“Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Renewal”

Rev. Dennis Ryle 13/09/2020

Readings - Genesis 50: 15-21, Matthew 18: 21-35

Introduction

Theme Intro: Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer and gold. The idea is that the whole history of the pot is valuable. The gold (or silver or platinum) draws attention to the points of breakage. The places of healing are important, and the scars are to be celebrated, not to be hidden.

Reflection

Sue Ash (Social Worker – adviser to Premier’s Dept) COVID19 – 4 fractures in lived community

1. Four Generations – 1945 to 2020 (historically up to 3 – one becomes expendable)

2. Inequity – (equal pension for all to shrinking eligibility, gender inequity still a hard battle)

3. Individualisation – (from mutual obligation to personal entitlement)

4. Globalisation – ( communication, internet, pendulum swing to tribalism
These are the fractures in the bowl – we could add some of our own, personal, family, community.
What is the lacquer and fillings of precious metal with which we patch and mend our community bowl. Our texts this morning invite us to explore the dynamic of forgiveness. 

Forgiveness that means anything is a tough call.

The Sunflower - Eli Wiesenthal 

While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing. He turned and made his silent exit.  But even years after the war had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? “What would you have done in my place?” the telling of this story asks us.

(Pause for reflection & possible feedback)  

How would I as a minister of the gospel of reconciliation respond?

In the book, fifty-three distinguished men and women respond to Wiesenthal's questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Their responses, as varied as their experiences of the world, carry the weight of Wiesenthal's questions to this very moment.

Joseph – a significant contributor in our faith heritage – from a position of political power and strength, magnanimously forgives his brothers of attempted fratricide and sets them up to draw from the security of his resourceful management for the rest of their lives.

Matthew’s Jesus sets perpetual and generous forgiveness as a benchmark for the community that is living under the Shalom of God.

It is obvious what the materials for mending our fractures are. 

But this forgiveness is precious metal – it doesn’t come cheap.

Where do we begin?

A stranger stops Nasrudin at the city gates. "Will you tell me," says the stranger, "what Baghdad is like? I have to move to a city and I'm worried." Nasrudin replies, "Tell me about the place you came from." "Oh, it was a wonderful place! Neighbours were kind to one another, we looked out for the children, people shared and were generous and happy!" "Ah! said Nasrudin. "You will love Baghdad. Don't worry at all, and welcome!"

Later on, another stranger stops Nasrudin at the city gates. "Will you tell me," says the stranger, "what Baghdad is like? I have to move to a city and I'm worried." Nasrudin replies, "Tell me about the place you came from." "Oh, it was a terrible place! Thieving and fornication and children noisy and running wild. People are selfish and distrustful." "Ah!" said Nasrudin. "You will dislike Baghdad. You'd better move on to another city!"

Here, perhaps, is the refining of the raw ore of the precious metal – our disposition. The Genesis saga of Joseph’s journey from the many coloured cloak of spoiled entitlement through abandonment, mistreatment, imprisonment, and self- realisation positioned him to be a conduit for forgiveness and reconciliation. He could have chosen to return to the pit of bitterness and resentment that his brothers had chucked him into. Today we would understand the triggers and label it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a known physiological reaction where random everyday stimuli or encounters can take us to a virtual re-experience of the traumatic event. The increase in domestic violence during COVID highlights Joseph’s story as a rare and for some, a cruelly enticing event – if only, if only! 

We are all on the hero’s journey. Joseph’s saga tells us there are stages along the way, we move through some quickly and in others we can be stuck for a long time.  Where we are at any moment determines what our Baghdad is like.

People, even in, maybe especially in, our faith communities are going to disappoint us. The refining of precious ore is a process if we are going to effectively mend our bowl.

We have to pass through a valley of disillusionment with what we think true fellowship is, what we as God’s people are, and not the least, what we ourselves are capable of. In fact, the most painful revelation we need to face is the truth of our own condition. True fellowship is the courage and the willingness to be with one another and bear with one another in all of the above conditions….

–Arthur Katz
“Illusions,” Called to Community

He who loves community destroys community; he who loves the brethren (sic) builds community.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bishop Dehquani-Tafti 1920-2008 (exiled Bishop of Iran) – prayer following the murder of his son

 O God
We remember not only our son but also his murderers;
Not because they killed him in the prime of his youth
   and made our hearts bleed and our tears flow,
Not because with this savage act they have brought
  further disgrace on the name of our country
  among the civilized nations of the world;
But because through their crime we now follow thy footsteps
   more closely in the way of sacrifice.
The terrible fire of this calamity burns up all selfishness
   and possessiveness in us;
Its flame reveals the depth of depravity and meanness and suspicion,
   the dimension of hatred and the measure of sinfulness in human nature;
It makes obvious as never before our need to trust in God's love
   as shown in the cross of Jesus and his resurrection;
Love which makes us free from hate towards our persecutors;
Love which brings patience, forbearance, courage, loyalty,
   humility, generosity, greatness of heart;
Love which more than ever deepens our trust in God's final victory
   and his eternal designs for the Church and for the world;
Love which teaches us how to prepare ourselves
   to face our own day of death.

O God
Our son's blood has multiplied the fruit of the Spirit
   in the soil of our souls;
So when his murderers stand before thee on the day of judgment
Remember the fruit of the Spirit by which they have enriched our lives.
And forgive.

The ultimate experience of forgiveness brings a change of heart, a metanoia of the spirit, after which every seeming injury, injustice, rejection, past, present or future, every so-called blow of fate, becomes, as it were, an essential note in the music of God, however discordant it may sound to our superficial hearing. And the experience excludes nothing- which means that in this moment of forgiveness all one's sins and weaknesses are included, being at the same time both remembered and known as the essential darkness which has revealed to us the light.

-Helen M. Luke
Old Age
quoted from Reconciliation (Liturgy Training Publications)

If we are on the way there, we are preparing the refined purified liquid metal with which we can gently and lovingly mend the cracks in our bowl.

Amen