[Oe List ...] Witness: "Forgive Them, for They Know Not What They Do"

Fri Apr 6 23:37:44 EDT 2012

Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Randy. Wonderful witness. Wonderful  response.

I've never appreciated out community more than now, looking back, looking  
forward.

Blessings,
Jann McGuire

In a message dated 4/6/2012 4:46:56 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
rcwmbw at yahoo.com writes:

Dear Jack,

I'm always impressed by your keen insight expressed in words.   But I'm 
even more impacted by your living of the resurrected life.  I  have watched you 
and benefited from you over the years as  you've lived this and, by your 
example, have encouraged others to go  and do likewise.  I'm grateful--not to 
you, but to the mystery who  called you forth from the tomb to live your 
resurrected  life.  What a privilege, honor--and burden--to have been a part of 
a  whole community of resurrected ones.

I've been stewing, literally for the last several years, on the  depth 
meaning of what we called the "moods" in the service of  worship--humility, 
gratitude and compassion.  I hope someday to write  something on these, but 
reading your witness made me think that all of these  are necessary in order to 
forgive and be forgiven.  Humility is the  crucifixion.  Gratitude is the 
resurrection.  Compassion is living  the resurrected life.  For better or 
worse, these are  not once and for all.  How many times must we be crucified and 
 resurrected, only to be crucified and resurrected again? 

I saw a video from last evening of the Pope particpating  in the Maundy 
Thursday food-washing service.  There he was with  basin and towel in hand, 
garbed in his ecclesiastical robes, which are  the symbol of power and 
authority in the Catholic Church.  I  wondered what might have been the impact if 
the Pope, even with his more than  80-year old body, had, as Jesus did, 
stripped down to his loin cloth and got  on his hands and knees under the table to 
symbolize that the role of the  church, as a community of the forgiven 
rather than an institutional  monolith, is to serve a suffering world.

Today is Good Friday.  Given what we commemorate  that happened on this 
occasion 2,000 years ago, we call it "good"  Friday only because we see it 
looking back through the  resurrection.  We read the last chapter first and know 
how the  story ends.  We know that there is no resurrection without a  
crucifixion.

So, you go have yourself a "good" Friday.   And, by the way, your sins are 
forgiven.

Grace and peace from your colleague,
Randy

"Listen to what is emerging from yourself to the course of being in the  
world; not to be supported by it, but to bring it to reality as it  desires."
-Martin Buber (adapted)

From: Jack Gilles  <icabombay at igc.org>
To:  Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net> 
Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2012 8:22  PM
Subject: [Oe List ...]  Witness: "Forgive Them, for They Know Not What They 
 Do"

These words, spoken by Jesus on the cross just before  he died have been at 
the heart of the story of the crucifixion and the  resurrection.  But what 
is 'forgiveness' and what is the relationship to  the resurrection?  I think 
that without these words the resurrection  loses its significance.  

There is a lot of talk about how we  should forgive people who have 
offended us.  Like "cheap grace", the  words often spoken "I forgive you" are not 
coming from the same place Jesus  was when he spoke these words.  We often 
say something like "I forgive  you" when in reality we really do not.  We may 
feel these words will get  a situation back to normal, bring a nasty 
situation to a conclusion, or  perhaps we feel the person really didn't mean what 
they said or did,  especially if they had had a different context.  So a 
situation may  become better, or a person feel better with these words, but they 
are not what  Jesus was pointing with his words.

Non of us have been crucified, but  we may have been falsely accused, had 
friends or even family abandon us, been  left alone to face a situation we 
should not have had to face.  But  resurrection only comes through forgiveness.

Let me try and ground that  in a real situation.  Nothing can be more soul 
wrenching than a  divorce.  Having gone through one I know that the pain can 
be  intense.  But this is not about my divorce, for I was fortunate to have 
a  great human being with whom I went through a great transition, and 
although it  was painful for both, neither of us ever became mean or accusative 
toward the  other.  But I know of situations that were not.  What happens 
when  you are lied to, lied about, deceived, falsely accused and vilified and 
those  words and accusations used to try and turn friends and family against  
you?

Forgiveness is not justifying or excusing behavior, it is not  saying what 
was done is okay (I can rise above this), it is not even feeling  pity or 
sorrow for the other's  brokenness and deceit.

Forgiveness  is first and foremost recognizing that this is about you, not 
the other.   It is about God, not the perpetrator.  Your "resurrection" 
depends upon  it.  Forgiveness means you take all that has been done to you and 
redeem  it, you know that your soul is sanctified when you embrace the 
event, embrace  the pain and embrace the other as your path.  

In a the case of a  divorce like I spoke about, we can celebrate the 
divorce, but not simply  because it is over, you won and life has become a new 
normal without surprises  and pain.  We celebrate it because you have a 
purified center, you have a  renewed sense of self-worth and you understand how the 
depths of pain and  deceit can be the instruments of greatness for your own 
spirit.  You give  thanks for the love of Being who has given you a 
"blessing" in the form of a  divorce. 

With the forgiveness the resurrection becomes possible.   The embrace of 
the cross, it's evil, creates the open tomb.

So, "Let us  forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 
against  us."

Let us embrace the cross of the life we have been given and  participate in 
the universal resurrection, the Truth of life, now and  forever.

Jack  Gilles

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