Repentance and Forgiveness
A lot of these post resurrection stories all seem alike, especially when you've been preaching on them for 25 years! Jesus appears to his disciples, they may or may not recognize him, he shows them he truly is physically risen, he leaves in a mysterious manner.
I've been over them all many times, but this year, for first time I paid attention to the end of this particular story where Jesus tells his followers what they are to do next. He says they are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations.
I looked at those two words and thought, hmm, so when this gospel was being written 50 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the early church was trying to sum up all he had taught them, those were the two words they remembered as being essential: repentance and forgiveness.
And I had to admit, I wasn't sure they were the two words I or anyone else in the United Church would use to sum up Jesus's teachings. They're not words we use a lot in our church, are they? Repentance has gotten a bad reputation over the years, people associate it with regret, with punishment, with being told they are bad, and while we talk about forgiveness in general, we don't often get into specifics. But clearly these words were very important to the early church, so maybe we should take a closer look at them.
Repentance comes from the Greek word metanoia. Jesus Seminar scholars translate it as “change of heart.” Others define metanoia as a change of direction, a new beginning.
Repentance relates very closely to forgiveness because in order to have a change of heart, to change direction, you first have to acknowledge that maybe you're not going in the right direction, that maybe there are some problems with how you've been living, how you've been relating to others and even to the world. And once you acknowledge that, then usually you need to ask for forgiveness from God, from others and maybe even from yourself.
This isn't just an individual process, me realizing where I've hurt another individual, making changes, and asking for forgiveness, it can be a societal process as well.
Biblical scholar Barbara Essex says:
“Jesus' whole life, death and rising were about what God is doing in the world – reconciling the world to God's self. From the law of Moses to the prophets to the Psalms, it has always been about God and God's purposes, aims, and agenda for creation – repentance that leads to forgiveness of sins and the wholeness of creation.”
We're definitely in need of some change of heart, some change of direction when it comes to our world, aren't we? Both Wayne and I touched on some of those areas in the past two weeks: poverty, homelessness, climate change, racism – the list could go on.
It's easy to listen to a list like that and get discouraged, to think what difference can one person, one church, make? Well, if there is anything I have learned in the past year, it's that when enough people recognize that they need to change their way of thinking, it can impact a whole society.
Attitudes towards racism are a good example. Since the video of George Floyd being knelt on by a police officer went viral last June, all over the US and Canada people have been engaging in new conversations about racism. In Canada that has meant taking a more honest look at the way Indigenous people are treated, as well as Black Canadians and other groups.
Terms like “systemic racism” and “white privilege” are now part of our societal vocabulary. I was reading an article this week on how even big businesses now realize they have to take a stand on racism, they have to make changes, or they will lose customers.
I would say that as a society, we are going through a process of repentance around racism and race relations. As a society we are looking at ourselves and going, oh, we have been so hurtful and wrong and we need to change. But that societal change is happening because individuals are going through it and are sharing their thoughts and keeping each other and businesses and governments accountable.
That's an example of where societal and individual repentance intersect. But sometimes our repentance is purely personal, isn't it. Sometimes we realize that an attitude or action in our lives is leading us in a direction that is harmful, to us or others, and that it's time to change direction. Taking action, making changes that lead to a new direction, often involves asking for forgiveness. If we have hurt someone, then we can't truly change direction without acknowledging to that person that we have hurt them.
It's one of the key steps in the 12 step programs like AA; making a list of who you have wronged and going to them to apologize in person, because without doing that, it's too easy to slide back, to pretend that the addiction wasn't that bad, that it didn't cause that much pain to others. It's much harder to return to hurtful attitudes or actions when the person you have apologized to is watching you, holding you accountable.
Of course, just because we repent, change our hearts and our direction, and recognize where we have caused pain, it doesn't mean others will actually forgive us. God will, but other people? No guarantees.
Again, we see that at a societal level as well. As awareness grows among those of us with white privilege, people are asking, what can I do to make this right? People of color are making it clear that an apology isn't enough. Indigenous people in Canada have been saying this for years. They want follow through, real action, real change. Then maybe there can be forgiveness and new relationship.
All of this talk of repentance and forgiveness also ties into where we're at with Covid. Right now it's very easy to get angry, to lay blame. The government, whether federal or provincial, should have done more, there should have been more restrictions earlier, they should have made more vaccines available earlier, they should have shut down travel, closed borders, you name it, someone thinks some level of government should have done it.
It's very easy to blame others around us: those young people who are partying, that person who socializes with more than their bubble, those people who keep coming to Vancouver Island from the mainland or out of province. It's all their fault cases are rising, that we're in such a mess.
Heck, forget getting mad at other people, I'm getting crankier with my poor family, even our bird sings too loudly for me these days. It's easy to get angry, to lay blame, but does it help? It just makes us more miserable.
I think we all need a healthy dose of forgiveness these days, both of ourselves and of others. We need to recognize that we're all struggling, none of us are functioning on all cylinders. We need to be gentle with ourselves and with others, to forgive unintended mistakes and even forgive those whose behaviour you really have trouble with, whether it's the teens next door who have friends over or the government not imposing enough restrictions.
We need to try and change our hearts, change our direction, to be more forgiving, more kind as Dr Bonnie would say. It doesn't mean saying certain behaviours are okay, it just means letting go of anger and judgment.
It can be really overwhelming to think about true repentance and forgiveness, because they involve big things, especially on a societal level, but also on personal level.
Who likes admitting they need to change? If I had a church full of people in front of me and I asked that question, I bet very few hands would go up. Change is scary and it's so easy to fail when we do try.
Two things give me hope. One is that in the last year we've seen some amazing changes at the societal level and all of us have managed to make some pretty major changes at the individual level due to Covid. We know we can do this.
The second thing that gives me hope is that this isn't something we are trying to do on our own, this is what Jesus is calling us to do. Repentance and forgiveness are the last two things he calls disciples to do in the gospel of Luke. And as Wayne talked about last week, Jesus made sure the disciples knew he was filling them with his spirit.
We are the body of Christ in the world, the spirit of living God lives in and through us, when we let it. That's perhaps the first and most important step in repentance and forgiveness ~ to pray, however it is that you open yourself to God, and let that Spirit fill you and lead you.
We don't have to figure it all out on our own. We have each other, that body of Christ in our church family, and we have God's Spirit of Love and Compassion to fill us and guide us. May we let that Spirit work within us to change our hearts, change our direction and maybe even change our world.