First Presbyterian Church
"A House of Prayer for All Peoples"
Lake Crystal, Minnesota
Sunday, October 12, 2014
“HOPE & RESTORATION”
AN ORDER FOR MORNING PRAYER FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS ǂ
Leader: O Lord, open my lips;
People: And my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Leader: If God be for us, who can be against us?
People: There is nothing in all creation
that can separate us from the love of God,
which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
PSALM 51:1-2, 10-12
UNISON PRAYER
Compassionate and Gracious God, forgive what our lips tremble to name. Free us from a past we cannot change. Break the chains that bind us. We admit that though You have called us to love others as ourselves, we often ignore cries for help, sit in judgment of others, and wait for someone else to do justice. Be merciful to us, O God; open our ears to your Holy Spirit, stir us to action, and awaken us from complacency. Help us to reflect the Spirit of Jesus, who brought hope to the anguished and restoration to all he touched. Amen.
Psalm 6 & 11 from Swallow’s Nest: A Feminine Reading of the Psalms by Marchiene Vroon Rienstra © 1992 Eerdmans Publishing.
PSALM 6 [This might be the prayer of a woman who was raped]
Leader: Have mercy on me, O God, for I am very weak.
Heal me, El Shaddai, for my bones ache with anguish
and my soul is filled with turmoil.
People: O God, when will You deliver me from my despair?
For mercy’s sake, come soon to me and save me!
If I die, how can I gratefully remember You?
If I stay in this dreadful pit, how can I praise You?
I am sick with sighing, and every night I soak my sheets with tears.
My face is wet with weeping, and my eyes are hollow with grief.
The attack on me has made me grow old.
Depart from me, all you who would do me evil!
For God has heard the sound of my sorrow.
She has heard my pleas, and accepts me as I am.
All who have hurt me shall know shame and trouble.
Dishonor will fall on their heads.
PSALM 11 [This might be the prayer of an abused woman against her inner enemies –
despair, fear, a sense of worthlessness]
Leader: How can you say to my soul, “Fly away, like a bird, to the mountains”?
There is no easy escape from the inner attacks of darkness.
People: The arrows of fear pierce my heart.
The foundation of my self-esteem is destroyed.
How can I be upright, or do what I need to do?
Yet God is within my body, which is Her holy temple.
She also dwells in the heavens and sees us, tests us all.
Though She lets those with integrity endure many trials,
Her soul hates those who love violence.
She will send fire and brimstone and a scorching wind
To destroy the despair that attacks me.
Leader: For God is loving and just, and always does what is right.
Those who act with integrity shall surely behold Her face.
*PSALM 40 “I Waited Patiently for God” From Lift Up Your Hearts; tune: NEW BRITAIN
GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 18:21-35 Pew Bible: NT p. 20
SERMON “Hope and Restoration”
(manuscript)Heidelberg Catechism series: Lord’s Day 51
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”
“Forgiving is for people who know their own faults but who recognize a wrong and dare to name it when they feel it done to them and have the wisdom and grace to forgive it” (Smedes, p. 85).
Introduction: Ad lib. Did Jesus really mean what he said?
We are inclined to separate God’s Forgiveness (of us) and Our Reconciling Behavior in association with those who have offended (harmed, hurt, sinned against) us. And yet, the last three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer call us to pray not only for our own needs but for the needs of others: asking for OUR daily bread, OUR forgiveness, OUR salvation.
True forgiveness of others is hard because of “our habit of always seeing the guilt predominately on the other side, while being inclined to see our own side in a favorable light, to justify it and defend it against the other, even in the most hopeless case…” (Eberhard Busch) As a rule is was, in our view, clearly the other side in which the evil began.
Example… Illustration… two brothers in the back seat on a road trip…
Siblings always say, “HE started it!"
