Forgiveness
Not long ago, in the colony of Georgia, there was a young English minister. He was doing well and began dating a young woman from the area. He had fallen in love with this girl and was envisioning a future together. The young woman seemed to be returning his affection, at least that was his read of the situation, and he was beginning to muster up the courage to ask her to marry him. It was at this point that our story takes a turn for the worse.
The young minister gets word that his girlfriend had quickly married someone else. Our minister was not happy about this and he sought to get even. That Sunday morning during worship the congregants began to come forward to receive communion from that young minister. One by one he gave each of them a piece of bread. Then, when his girlfriend came to receive her piece of bread, he refused to give it to her. Right there in front of the whole church, he refused to give his girlfriend communion.
That minister’s name was John Wesley, who would go on to found the Methodist Church. That day he failed at forgiveness. He had been hurt too bad and was unable to find the grace in his heart to forgive his girlfriend. This scene would be a catalyst for him leaving Georgia all together. Our text this week has some things to say about why we must do the work of forgiving even when it is difficult. You can read the text below:
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Join us this week as we talk about the complex challenge that forgiveness presents to us. We will talk about forgiveness in three key ways.
All of us are in need of forgiveness.
We understand that forgiveness is extremely difficult.
Our being forgiven is intertwined with our ability to forgive.
See you Wednesday!
