"Why Forgive?" 2 Corinthians 2: 5-11; Luke 6: 37-38

It is hard to believe that this is the last of the Grab Bag sermons!  One topic -- talk about being Presbyterian (in reference to a series of articles about being Presbyterian in the magazine "Presbyterians Today") -- will be addressed in a 5 week mini-series starting on Sept. 8th.  A few other topics did not get "grabbed," but I'm going to try and work them in at some point over the next year or so.

Forgiveness.   This sermon grows out of this question that was submitted:  “Do I have to forgive?”  Included with the question were these two quotes:

From C. S. Lewis

We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the sec­ond part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer; it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to forgive other people's sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are exten­uating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don't, we shall be forgiven none of our own.

From George MacDonald:

No man who will not forgive his neighbor, can believe that God is willing, yea wanting, to forgive him . . . .If God said, "I forgive you" to a man who hated his brother, and if (as impossible) that voice of forgiveness should reach the man, what would it mean to him?  How much would the man interpret it?  Would it not mean to him "You may go on hating.  I do not mind it."

I find myself struggling with Lewis' comment because it feels a lot like we have to do something to earn God's grace, rather than it merely being a gift.  I would be more comfortable speaking of our we are compelled to forgive because God has forgiven us. I suppose it depends on how you emphasize and interpret the Lord's Prayer.  "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."  Is the second part a natural outgrowth of the first part or does the first part depend on the second part happening?

I find McDonald's quote interesting.  does it mean that we have to forgive to understand/accept God's forgiveness? That's a different perspective than I have generally had in that regard.

I have often focused my thoughts on forgiveness on how it impacts us -- to not forgive hurts me more than it does the person who had hurt me.  They move on, but I am stuck in what has hurt me and in some sense it continues to live in me until I forgive. But ultimately I think we forgive not because it is good for us because God calls us to forgive and Jesus models if for us.

I have also been thinking about people who say, "I can forgive, but I will never forget."  The passage from Jeremiah (I did not choose it for this sermon) speaks of a God "who will remember their sins no more."  If we model our forgiveness after God's forgiveness, can we settle for the ":forgive, but not forget approach?" 

Do you have any stories of forgiveness to share?