Ad lib: "Pardon me" vs. Forgiving the unforgivable
So, in a situation of IRRECONCILIABILITY, we pray “forgive us OUR sins,” that is, “for the sake of Christ’s blood, do not charge to us miserable sinners our many transgressions, nor the evil which still always clings to us” (Heidelberg Catechism). Doing this…
• Reverses the accusing finger and directs it first of all at ourselves
• Puts us in the “camp of the enemy” and allows us, enables us by grace to see the “other” as a human being
• Lewis Smedes outlines three stages of forgiveness: We rediscover the HUMANITY of the person who wronged us…. we surrender our right to get even (this is really the act of forgiveness)… and, finally, we wish that person well…
Forgiving others acknowledges that it is GOD who is able to overcome the situation of irreconcilability. Reconciliation with one another is inseparable with our reconciliation with God.
Yet, we must be CRYSTAL CLEAR….God’s reconciliation does not suspend justice. It upholds it. It does not say that wrong is right. It condemns injustices.
Illustration: Ad lib story from Lewis Smedes
Lewis Smedes: To FORGIVE a person is NOT a signal that you are willing TO PUT UP WITH what he/she does. Forgiving is not about letting people get away with something. “Let it be shouted once more, from the roof this time: Forgiving a person does not mean that we tolerate what that person is doing to hurt us. Forgiving does not turn us into mush” (Smedes, The Art of Forgiving, p. 159).
Busch: “There are actually situations of guilt in which one side is the guilty one and the other side is the
one that is suffering. In this case it would be vexingly wrong for the guilty one to say: we are all sinners and all need forgiveness. This would mean that the victims have also themselves to blame for their fate, and so would make light of the guilt of the guilty and hurt their victims anew” (Busch, Drawn to Freedom, p. 346).
Forgiving does not mean that we tolerate the WRONG committed against us. Forgiving doesn’t take the edge off the evil that was done to us, it doesn’t mean that we excuse the guilty party or surrender our right to justice. And forgiving and its timetable is up to the person who has been injured. And only her.
Remember what we talked about a few weeks ago? You are God’s dearly loved children—so be truly what you have been named by God. Be salt and light. By being God-colors in the world, by being the taste of godliness in the world, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, our generous Father in heaven. We cannot do that when we’re looking to exact vengeance, right? Yes, anger can be healthy. It moves us towards justice. But hate is debilitating.
“As we start on the miracle of forgiving, we begin to see our enemy through a clearer lens, less smudged by hate. We begin to see a real person, a botched self, no doubt, a hodgepodge of meanness and decency, lies and truths, good and evil…. We see a human being created to be a child of God” (Smedes)
And yet, we must take care when we let go of our ‘right’ to vengeance and make sure we are not giving up on justice. “Forgiving surrenders the right to vengeance, it never surrenders the claims of justice” (Lewis Smedes, The Art of Forgiving: When You Need to Forgive and Don’t Know How).
Forgiveness sets us free and gives us hope for restoration of our own wounded souls. When we cannot forgive, we are unable to enjoy the full measure of freedom and joy granted to us through God’s forgiveness of our own sins. Yet--and this is vitally important--it is not up to me or you to tell a wounded person 'you must forgive' or to suggest when. So in the midst of great hurts, let us acknowledge the pain, confess our complicity, work proactively to help wounded souls escape dangerous situations, and pray for the grace of forgiveness. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION
*HYMN “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” The Hymnbook no. 473
*BENEDICTION Numbers 6:24-26
*POSTLUDE
ǂ Resources:
Call to Worship and portions of other prayers and readings adapted by Pastor Randy from the 2013 and 2014 Presbyterians Against Domestic Violence resource packets. Order for Morning Prayer freely adapted from Daily Prayer: The Worship of God: Supplemental Worship Resource 5 (prepared by the PCUSA office of worship) © 1987 Westminster John Knox Press. Psalm 6 & 11 from Swallow’s Nest: A Feminine Reading of the Psalms by Marchiene Vroon Rienstra © 1992 Eerdmans Publishing.
Sermon Bibliography:
Busch, Eberhard. Drawn to Freedom: Christian Faith Today in Conversation with the Heidelberg Catechism.
Lewis B. Smedes. The Art of Forgiving: When You Need to Forgive and Don’t Know How
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