Forgiveness
This past weekend my wife and I took a driving tour of the back roads of northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma. We saw beautiful scenery, quaint small towns, and rural lifestyles–any of which I may comment on in later posts. At one point we passed a small rural church with a letter-board marquee out front with this week’s sermon message: “Forgive your enemies. It’s a great way to annoy them.” First I laughed at the mixed messages embedded in that statement. Then I felt a deep sadness that stayed with me the rest of the weekend.
I am saddened by a “Christian” perspective that calls for forgiveness on the one hand, and on the other hand encourages a barrier between people sealed by annoyance. Forgiveness should break down all barriers. It should pull offenders into a community of love. It should bring healing from anger and hatred to our own lives. To desire that an offender be annoyed by our behavior cannot be forgiveness. Rather it is a self-righteous attitude of superiority. The message I saw on the church’s marquee was not Christian. Rather, it was evidence of a common false piety. We propose Christian values as our standard of living. Yet, beneath those ideals are many levels of distortion and corruption that contradict what we say we believe. Our lives resemble this old rusted truck that at it’s core is fundamentally broken. It cannot be fixed by a fresh coat of exterior paint.
These thoughts have particularly troubled me this weekend as we remember the anniversary of 9/11. The call of Jesus to forgive your enemies is profound and absolutely absurd. True Christianity is always that way. We would much rather give pious voice to the teachings of Jesus and continue to hold a grudge. to want vengeance, and to annoy those who do us evil. I am saddened by hypocritical Christianity that pretends forgiveness–especially when I see it in myself.
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