Forgiveness – A Play in Nine Acts

Grace to you and peace from God our Creator, from our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and from our Sustainer, the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Forgiveness   Act I

The scene. The curtain comes up. You see a driveway in front of an open garage.  A boy is standing behind a table filled with stuff.  The year is 1967, the location is Wilbraham, MA, and the address is 2 Mountainbrook Drive.   

How many know the taste of soap – the taste of soap in your mouth?  I was that 9 years old boy, and I decided to have a garage sale all by myself.  So I arranged a bunch of stuff I wanted to sell – old toys, clothes I had outgrown, some rhubarb from our garden.  That kind of stuff.  I set the table up on the driveway, got ready to “go-live” when all of the sudden my two older brothers came running around the corner of the garage towards my table, grabbed it, dumped it over and ran off laughing.  As my mother came out of the house to see what the commotion was all about, I was yelling and cussing. At the top of my lungs I yelled the worst swear word I knew.  And you know what my mother made me do after she washed my mouth out with soap?  She made me apologize to my brothers because I swore at them.  Now I am told my mother forced my brothers to apologize to me, too, but I do not remember that.  The only thing I remember to this day is the taste of soap in my mouth – to this day!

Forgiveness   Act II

One evening last week I was Face-timing three of my four grandchildren – the three that live in Kansas City: 9-year-old Maddox, 7-year-old Emmett and their little sister, almost 2 year old, Edith.  I was chatting away with Maddox about his dream of living in London and being a writer, when all of the sudden there was this terrible scream and then loud crying.  As the phone screen panned over the room, I saw Emmett holding his head, bent over heaving with sobs.  Turns out that little Edie hit her big brother in the head with a golf club. Well, mom, Kelsey picks Edie up and says to Edit, “Apologize to your brother!”  And Edie responds, “No!”  “Give your brother a kiss or you’ll sit in time-out.”  So Edie leans down and gives Emmett a kiss on the cheek.

Forgiveness  Act III.

 Remember the story in the book of Genesis about Joseph and his mean, jealous brothers?   Joseph was their father, Jacob’s favorite son and the brothers just could not stand it anymore.  Joseph’s brothers try to get rid of Joseph by throwing him in a pit to die, and then they lied to their father, Jacob, that Joseph was killed by a bobcat or some such thing. Well, Joseph survives, and then becomes a slave in Egypt where he was known to the Pharaoh as a dream-interpreter, and as a result becomes a big wig in Pharaoh’s court.

We pick up the story years later when all the brothers reunite in Egypt.  The brothers said to Joseph, “Before our father died, he told us to find you and say this for him, ‘I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you. Please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.’ Joseph wept when they spoke to him.  Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, ‘we are here as your slaves.’ But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid!  Am I in the place of God?  Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people.  So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.’ In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.”

Forgiveness  Act IV

Sister Helen Prejan, a Catholic nun wrote a book called, Dead Man Walking, which tells the story of what it was like for her to accompany men who were on death row – accompany them all the way to their execution.  In the book she tells the story of Lloyd LeBlanc, a Roman Catholic layperson who son was murdered.  When he arrived at the scene of the crime, the sheriff’s deputy asked him to identify his son.  LeBlanc immediately knelt down by his son’s body and prayed the Lord’s Prayer.  When he came to the words: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” he realized the depth of the commitment he was making.  He later told Sister Helen, “Whoever did this, I must forgive them.” In her book Sister Helen writes, “Though it has been difficult not to be overcome by bitterness and feelings of revenge that well up from time to time, LeBlanc said that each day, for the rest of his life, forgiveness must be prayed for and struggled for and won.”

