“Fishing With Jesus:
Fishing With Mercy and Forgiveness”
February 20, 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and
peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, Amen.
How many of you have some sort of collection? Those of you who follow me on social media know that I have a growing collection of musical instruments. I also have a few other collections, including hats. What are some of your favorite things to collect?
Whether or not we may realize it, all
of us share the same common collection: we collect memories.
Each one of us carry around a
lifetime’s worth of memories, both good and bad memories, and these memories
affect us in different ways. The question is, what do we do with those
memories? Even further, what do we do with the bad memories we’re continuing to
carry around? How are we letting the bad memories, the negativity, we’re still carrying
around affect us? How are we letting our bad memories determine how we act and
think, especially how we act towards others, and think about others and
ourselves? The key, as we hear about in both today’s First Reading from
Genesis, as well as today’s Gospel Reading, is forgiveness. Now,
forgiveness does not always mean what we think it means. So today we’re going
to talk about what forgiveness is, and why it is not only important, but
something God wants for us.
1.
Forgiveness
is necessary, rather than optional.
Forgiveness is why we are here as Christians in the first place. We are here
because God chose to remove the sin which had separated us from Him by sending
His Son to die as a sacrifice on the cross. He satisfied the consequence which
was necessary for sin by dying in our place, and then rising again to show that
everything had been fulfilled. Because of Jesus, and only because of Jesus, all
our sins are forgiven. Nothing we do can earn this forgiveness: Jesus has
already accomplished everything necessary for us to be forgiven. Therefore, we
can believe, with absolute confidence, that since God has already caused
everything to be forgiven, it can be easier for us to let go of any guilt we
carry because of things we have done, or hurts that have been done to us. Furthermore,
not only is forgiveness something that is good for us to be able to heal and
move forward, but it is also commanded. We are commanded to forgive
ourselves, and forgive other people. God always knows what is best for us, and
what is best for others. He wants us to be happy and content in life. He doesn’t
want us to be constantly focusing on how we have been hurt, or how we’ve hurt ourselves,
because all we’re doing is hurting ourselves. Which is not at all what God
wants for us: Jesus came to die to suffer our pain on the cross, and heal it by
His death and resurrection. Because He is risen, and is victorious over death, that
means He is also victorious over our pain. Which means that any pain we inflict
on ourselves is not of God, but only what we do to ourselves. Even though we
may want to keep score, and either keep dwelling on hurts that have been done
to us, or think about ways we can hurt other people back, God has already let
everything go. Since He has let everything about us and others go, we ought to
as well.
All
that being said:
2.
Forgiveness
does not mean excusing or forgetting, but is instead an absence of vengeance. Very often forgiveness is
confused with forgetting; this is a common misconception. The memory still remains,
and what has been done cannot be undone or simply swept aside. But, forgiveness,
in fact, does not mean that the memory of the hurt that has been caused has
been forgotten, but instead that the hurt caused by the memory no longer
affects us. It means that the hurt caused by what has been done to us no longer
affects how we behave or what we think, or what motivates us to act in a
certain way, but instead it means that we have learned from the hurt, and move
forward, rather than react in anger or vengeance. Forgiveness also demonstrates
a desire to work at restoring the relationship that has been damaged, but also
recognizing that this takes time and can be a process that goes for as long as
is necessary. Sometimes it may not happen: the relationship may be permanently
damaged and may never be restored. But it means that we can be released from
having to be attached to the damaged relationship in any way, and instead move
on and having it no longer affect who we are. It also means that, rather than
excusing the behavior of the other person who hurt us, that we instead work to no
longer let their behavior affect us. It further means releasing the person who
hurt us from the obligation of having to apologize: instead of us waiting for an
apology in order to heal, we simply release ourselves from having to wait, and the
other person from having to apologize, and instead we allow ourselves to move
forward and be healed. This is also why Jesus commands us, in Luke 6:27, to
love our enemies, and pray for our persecutors: to be able to be released from waiting
for our enemies and persecutors to change, but instead moving forward from
letting them affect us negatively. Loving our enemies does not mean letting our
enemies and persecutors walk all over us: that is a common misconception. It
also does not mean that what our enemies and persecutors say about us is right:
we ought not to let what our enemies think about us affect how we think about
ourselves, but instead we can be confident in who we really are and feel good
about who we are. Instead, what it means is not trying to pay back the hurts we
have been forced to suffer in the same way, by seeking revenge, but instead showing
mercy.
