Forgiveness is Hard

2 Corinthians 2:1-11

 “Forgiveness Is Hard”

29 May 2106 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            (Play First Les Miserable Clip)

            This is such an amazing scene that gets right to the heart of what it means to be forgiven. We see the nun seeking retribution and justice with a healthy dose of indignation at the bishop’s suggestion that they’ll just use wooden spoons. And if we’re honest, that’s how we’d probably react to a similar situation. Just look at how most people react to someone taking a parking spot at the mall. I really enjoy seeing her facial expression when the cops drag in Jean Valjean.

            After being beaten and robbed in the middle of the night, the Bishop gets the chance to face the man who broke his trust with the full backing of the law. Most of us, yours truly included, would look at that turn of events as divine intervention to restore what was lost and to teach a thief a lesson. And this scene is divine intervention, but not how we’d expect. The Bishop defies our expectations. Like Christ.

            For years, people had given their hard earned money to the parish and they had purchased some pretty fancy dinnerware and candlesticks. All for this moment. I’m sure the congregation thought they had bought these items to show their bishop how much they cared for him and to give him some moderate luxury. I doubt they thought that purchase wasn’t for the bishop, but rather for a paroled criminal. But, isn’t that how this whole Christian thing works? Nothing is really for us but for serving Christ and furthering his Kingdom here on earth.

The Bishop not only forgives, he goes the extra step and gives even more that was taken. And lest we think that forgiveness was given without a cost, listen again to what he told Jean Valjean. “And don’t forget, don’t ever forget you’ve promised to become a new man. Jean Valjean my brother you no longer belong to evil. With this silver I’ve bought your soul. I’ve ransomed you from fear and hatred and now I give you back to God.”

That is true forgiveness. Someone gives something of themselves to give us back to God.

Sometime prior to Paul writing this second letter to Corinthians (though there is strong evidence this is actually a third letter), he had written to them with anguish in his heart. Apparently this did not have the intended effect and caused pain in the community rather than it being read as a letter born out of love.

It appears that someone in the community has caused a great deal of controversy and pain within the community, probably through slander of Paul himself. The community didn’t correct the individual so Paul called out the community to correct the issue. It appears that correct it they did, perhaps a little overzealously as the church is wont to do. It seems the church decided to balance previous indifference to an offense with harsh punishment of the offending party, perhaps banishment though we don’t really know what happened.

We do know that Corinth went from indifference to unforgiving rage against a member of their community who had gone astray. So Paul, ever the pastor, seeks to bring the community to a posture of graceful forgiveness. He doesn’t rebuke the community for disciplining a member of the community, rather he is telling them to apply mercy to the situation so as not to overwhelm the offender. The goal of church discipline is not banishment, but rather to give them back to God.

This leads Paul to tell the community that they are empowered to also forgive on his behalf. Because he is part of the community, the mercy and love they demonstrate to one member is done on his behalf as well. Just imagine if we took that aspect of this letter to heart in the everyday life of the church in America. Imagine if we let the forgiving nature of the church speak for each of us individually. Such that if one community forgave someone for something they have done, the whole church accepted that act of forgiveness.

That can be a hard pill to swallow. Especially if someone has done something we personally find repulsive. We tend to take a position that no one can speak forgiveness in our names. If we are individually wronged, then we as individuals must forgive. That may just be our individualistic culture speaking for us. The church is a communal culture where we work not towards personal goals and dreams, but rather we work towards goals and a calling set forth by God through Christ with the leading of the Spirit.

Now before anyone says that Les Miserables is fiction and a great moral lesson nothing more, nothing less or that our time is more complicated than what Victor Hugo is trying to convey, let’s take a look at something that occurred in Pennsylvania 6 years ago.

After a horrible tragedy in which a number of Amish children died at the hands of one individual, the community offered forgiveness not only to the man responsible, but to his entire family. When I first heard of what the Amish had done for the family of the person who killed their young children I was astonished. And convicted. That is one of the most Christ like acts of forgiveness I have ever seen. So much so that various news organizations that rarely mention Christ were making the same connection between this act of forgiveness and Christ. The Amish knew the world would punish the family, so they chose to heed Paul and “forgive and console, so they may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” They forgave as a community. They forgave on behalf of us all.

And lest we forget just how powerful and life changing it is to receive forgiveness let’s take a look at when Jean Valjean forgoes vengeance against Javert. (Play second Les Mis clip)

Javert made it his life to seek justice and retribution without mercy. Forgiveness was not in his DNA so he has a battle within his soul over whether or not he can receive such a gift as forgiveness. He can’t live under the debt of a thief. And that is where he gets forgiveness wrong. It isn’t a debt, it is a gift. A powerful gift that can heal a life. A gift we all need. Javert finally gets it when he sings that the gift killed him. Forgiveness kills our worldly selves. It kills sin and gives us back to God.

Forgiveness is powerful and something that we are all empowered to do on behalf of Christ. No matter how many times we need to offer forgiveness, it retains its power to heal. If we forgive someone, then in our role as emissaries of Christ on earth, they are forgiven. Period.

So, let us today use our God given power right here as practice for being the church in the midst of the world. Turn to your neighbors and boldly proclaim, “In the name of Christ you are forgiven.”