Reflections on The Kingdom, by Sam Berg (Days 31 – 36)

Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Our forgiveness is conditional: we must be ready to forgive. Forgiveness is a central theme in the Christian message: we have all sinned and we must be forgiven.

One of my teachers wrote a book, “Caring Enough to Forgive.” When you flip the book, over, you have not the back cover but another front cover, “Caring Enough to not Forgive.” The author, David Augsburger, in the second book cautions against easy forgiveness that ignores, or papers over, issues that should be dealt with if a relationship is to go forward. The gravity of the harm done must be acknowledged. Forgiveness may be offered, and experienced, but it is not the same as reconciliation.

At its simplest, forgiveness is simply the decision to forgo getting even. Research has shown that when we try to pay back, the intensity of the payback is about 10% higher than the first trespass. We can see how a few rounds of this can escalate to a full-blown conflict.

The overarching question throughout this whole sermon is, what does it take for children of the kingdom to live in community. Certainly, a readiness to forgive and to seek forgiveness is an essential ingredient.

Perhaps another beatitude might be, “Blessed are those who tell me how I have trespassed against them, so that I might be forgiven.”