2nd Sunday of Easter – 7th April 2013

In the movie, The Mission, one of the leading characters is converted from being a slave-trader of Brazilian Indians to a Jesuit priest. But he insists on doing penance, dragging a heavy bundle through the jungle back to the Indians he used to enslave. Once back, in a dramatic, cliff-side scene, where the bundle threatened to make him fall, the Indians cut away the bundle. The people he had formerly enslaved forgave him and set him free. We have the power to do that for each other.

I do need to point out that forgiving sins does not mean ignoring them. If a child runs onto a road (and survives) you will forgive (and rejoice that he or she is okay) BUT there is no doubt that there will be a need to explain and teach the child that running onto the road is wrong. Unloving behaviors can be forgiven but sometimes there is a need for teaching and explaining. When King David had his affair with Bathsheba and sent her husband into the front line so as to ensure his death… David needed to know he was in the wrong and suffered the consequences of his actions but there is no doubt that he was forgiven and continued to be beloved by God.

21Jesus said to the disciples, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

As Martin Luther pointed out centuries ago, we are a priesthood of believers who are to be priests for one another, forgiving one another as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven us. We do have the power to forgive as God’s sons and daughters. Or as Jesus said even centuries earlier, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

This is an incredible responsibility but it is the responsibility of all believers, not just those in leadership roles. By our willing ability to forgive others and set them free, we point to Christ and become positive ambassadors for the Church and the Kingdom of God.

Love and blessings

Reverend Shan