Because I Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus, I Believe in Forgiveness

There are some writers on Christian life and human existence who are invariably good, and reading them just as invariably does you good. For me Timothy Radcliffe is one such writer, and I came across these words of his, quoted in Stanley Hauerwas' slim volume of sermons, A Cross Shattered Church.

"If forgiveness were forgetting then God would have to suffer the most acute amnesia, but it is God's unimaginable creativity, which takes what we have done and makes it fruitful. The medieval image of God's forgiveness was the flpowering of the cross. The cross is the ugly sign of torture. It is the sign of humanity's ability to refect love and to do what is utterly sterile. But the artists of the middle ages showed this cross flowering on Easter Sunday. The dead wood put out tendrils and flowers. Forgiveness makes the dead live and the ugly beautiful."

Whatever else we can complain about in the news just now, death and ugliness seem to dominate the headlines.

So I want to hear the counter claims of people of faith, that grace is beautiful, that forgiveness beautifies, that mercy makes life possible once again.

I want to hear love defiant enough to claim that compassion is not weakness but strength, that hope is not irresponsible optimism but responsible and determined trust that God's power is redemptive, ultimately and remorselessly redemptive.

I want to hear a faith so confident in the reconciling heart of God that every act of compassion, forgiveness, mercy and self-giving is performed as an intentional and persistent gesture of redemption, an aligning of our hearts with God, in love, purpose and determination that Creation will not die.

Why? Because we believe in resurrection, in life defying death, in love eclipsing hate, in peace persuading violence to desist, in forgiveness denying to enmity its raison d'etre, and in life. Yeds, as resurrection people we believe in life.

This I want to hear - and unless the preaching of the church takes up these vast truths of redemption and reconciliation,we trivialise the Gospel we are called to proclaim, we abandon our privileged role as ambassadors of Christ the Reconciler, and in a world so fragmented and jagged-edged from its own brokenness we will lose the right to be heard as those who bring something entirely different, hope-filled and redolent of new possibility. ASnd what we bring is Good News, crucified love blossming as resurrected hope.

Comments

[Jason Goroncy]

OK, Jim. Well, I spent yesterday, and will spend much of today, gardening - taming a wild hedge, pruning, weeding, planting, encouraging new life, attending to worms and various bugs, etc. It seems to me that I undertake such tasks in a world whose headlines are as they are precisely because I believe in the resurrection. You can tell which folk don't believe in the resurrection by looking at their gardens.

[ruthg]

Thank you for this; I am going to take the thoughts for Sunday's sermon - I may use some of the images,well credited of course.

[Jim Gordon]

Welcome to use this Ruth, ignoring a couple of typos I've since noticed! This post started off, I was only intending to quote Radcliffe - I assume you've read some of him? But it took off - resurrection as the cross flowering touches into secret places where hope grows and we see the world not only for what it is, but for what it's worth, to God. Take care and build in some resurrection experiences - last night coming home from Inverurie I listened to Beethoven's 7th, the finale blasting away, the intoxicated music that in its day raised eyebrows, and always raises me!