In Jesus Holy Name May 20, 2007
Text: Luke 4:11 Easter VI - Redeemer
“Forgiving: An Act of Faith.”
5th in the Series: “Prayer: Connecting to Our Father”
(read text)
Jesus did not start a church, at least not in the sense of people who assemble on Sunday morning to hear a man preach and then gather on the side walk to talk about the weather and baseball scores. Jesus called twelve men to learn his words; “to practice making the words reality”. He sent them out to talk. Whenever people practiced His words the “kingdom of God” grew like a mustard tree, like a seed sown in good soil.
We make “his kingdom come” as we “do his will, on earth.”
“The primary act of faith is forgiving. It is the characteristic act of God, the Father of Jesus Christ. If we follow him in faith, it is the first thing we do in our following. It is the one thing we do in faith which we would not do if we had no faith. Forgiving is what we do if we want to put meaning and purpose back into our lives.” (Seventy Times Seven - Robert Hoyer)
The act of forgiving involves words between people. It is not private like prayer or giving to the poor. Forgiving is not a moral act done in obedience to a law or custom. Forgiving is an act of faith. I forgive, when I forgive, because I can….. not because I must.
It is not easy. I do not pretend to do it well. Nor does anyone else I know! I have experienced the forgiveness of Jesus. I have heard his words. When I forgive, my world and emotions experience peace. If I don’t forgive…then anger, and bitterness will fill my soul. Happiness will elude me…. The same is true for you.
Cain did not forgive his brother. God warned him; saying, “…if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Gen. 4:6,7)
Cain invited his brother out into the field…and there “rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.” God spoke again and asked Cain where his brother was. Can, who could not forgive …. Justified himself and said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God banished Cain from his crops, his family, and he became a wandering nomad.
Jesus invites us to listen to his words. He invites us to speak words of forgiveness to others, for they are words that will create “the kingdom of heaven” where grace is at work.
The story of Ruby Bridges and her prayers.
(From Christianity Today August 9, 1985 by Robert Coles)
When a federal judge ordered four little black girls to go into a white New Orleans elementary schools, you would have thought that the Devil himself had arrived in that old cosmopolitan port city. Fear and anger erupted into the street scenes and demonstrations.
Robert Coles a Harvard psychiatrist who was there wrote: Outside the Frantz School I saw a mob of people standing and screaming. It was two o’clock in the afternoon, and I realized they were waiting for something. I asked one of the people what was happening.
He answered, “She’s coming out in a half an hour.”
I said, “Who’s she?”
And then I heard all the language about who she was… all the cuss words and the foul language. I decided to stay and watch.
Soon, out the Frantz school came a little girl, Ruby Bridges. And beside her were federal marshals. She came out and the people started in. They called her this and that. They brandished their fists. They told her she was going to die and they were going to kill her. I waited when she left in a car, and I wondered who was going to come out of that school next. But then I found out no one else was in the school. The school had been totally boycotted by the white population. So here was a little black child who was going to an American elementary school all by herself in the fall of 1960. That is part of our American history.
With the help of Kenneth Clark, a black psychologist in New York and Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP the legal fund attorney I was able to establish contact with the Ruby and her family.
(Here’s the rest of the story)
My wife and I, (wrote Robert Coles) went to the home of Ruby Bridges, knowing the family was under tremendous stress.
“How are you doing, Ruby?” I would say to Ruby twice a week, and she would say, “I’m okay.”
“Mrs. Bridges, how is Ruby doing?”
“She’s doing fine.”
“Mrs. Bridges, is ruby sleeping okay?”
“Oh, yes. Ruby ‘s sleeping fine.”
“Are you sure she’s sleeping fine?”
“Yes” “Well, how is ruby’s appetite?”
“It’s fine.” “Are you sure she’s eating well?”
“How do you think Ruby’s doing with her friends when she comes home from school?”
“Ruby’s fine when she comes home. She plays and sometimes she reads from the books that she brings home, or tries to read the books. She’s just in the first grade learning how to read.”
“Does Ruby seem upset at any time?”
“No, Ruby doesn’t seem too upset,” said Mrs. Bridges.
The days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. One day the school teacher, who saw Ruby every day, all by herself in the classroom, said to me, “You, know, I don’t understand this child. She seem so happy. She comes here so cheerfully.” This teacher spoke about the way Ruby went through those mobs, escorted by the federal marshals.
