Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
THE CHRONICLE
October 20, 2002
Volume 47, No. 35

Forgiveness
Forgiveness. Forgive and forget. I will forgive you but I won't forget. 70 times 70. I
know God forgives me but I can't forgive myself. To err is human, to forgive divine.
I beg your forgiveness.

As the Reverend Burton Carley said in his AIDS Healing Service sermon on October
6, here at Calvary, "all things human are flawed." So it follows that forgiveness is a
deeply meaningful issue in our lives.

There is a deep yearning within each of us for wholeness, for the assurance that we are "okay." But we are not. In a sense of Christian understanding, we are not okay (because we are "flawed," or "fallen") but we are okay (because we are forgiven). Before we mess up, we are forgiven; we are "fore given."

God forgives us because God knows our heart at least as well as we do, and God
understands why we do the things we do. God's Grace, God's forgiveness is one of the great Gifts we receive from a gracious and loving God.

The trick is, 1) to believe that and to allow it to sink way down deep in us so that we are changed, transformed; and, 2) how to convert what God does for us into
what we do for others. When we pray "The Lord's Prayer" we pray, "…forgive us
our sins as we forgive those who sin against us…" God goes around having forgiven
us (having "fore given" us) 24/7. But can we do that with all those whose lives
intersect with ours, especially those who intersect "real close" with us? Ah, there's
the rub. And I suppose God even forgives us that we may not be able to measure up to our own prayed standard of forgiveness towards others.

But it is the right standard and it is one worth praying for and working towards.
Bill Kolb+

(Return to Top)