With You There is Forgiveness; a sermon in 2 parts

Scripture: Psalm 130: 1-6; Luke 15: 11-24

Sermon: With You There is Forgiveness; a sermon in 2 parts

Topics: forgiveness, apology, regret, Eustace

Preached March 7, 2010

Rev. Mike Abma

Psalm 130: 1-6

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 

²   Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive

   to the voice of my supplications! 

³ If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,

   Lord, who could stand? 

⁴ But there is forgiveness with you,

   so that you may be revered. 

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

   and in his word I hope; 

⁶ my soul waits for the Lord

   more than those who watch for the morning,

   more than those who watch for the morning. 

Luke 15: 11-19

Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. ¹³A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. ¹⁴When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ” 

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

PART ONE — REPENTANCE — RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

A few weeks ago, David LaGrand,

an attorney here in town and a former city counselor of Grand Rapids,

spoke at our Adult Education time about Restorative Justice.

Restorative Justice.

What is Restorative Justice?

Presently in our criminal justice system

there is very little room for an offender to say they are sorry

and very little room for the victim of a crime to hear an apology.

The Restorative Justice approach tries to make room in the justice system

for those two things.

No one is ever forced or pressured to do anything.:

No offender is forced to apologize.

No victim is forced to hear an apology.

But if an offender wants to apologize

and if a victim wants to hear an apology,

an opportunity is given for that to happen.

What LaGrand said is that

in his experience as a prosecuting attorney

and according to most studies done in this area,

a remarkably high number of offenders want to say they are sorry,

and a remarkably high number of victims are actually quite eager to hear their offenders speak words of apology.

It is a new approach in the criminal justice system.

But I think we, as Christians,

have a sense of how this can be a very healthy thing.

In fact, all studies done show that where restorative justice is being practiced, whether that be in London England or Sydney Australia,

it has been good for the offender,

good for the victim,

and good for the overall health of the community.

When offenders actually apologize to victims,

Here are some of the good things that happen:

victims begin to see their offenders not monsters but as human beings who have messed up their lives badly;

And offenders begin to see their victims as real people who have really been

hurt and damaged by their crimes.

When offenders are allowed to say sorry,

And victims are allowed to hear the apology,

Then there is room for fear to get replaced by forgiveness,

And anger to be replaced by the beginnings of reconciliation.

LEARNING TO SAY SORRY

Learning to say sorry and really meaning it

is something every parent wants their child to learn,

every principal wants their students to practice,

and every country wants their citizens to know.

Saying sorry, and really meaning it,

has the power to heal and restore.

Unfortunately, most of the apologies we see and hear in public

are often the confessions of high-profile athletes or politicians or even religious leaders.

These can be scripted and manipulated.

They can be micro-managed public relations exercises.

They can be what crisis managers are paid the big bucks to maneuver through. Recently, Susan Wise Bauer wrote a book about these high-profile apologies and I just love the title of her book. It is called The Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Public Confession in America.

“The art of the public grovel…”

Apologies simply do not work well in high-profile, highly public settings.

But they do have power when they are heart-felt, passionate, and personal.

A heart-felt, passionate, and personal apology generally has 5 parts to it.

1. Expresses Regret: At the very least, an apology must say, “I’m sorry.” It must be aware of the wrong done and the hurt caused.

2. An apology also needs to accept responsibility. I must say, “I was wrong” — no excuses, no blaming others, no “buts.”

3. An apology needs to offer to make some kind of restitution. What can I do to make this right. Or if the offense is so dire, it needs to admit that there is nothing that can make up for the victim’s loss.

4. An apology needs to be more than regret, more than remorse. It needs to be genuine repentance. By genuine repentance, I mean that an apology must come with the heart-felt effort never to do that wrong again. In other words, the apology must be more than words. It has to be in actions too.

5. Lastly, an apology should be made with no expectation of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is always an undeserved gift.

To apologize and then demand forgiveness is to cancel out the sincerity of your apology.

These are the five main parts of an apology.

Sometimes apologies can get 3 out of 5 right.

Sometimes even 4 out of 5.

But it is hard to practice all 5 parts well, with heartfelt sincerity.

Perhaps the hardest one is number 4 — the repentance part.

It is easier to feel remorse.

It is much harder to actually change our lives,

and shake our worst habits.

EUSTACE

The Prodigal Son is one of the Bible’s most famous repentance stories.

But I would like to tell you another story of repentance. This one comes from one of C.S. Lewis’ Narnian books, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In that book Edmund and Lucy find themselves in that magical land of Narnia with their cousin Eustace Clarence Scrubb.

Now Eustance Clarence Scrubb was a miserable spoiled brat.

He complained about everything.

