In the Gospel of John, after the Lord rises from the dead, He interacts with Peter a few more times and gives him some important final directions. This Sunday we will reflect on what this story can show us about the failure, frustration, and transformation that we’re likely to go through as we try to follow the Lord.
Jesus mission in life was both incomprehensibly massive and truly simple: to save all people, for all time, from the threat of hell. Throughout His life He accomplished this mission by fighting against and overcoming every last evil impulse that hell could throw at Him. By the end of His life, on the cross, He had so completely overcome hell that nothing of it remained in Him. On Easter Sunday we celebrate this victory because of what it means for us today: just as Jesus overcame hell in His own life, He can overcome every bit of hell that shows up in ours.
You are warmly invited to the following Easter services:
This Sunday is Palm Sunday and the last Sunday of our Practicing Forgiveness programme. Throughout these past few weeks we’ve talked about the difference that forgiveness can make – in an individual’s life and in society in general. We understand the before picture and we like the after picture but how do we get from one to the other? This Sunday we’ll try to understand more of what comes in between in the process of being transformed by forgiveness.
We have talked about how we are called to forgive those who have hurt us, and to seek forgiveness from other people and from the Lord for the things we have done. This Sunday we will consider another important aspect of forgiveness: forgiveness within ourselves. There are times when other people may have forgiven us and the Lord certainly has but we still beat up on ourselves and we can’t seem to let it go. The Lord can help us to understand why this happens and help us to get free.
We have all needed to be forgiven at one time or another. It’s tempting at these times to think a simple “I’m sorry” will suffice. But when it comes to forgiveness “sorry” just doesn’t cut it. Although when we say sorry it may be heartfelt it does nothing to change us or our situation. It is when we recognize our fault and make an effort to change that we can receive real forgiveness.
This Sunday we continue with the theme of forgiveness. Our focus will be on forgiving others, especially in light of the forgiveness that we ourselves have received. In short it is easy to forgive our own mistakes while holding others who make the exact same mistakes to a higher standard. When we give people the same benefit of the doubt that we give ourselves we will find that forgiveness comes much more easily.
This Sunday we begin the Practicing Forgiveness programme with a question: “Why forgive?” Why should we forgive people who have hurt us? What is it about forgiveness that is so essential to spiritual life that all the major world religions teach about how important it is? And—most importantly—how do we do it? How do we grant and seek forgiveness in a genuine way? Come on Sunday as we begin to try to find answers to these important questions.
The world tells us that to be great we must be better than others. We must be stronger, richer, more skilled, and so on. If someone is ahead of us we are not, obviously, the best. The Lord redefines greatness. Greatness is not to excel others. Greatness is putting others first. Not only does putting others first make us great; it removes the competition. When we put others first we do not need to feel superior to anyone. We can be content that we have done our part to make the world a better place.
There’s a verse somewhere in the middle of Isaiah that says, “…you shall be collected, one by one….” Someone recently showed me this verse and pointed out that it has important implications for how we approach our relationships with other people and with the Lord.
