Forgiving and Forgetting - A recipe for failure?

There is this little passage in the book of Matthew, you may have heard of it: "Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."

For the longest time I always read the scenario Peter puts out there in this way. Someone steals Peters donkey thus sins against him. Peter is to forgive. But then that same person sins against Peter again by spreading rumors about him. Peter is to forgive that as well. Then that same person sins against Peter by bringing false charges against him. Peter is to forgive that as well. At some point, the question becomes - how many times do I have to forgive this person who keeps committing sins against me? Jesus says, seventy seven (a number designed to be so high that one cannot keep count and thus forgiveness to the number of infractions is endless.

This interpretation is reinforced by the "forgive and forget" idea. In which we are to forgive something and then wipe it from our minds and forget it ever happened. It seems that forgive and forget is not humanly possible. In fact if there is one verb in the bible that reoccurs the most it may be the word "remember". We are to remember all sorts of things, Gods grace, the covenants, the exodus, commandements, care for the sojourner and outcast, etc. It can be argued that it was when the people forgot was when they got into the most trouble in the Bible. As it is said, those who forget history are bound to repeat it. 

Some might say, but if we remember the sins of others (and don't forgive and forget) are we not disobeying the very teaching of Jesus at the beginning of this post? Are we not commanded to forgive forever? Remembering the sins of others does not mean we hold grudges or that we resent others. Perhaps this is what Jesus means when we should forgive seventy seven times. We are to forgive the same (single) sin seventy seven times. 

Jesus knows we are not able to forgive and forget. In fact to do so may be irresponsible on some sins. But if we do not forget the sin then we can fall into the trap of resentment. Knowing we cannot forget past sins and trying to help us avoid resentment toward others, Jesus may very well be saying, if someone steals you donkey you have to forgive that sin seventy seven times. If someone spreads rumors about you, forgive that sin seventy seven times. False charges - forgive that seventy seven times. 

Could it be that Jesus is saying, forgive someone who sins against you as many times as you remember that sin - seventy seven times. We cannot forget the hurts others cause us, but we can remember to forgive every time we see those wounds.

Christian Life is not Weather Control

Too often the religious life is seen as a superstitious life. The religious person prays to a deity in order to affect the world around. The individual, through a series of rituals or incantations, entices the gods to sway the fortunes and manipulate an outcome to the desires of the individual. The mature follower of Jesus knows that prayer is less about changing God and more about changing the self, but nonetheless prayer is seen by some as nothing more than vain attempts to change the future. 

Christianity teaches a way of life that is aware we cannot control the storms around us. We cannot control much in the world and there are so many things that are beyond our influence. Christianity knows that storms will come, no matter what we do, and we cannot control them. We cannot make it stop raining. We can only learn to live through the storm. 

Christianity teaches a way of life that does not seek to control the storms but to give people a solid foundation to stand on when the storms come. Christianity is a way of life that weathers the storms not eliminates them. Eliminating the storms is a dream of utopians, weathering storms is the hope of Christians. 

Perhaps this is why many are disinterested in Christianity. Christianity has been taught as a way to eliminate the storms by just doing the right things (the right prayer, right profession, etc.). Additionally, people have tried weather-controlling Christianity and seen that it does not work - the storms still come. Can we build churches less focused on controlling and more on standing firm when the rains begin to fall. 

What Colbert, Stewart and Chase Can Teach "The Church"

One of the great journalist/NBA coach exchanges.  

Journalist are an interesting bunch. We have all sorts of respect for the journalist who tries to get the Truth or expose the darkness in the world. We trust the journalist that asks the tough questions and finds a humble way to do so in the process We feel betrayed when we think a journalist is lying or not accurate. We have high standards for journalists. 

At the same time we seem to also have a distrust of the "Media". We know that journalists work for "The Media" but when we say "The Media" is bias or all garbage, we generally are talking about some amorphous idea we label "The Media". We can dismiss "The Media" if we don't like what it says, we can ignore "The Media" by tuning it out, we can discredit "The Media" by offering up different information. 

In many respects this is also true for clergy and "The Church". Many people, religious or not, meet clergy and trust clergy. There is a level of appreciation that clergy are trying to do the right things and do them with humility. It is also true that people have high standards of clergy which is why when clergy do things that violate those standards there is a sense of betrayal and anger. 

Similarly, just as there is distrust toward "The Media" there is also a growing distrust of "The Church". "The Church" is what has caused deep wounds in people's lives and it is "The Church" that is responsible for some of the crazy hate language. We can dismiss "The Church" if we don't like what it says, we can ignore "The Church" by tuning it out, we can discredit "The Church" by offering up different information. 

Perhaps this is why so many of us Christians are apprehensive to talk about our church - people might hear us and confuse our church with "The Church". "Oh, my church is not like those on T.V." "My church is very open and affirming." "My church teaches about love not about judgement." It take so much work to qualify when we talk about our church that I can see why many of us choose to talk about something else. 

If Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart before him (or Chevy Chase before him) have taught us anything it is that in order to change "The Media" we have to talk more about the media. In order to change the perception of "The Church" we have to be willing to talk more (not less) about our church.