A SINGLE ACT OF FORGIVENESS CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING!
How many people have seen the movie The Tale of Despereaux? OK…so for those of you who haven’t seen it, I am about to give you a brief synopsis. If you don’t want to know the end, you’ll just have to close your ears. It’s not a mystery how it will end, because the Tale of Despereaux is a fairy tale, and we all know that fairy tales come out happy in the end. So here’s the story: there’s a rat Roscuro, who is traveling to the land of D’or, which is famous for the most delicious soup in all the land. He arrives in D’or on Soup Day when the royal chef presents the official soup to the king. In his enthusiasm about the soup, the rat falls into the Queen’s bowl of soup. The Queen is so frightened by the rat in her soup that she dies! So the king is terribly hurt by his wife’s death. And we hear “When something hurts this much, there must be someone to blame.” So the king blames soup and rats for his pain and banishes both, forbidding soup in the land of D’or and making rats and any contact with rats illegal. The rats are banished to the dark underground dungeons. Meanwhile in the land of D’or the sun no longer shines, it never rains but everything is gray and dull, and everyone misses soup, especially the Princess. Now Roscuro didn’t intend for that to happen and he feels miserable that he caused such pain and wishes to apologize to the Princess. His attempt to do so is rejected, and his heart hardens. Through a series of events, the princess eventually ends up a prisoner of the rats, and Roscuro, who is given the chance to end her life, has a change of heart, forgives her for rejecting him, sets the princess free. Roscuro apologizes, the princess apologizes, the king apologizes, and everyone is forgiven. And we get this summary: the king was hurt, so he hurt the rat; the rat was hurt so he hurt the princess; the princess was hurt and she hurt the servant girl, and on and on. We see what a ripple affect that such pain can cause.
In this story it was feelings of vengeance that were holding the characters back, and one of the most beautiful parts of it was that kindness and the spirit of forgiveness were ultimately redeeming for the characters. It broke their cycle of anger. It unlocked them and ultimately allowed for resolution of the story. And the story ends with the narrator saying, “A single act of forgiveness can change everything.”
Yet forgiveness is not something that we are comfortable with, nor are we handed a manual on how to forgive. So let’s explore this a bit and see what we can learn about forgiveness and God.
First let’s look at our scripture today and see from where it comes. Who is James? This James is the brother of Jesus, who was a recognized leader of the Jerusalem church. He could have written such a letter. (There are 5 Jameses in the NT, James, son of Zebedee, James Son of Alpheus [disciple], James the father of the Apostle Jude, James, son of Mary (not Jesus’ mother Mary), and James, Jesus’ brother, a leader in the church.) We know that he was well-known, because in James 1:1 he identifies himself as just “James” with no other identification other than servant of… But it’s not really a letter. It starts as a letter with a salutation, but it doesn’t end like a letter, no final greeting or exhortation or sign off. In fact, the book of James is considered Wisdom Literature. What makes a book wisdom literature? In biblical studies the word wisdom can refer to texts that mention the figure of the divine , or texts that intend to teach us wise living. Wisdom is a function of having learned life’s lessons; it is the work of sages, but also of folk sayings and wit. In fact, more than half the verses are moral exhortations (Johnson 179); they declare how we should behave. And this search for spiritual perfection will yield the fruit of God’s wisdom: peace, gentleness, and mercy (James 3:17). The point of the Letter of James is that we must seek that wisdom: we must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits…
By sharing this wisdom, James hopes to make his readers into better Jewish believers by encouraging them to obey the Law more faithfully.
If it’s wisdom literature, it would be wise for us to attend to it.
Is that one act of forgiveness that can change everything in here?
The dictionary definition of forgiveness is “to give up resentment of or claim to requital for”
Here’s what that might look like. We need to forgive when we are wronged. And that wrong creates something like a wound in our very core, at our heart. And, as the narrator in the Tale of Despereaux says, “When something hurts this much, there must be someone to blame.” We need to do something with that wound to make it go away. We might want revenge, or choose to ignore that pain, or we might hold onto it, but when you hold onto something like that, it leaks out your fingers, and falls onto others so they get hurt too.