Mercy, like forgiveness, is yet
another word that gets tossed around a lot, with almost little or no
explanation of what it actually means. And its meaning in this case is very simple:
giving someone something they don’t deserve. While we may want to revenge
ourselves against someone for what they’ve done to us, we are to show mercy
instead – as Joseph did to his brothers in today’s First Reading. We are to
treat those who hate us with kindness, those who wrong us with caring, and
those who hurt us with compassion. That is how God treats us: He has given us
exactly what we would not expect, and has instead forgiven our sins, the wrongs
we have done, and has already forgiven the wrongs others have done to us. While
there may be consequences for the wrongs we do to ourselves or other people, God
does not cause us to endure those consequences forever. He is gracious, and so
He brings an end to what we have to go through in order to learn and understand
what we have done to ourselves or other people, or what has been done to us,
and be able to forgive.
This
is also why, in Luke 6:37, Jesus commands us not to judge: the judgments and
criticisms we level against other people, especially those based on rumor,
gossip, or suspicion, frequently turn out to be false. Far too many promising
relationships, and far too many healthy relationships, have been damaged by
mistrust caused by misunderstanding. As Christians, we ought to be thinking
about how we would feel if such things were done to us, and consider that what we
treat others is ultimately how we end up being treated by others. Therefore, if
we desire mercy and compassion to be shown to us, then we ought to show mercy
and compassion to others. This means protecting the reputations of all people, making
sure that relationships are preserved and restored as possible if damaged, and
that any perceived misunderstandings are addressed and forgiven.
In today’s world, it is also good
for us to follow God’s leading in seeking alternatives to vengeance. Much of
what we hear, especially on the news, is basically about vengeance, which is often
expressed as a desire to right wrongs, but is actually nothing more than a
desire for revenge. Even apart from what is going on in society, one of our
basic desires is to give people what they deserve. If we believe someone has
hurt us, we want to punish them for what they’ve one, and give them what we
think they deserve for what they’ve done to us. If all we focus on is how to
punish someone for what we think they’ve done to us, then that causes us to act
that way towards everyone: we eventually get to the point where we act in mistrust,
suspicion, or anger towards everyone because we focus on our hurts so much. We have
had enough mistrust, suspicion, and anger: it is now time to move forward to
the next step of growth and maturity God wants for us.
3.
Forgiveness
is both a sign of and leads to spiritual growth and maturity. Holding on to bad memories, past
hurts, or past grudges is what causes us to stay stuck in one particular place,
especially one particular point in life. The more we relive the same hurt which
was done to us over and over, the more we stay stuck in one particular stage in
life, and are unable to move forward to the next stage of growth and maturity.
However, being able to forgive means that we are able to grow and move forward
past wherever in life the hurt that was done to us was caused. Forgiveness is
also a sign that we understand: we understand either the hurt that was done to
us, or the hurt that we did to another person, and we are able to move forward
from having it affect our thoughts and behaviors. When we are able to forgive,
that is a sign that God is working in us. When we are able to move past the
hurts and wrongs we have suffered, and are able to move forward, it is a sign
that we are growing and maturing, and that God is causing us to grow and mature.
Forgiveness is therefore literally letting go and letting God – letting go of
the hurts, bitterness, and resentments which have been holding us back and keeping
us from growing, and letting God replace those hurts, bitterness, and resentments
with peace, contentment, confidence, and love and concern for others.
Also,
a more responsible, and more effective, witness to our Christian faith is being
able to forgive and seek relationships. Unfortunately, we have been seduced by
a desire to identify with a cause, idea, or faction – which, again, comes out
of a desire for revenge, to give other people what we think they deserve because
we think they have done wrong, or they have wronged us somehow. All these have
done have been to cause divisions and suspicions. Our ultimate aim and goal
ought not to be suspicion and division, but instead forgiveness, peace, and unity.
And peace and unity can be best pursued by starting with forgiveness. Therefore,
it is time for us to move beyond focusing on causes or what makes us different
from other people, even other Christians, and instead focus on and emphasize
what we have in common with each other. And what we all have in common
with each other is a desire for peace, and, most of all, to know that we can
heal. We all need to know that we can be forgiven. We all need to know that we
can move forward from past hurts. We all need to know that there is something
more than being stuck in once place because of something we have one, or
something that has been done to us. The key is forgiveness: knowing and
believing that we have been forgiven by God, and being able to forgive because
we are forgiven. So let us move forward from the hurts and bad memories we have
collected, let God heal them, and let us be able to forgive – forgive ourselves,
forgive others, and forgive the past, so we can move forward into God’s future
for us.
Now may the peace of God, which passes
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
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