forgiven, but restorative justice is also applied to rebuild just relationships between all people.  The cumulative effect is multiplied because justice makes forgiveness easier and forgiveness increases the possibility to work toward justice.  Wrongdoers can be both forgiven and held accountable under shalom.

 

Question:  What is the relationship between justice and forgiveness for you?

 

Prayer:  God, when it comes to our sin, we like to focus on your forgiving nature while downplaying your just nature.  Help us not to make that mistake.  Help us to accept your forgiveness and your just correction. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those who have suffered because of others’ “-isms” (racism, sexism, ageism, etc.)

 

Song:  Letter to Eve – Pete Seeger – Great old song about this relationship between love/forgiveness and justice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ShOQakO7Eg

The Eight Woes – Part 3

 

The Eight Woes – Part 3

 

Matthew 23:23-28, NRSV - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth.  So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

 

Matthew 5:7-9, NRSV – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

 

The practice of mercy.  Purity of heart.  A heart to make peace.  The hearers of Jesus’s first public teaching, the Sermon on the mount, heard the vison of those who sincerely follow God.  In Jesus’s last public address, the so-called leaders of the followers of God called out for living out and teaching others the total anthesis of God’s vision.  The Pharisees stress tithing while taking advantage of the poor – a total repudiation of mercy.  They maintain a spotless image of piety that hides widespread corruption in their ranks – their hearts are far from pure.  They have not brought peace to God’s people, for they are only looking out for themselves and their position. 

                It’s important to remember the setting here. Jesus is speaking in the temple in front of many people with the various groups of leaders present.  This polemic against the religious establishment is directed at leaders, but clearly, Jesus wants the people to hear it. Just before he turns to the leaders, he talks about them to the people.  Jesus instructs them to do what they say, but avoid doing what they do.  Then the Eight Woes talk specifically about those “doings” that people should avoid.  This is the word for us today as well. This is easier said than done.

                Our tendency as humans is to expend a much energy in “image management.”  We all want to be seen as “good people.”  There’s nothing wrong with that desire.  But what God looks for in us is not our surface image, but the condition of our hearts, a condition that is often hidden from others because external image would be “tainted.”  People who are truly merciful are often seen by others as weak.  People who work to keep their heart pure are often accused of being “goody two shoes.”  The great peacemakers of this world often endure much vitriol from the very folks with whom they are seeking to make peace.  It’s much easier to appear merciful, pure in heart, and peacemaking than it is to actually BE those things.  So, all too often, we settle for appearances. 

                God cares much more about the real condition of our souls and the real substance of our living than the public appearances we maintain.  Jesus points out in the Beatitudes and Woes that there is blessing in the real work of faith and there is misery in the never-ending quest for the perfect image.  Jesus message to the people standing in the Temple that day (and to us) was to aim for the blessings, not the misery.   Be merciful even when it’s not popular.  Keep your heart pure even though it means you might have to say no when everyone else is saying yes.   Do the work of making peace even when it’s runs against the tide.  Align your heart and action with the heart and action of God.  God does not promise to do so is to avoid pain, but God does promise there is blessing in the Beatitude life and misery in living the opposite.

 

Questions:  How much energy do you expend “keeping up appearances?” How might some of that energy be better used?

 

Prayer:  Lord, help me see the ways in which I am only “going through the motions” for appearance sake.  Help me rediscover the your ways of blessing.  Reinstall the beatitudes in my heart and action.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know who are fighting discouragement right now.

 

Song:  Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly – Pat Barrett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk7llf2LkKc