He was never willing to help.

And when the Dawn Treader had been out to sea for a long time and the food and water needed to be rationed, Eustace didn’t think twice about stealing.

In a word, Eustace was a beastly boy.

Then one day, the ship, the Dawn Treader, comes to an island.

People rejoiced.

Time to replenish their food and water supplies.

Time to repair the ship.

Eustace, true to form, didn’t want to do anything – any work.

So he slipped away and went for a walk.

He wandered a long way away and found himself in a dragon cave.

The dragon cave was filled with dragon treasure.

Eustace fell asleep on the pile of dragon treasure dreaming greedy and selfish thoughts.

When Eustace woke up he discovered that he had turned into a dragon – a real, live dragon. And he hated it.

He was lonely.

He missed his cousins.

He missed the crew on the Dawn Treader.

He wanted to be Eustace again.

Not the old, grumpy, greedy, lazy Eustace, but a kinder, more helpful, more generous Eustace.

But on his own he could not change.

He was a dragon.

And as a dragon he wept — he wept big dragon tears.

Why?

Because he was sorry, so very sorry,

and he wanted to change so very much.

Let’s take a moment to sing a version of Psalm 130

Out of Depths, I Cry to You O Lord

FORGIVENESS

Psalm 130: 7-8

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord!

   For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

   and with him is great power to redeem. 

⁸ It is he who will redeem Israel

   from all its iniquities.

Luke 15: 20-24

²⁰So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” ²²But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

PART TWO FORGIVENESS

There are few pictures in the Bible

more beautiful,

more touching,

more powerful

than the father running to meet his repentant and returning son,

embracing him,

and kissing him.

The son had rehearsed what he was going to say to his father:

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Treat me like one of your hired hands.

But did you notice when he actually gets to his father,

he never gets that last line out –

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;

I am no longer worthy to be called your son…..

But he never gets out the line Treat me like one of your hired hands.

Before he can say it, the father said to his servants:

Bring me a robe – the best one – and put it on him;

Put a ring on his finger

And sandals on his feet.

In other words, the father is re-dressing his son.

The old slave clothes come off.

The new clothes of a son, an heir, go on.

The ring of honor is placed on his finger.

And the sandals of freedom are put on his feet.

This is something the prodigal son cannot do himself.

This is something only his father can do for him — to redeem him, to restore him.

The same is true for so many of us.

We can be truly sorry.

We can want to be better, want to live better,

We can have the best intentions,

But some habits are too deep for us to undo,

too entrenched for us to unlearn.

We need to be dressed in new clothes – the clothes of our redemption.

That is why we need a strength stronger than our own to change us,

a patience longer than our own to stick with us;

a love deeper than our own

to redress us, to reclothe us.

We last left Eustace, that spoiled brat,

as a weeping and repentant dragon.

His cousins Lucy and Edmund could do nothing for him.

The crew of the Dawn Treader could do nothing for him.

He had acted beastly,

and now he was literally a dragon.

If you know the book,

You know Eustace does not stay a dragon.

Early one morning (a resurrection reference)

Eustace the dragon

Meets a glorious and radiant lion,

the Lion and Lord of Narnia, named Aslan.

Aslan leads Eustace to a pool of clear water with marble steps down into it.

Again, this is a Biblical image – it is supposed to remind readers of a baptismal font of the early church.

Eustace the dragon wants to go into the water,

but Aslan the lion says he must first undress —

take off the old before putting on the new.

Undress? How can a dragon undress?

Then Eustace thought that maybe a dragon can shed its skin like a snake sheds its skin.

So Eustace began clawing at his skin.

And, lo and behold, it came off,

almost like peeling a banana.

But the skin underneath was dragon skin too.

Every time Eustace peeled off a layer of dragon skin,

A new layer of dragon skin would appear.

Finally Eustace realized that Aslan was the only one

who could really “undress” him.

So Eustace, the dragon, lay on his back

and let Aslan, the Lion, undress him.

The very first tear Aslan made with his claw was so deep

that Eustace thought it had gone right into his heart.

And when Aslan tore off the horrible scaly dragon skin,

it hurt worse than anything Eustace had ever felt before.

The only thing that made Eustace able to bear it

was the pleasure of feeling the dragon skin peel off.

Then Aslan threw Eustace into the pool of water.

Eustace sank deep into the water.

The water smarted and stung at first.

But in time, it began to feel delicious.

Eustace came out of that water not as a dragon but as a boy.

But not as the boy he had been before –

not the miserable spoiled beastly brat he was.

He came out of that water

as a different boy, a new boy,

clothed with kindness and helpfulness,

clothed with patience and gentleness.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a dragon like me….

Let’s sing.