So I said, “Well, I’m a little puzzled myself.”
Later, the school teacher said to me, “I saw Ruby talking to those people on the street this morning. She stopped and seemed to be talking to the people in the street.” Every morning at 8:00 there were at least 50 people there waiting for her, and every afternoon another 50 or 75.
We went to Ruby’s home that night, and I asked her, “Ruby, how was your day today?” she said, “It was okay.”
“I was talking to your teacher today and she told me that she asked you about something when you came into school early this morning.” “
“I don’t remember,” ruby said. “Your teacher told me that she saw you talking to people in the street.”
“Oh, yes. I told her I wasn’t talking to them. I was just saying a prayer for them.” “Ruby, you pray for the people there?”
“Oh, yes.” “Really?” “Yes”. I said, “Why do you do that?”
“Because they need praying for.” She answered.
“Do they?” “Oh, yes.” “Ruby, why do you think they need you to pray for them?” “Because I should.” “Why?” “Because I should.”
Then Ruby’s mother came into the room. She had heard this line of inquiry, and she said, “We tell Ruby it’s important that she pray for the people.” She said that Ruby had the people on a list and prayed for them at night.
I said, “You do? Ruby, you pray for them at night too?” “Oh, yes.”
”Why do you do that?” “Well, because they need praying for.”
Mrs. Bridges told me Ruby had been told in Sunday school, to pray for the people. I later found that the minister in their Baptist Church also prayed for the people, every Sunday.
I was still puzzled and so I asked Ruby about this praying. “Ruby, I’m stilled puzzled. I’m trying to figure out why you think you should be the one to pray for such people, given what they do to you twice a day, five days a week.”
“Well,” she said, “especially it should be me.” “Why you especially?”
“Because,…… the minister said that Jesus went through a lot of trouble, and he said about the people who were causing the trouble, “Forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Little Ruby was saying this in the 1960’s about the people in the streets in New Orleans.
The primary act of faith is forgiving. It is the characteristic act of God, the Father of Jesus Christ. If we follow him in faith, it is the first thing we do in our following. It is the one thing we are reminded to do…each and every time we pray, “Our Father who art in Heaven….forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sin against us…” This is one way we are reminded to “imitate Jesus”. (Ephesians 5:1)
It is not easy. I do not pretend to do it well. Nor does anyone else I know! Try it at a business meeting or social gathering, particularly if the course of the talk is arousing your antagonism. Instead of counting to ten, say silently, “In the name of Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins.” If you do it often enough you may be able to say them out loud and make them true. The Mennonite families in Pennsylvania did not find the words easy after the tragic death of their daughters. The world did not understand how they could even speak the words. The words would not have changed the outcome of the court case of the murderer. It will take time for the spoken words to become heartfelt… but those who spoke the words demonstrated great faith.
Forgiveness works. It is the way a happy world is made. But let’s be honest. Most of us fear forgiveness will not work.
In his sermon on the Mount Jesus noted the difference between the world of men in which we live and the world created by the “kingdom of heaven”. The usual rule is: “love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But Jesus creates the opposite world. His rule: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus also taught: “If your brother sins against you seven times in a day, and turns to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive.”
One day Jesus was sitting in the temple courtyard talking to a crowd of people. Some Pharisees brought to him a woman who, they said had been caught in the act of adultery. They pointed out that their law, from Moses, commanded them to stone such a woman. They asked Jesus what he thought should be done with her.
The story is simple enough. It is well known. The crowd listening to Jesus was the jury. He had been talking about forgiveness and forgiving. But you can’t forgive an adulteress just like that. Adultery was a serious sin…. It takes two people. They wanted an answer. Jesus did not answer immediately. He sat there writing with his finger on the ground until they asked him again. (From Seventy Times Seven by Robert Hoyer)
When everyone was listening for a response…. Jesus stood up and faced the accusers. He said: “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone.” Then he sat down….and went on writing on the ground. He did not look at the woman or her accusers.
That took courage. He had technically agreed with the law of Moses that the woman should be stoned to death. He instructed her accusers to get it done. He was confident nothing would happen.
Note: Jesus did not try to excuse the woman or find a loophole in the law to free her. He did not ignore the law. In fact he said the law should apply to everyone there. He speaks to the woman and says: “Go and sin no more.”
Now, let’s read again the words of Jesus from the gospel of Luke: “Forgive us our sin, just as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”
Let me ask you: “What does this mean?”