Sometimes it’s easier to see what something is by looking at what it is NOT. Forgiveness is not forgetting – when you forgive you don’t forget that something happened. You heal it and hope that the scar is minimal. Forgiveness is not condoning wrong behavior – forgiving does not mean that it’s ok for others to continue that harmful behavior. And it is not justice – it does not replace consequences.
So what is forgiveness then? Forgiveness is trusting God to bring emotional healing. It is allowing the negative feelings associated with a wrong to be held by God, so you don’t have to hold onto them and juggle life too.
One act of forgiveness can change everything.
Why do we need to forgive?
Last week Pastor Nicole talked about culture wars and being at war with ourselves over the healthcare debate. The resulting wrongs that have caused these wounds in us are an example of a war inside us and with our fellow human beings. Because wherever human beings gather in a group, conflicts naturally arise. James states that conflicts and disputes emanate from those internal struggles among a community (James 4:1-3). It’s not because we don’t care about each other. Rather, our humanity gets in the way: envy, ambition, covetousness, fear, or a myriad of other human characteristics get in the way of harmonious relationships.
But if we take the Wisdom of James and apply that to conflicts, we find that the wisdom from above is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.
And isn’t that what we are all about? LIVING RIGHT WITH GOD? Look at the damage we do to ourselves and to our relationship with God when we withhold forgiveness. For ourselves, if we are caring for that wound that we are carrying around we are distracted from our true purpose, our higher calling – being the people that God wants us to be. Forgiveness is setting ourselves free and setting others free from the burden of that distraction. Forgiveness can be liberating!
And didn’t Jesus teach us to pray by saying forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us? If forgiveness were not a central tenet of our faith, Jesus would not have included those words into his central prayer instruction.
One act of forgiveness can change everything.
How do we forgive?
James instructs us to submit to God and resist evil in chapter 4 verse 7. What happens if we hold onto that wound with all our strength? God cannot get God’s hands around that burden to carry it away from us. Trust that God will bring that emotional healing needed. God is God, the Great I Am. Why would God, who created and loves each of us beyond measure, allow us to remain with a gaping hole in our heart?
Easier said than done, is what I always say. It takes practice! Matthew 18:21-22 says Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times [or seventy times seven]. If it were that easy, Jesus would have said once. I believe Jesus and God understand that forgiveness is not an easy task – so you get 77 (or seventy times seven) tries.
And we keep God in our thoughts as we work to learn forgiveness. God is the premier example of forgiveness. Didn’t God give God’s only son to the Cross to take away the sins of the world? If God did not provide such a profound example of forgiveness – both in God’s gift of Jesus and in Jesus’ dying words of “Forgive them, for they know not what they do” – it would be easier to ignore this forgiveness stuff. JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION IS THE EPITOME OF ONE ACT OF FORGIVENESS CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING. God’s act of forgiveness sent us Jesus, who even in dying offered forgiveness, and that is the greatest blessing.
We are not alone in our attempts to make the world right. All we have to do is “Draw near to God and God will draw near to you” (James 4:8).
What happens when you forgive?
“A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.” – Ja 3:18 – Make is an ACTIVE verb - we have to DO it! When we make peace by forgiving, we restore relationships with others and God. It brings healing and gets us closer to wholeness.
Jesus took our sins so that God’s forgiveness would be part of us. One act of forgiveness can change everything. We just need to practice it ourselves, and then we can get the word out to others so they can learn too. And then the healing and restoration of the world can happen.
One act of forgiveness can change everything.
A prayer of forgiveness
Dear God, I choose as an act of my will, regardless of my feelings, to forgive the person who has wronged me. I release them, and I set myself free to Your healing. With Your help, I will no longer dwell on the situation or continue to talk about it. I thank You for forgiving me as I have forgiven them. I thank You for releasing me. I ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.