Forgiveness  Act V

A mixed bag, a potpourri, a smorgasbord, of Biblical “takes” on forgiveness.  From the Bible often contradictory lessons about forgiveness, and if not contradictory usually confusing, often judgmental and usually at least from a human perspective impossible – impossible, improbable to forgive.  From Exodus 21: ²³If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, ²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” Sound familiar?  Then we leap over into the gospel of Matthew:  ³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well.”  Sound familiar?  Then there is Romans 2:  “In passing judgment on another you condemn yourself.”  In addition, from James 4:  “Who are you to judge your neighbor?” 

Then in today’s gospel confusion, contradiction, and judgment seem to reign. A king forgives a slave for a huge debt, but when the forgiven man refuses to extend this same benevolence to a fellow slave, the king reverses the pardon and has the first man thrown into prison.  In part, today’s parable is about mirroring the mercy one has been shown – “do unto others what you would have them do to you” – but it is also the case in this parable forgiveness seems conditional.

Perhaps as one Biblical scholar suggests, all of these confusing often-contradictory messages about forgiveness are not obstacles to overcome, but rather they are the harmonic parts of a great chorus.  She writes, “Forgiveness involves striving – to find new meanings inside older ones, to uncover what we have overlooked, to revise inadequate and hardened ideas.  Forgiveness is not a single act or event, but a process.”  Forgiveness is a way of being, a way of life, a way of putting our faith into action, a way of living as resurrected people.  For God calls us to remain in grace, as a forgiving people, as a reconciling people.

Forgiveness  Act VI

 Listen to the story by an author named, In-Yong Lee.  He writes, “Yang-Won Son (1902-1950), one of the great (Christian) martyrs in Korea, made grace real.  Almost all his ministry was centered on caring for lepers – the spiritual and material care of the residents of leper colonies.  He resisted bowing down to the Japanese emperor, and suffered six years of imprisonment and cruel treatment.  Three years after the 1945 liberation of Korea, the communist insurrection ravaged the country.  Yang- Won Son’s two teenaged sons were shot to death by a communist rioter when they witnessed to their Christian faith and rejected communism.  Instead of being engulfed by hatred and revengeful thoughts, however, Son forgave the shooter, petitioned for his release from the death penalty, and adopted him as his son.” 

Then the author concludes by saying, “We know how hard it is to forgive others.  We are also afraid that our unconditioned and repeated forgiveness may encourage evil acts.  To such protests, to even the hint of a suggestion that we cannot forgive, Jesus responds (from Matthew 19:26), “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

Forgiveness  Act VII

When Jesus was on the cross dying, he said from Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Jesus died for his enemies so that he could secure divine forgiveness for them – for his enemies. Therefore, the curtain comes down on Act VII with this question. If Jesus treats his executioners like that, – if Jesus forgives the very people who put him to death – how can those of us who believe in him be cold, mean, harsh or unforgiving with anyone?

Forgiveness  Act VIII

What would it mean for our culture, our society, our communities, what would it mean for the United States of America to be a forgiving people, and I’m not even saying you have to be Christian – just forgiving, loving reconciling. Listen to what preacher, Dr. Timothy Keller has to say, “If forgiveness in small things and large were deeply embedded in our culture, it would transform us politically, ending the demagogy, (the political speech) that never admits wrongdoing and that mocks and belittles one’s opponents.  It would transform us socially, ending racial stereotyping, discrimination and unwillingness to listen to one another.  It would make every movement for justice less likely to burn out, overreach or alienate.  It would remake us personally, enabling us to confront frustrations and hurts and work through them rather than turn to drugs or guns or other destructive ways of dealing with pain.”

Forgiveness   The Final Act

The curtain comes up.  Jesus walks on stage. You can see the wounds on his hands – the wounds on his bare feet.  You can see his robe stained red on his side.  You can see the crown of thorns on his head.  The audience – you and I stand to applaud, but Jesus raises in arms to stop the applause.  Instead, he motions us to turn to one another.  We turn towards one another.  We embrace.  We hug.  We say words like, “I love you” and “I forgive you.” We shed tears, and we hear Jesus say from the stage, “Peace be with you.”  And the curtain comes down.  Amen.