Forgiveness.

(image © daniel w. erlander www.danielerlander.com)

On Saturday I read the chapter on The Reality of Evil, and reflected on the first half of our rite of Confession and Forgiveness - the first half being the part where we confess. Sometimes this is the only part we remember - as if we begin our worship services simply with "Confession" and then continue with the service feeling vaguely bad about ourselves. But the rite in our cranberry hymnal is called Confession and Forgiveness for a reason.

And the Forgiveness part is truly shocking. Take the Reality of Evil, in its personal and global/systemic forms. Realize how overwhelming it is - take a moment to let it sink in.

Then realize that God's love is BIGGER than all the evil in the world, than all the evil we could have possibly done. This is hard to believe, but it is the amazing truth we proclaim in the second half of Confession and Forgiveness! And it is an amazing truth, truly. With a Love like that washing over us - over the whole world - we shall indeed overcome.

(Side note for Lutherans: This may be why Martin Luther almost considered Confession and Forgiveness the third sacrament - a means of grace on par with Baptism and Eucharist! He ultimately decided that Confession and Forgiveness was really the really the rite of Baptism without the water - and the water, for Luther, was important. This is why we alternate at the beginning of our Sunday liturgy, depending on the season, "Confession and Forgiveness" with "Affirmation of Baptism.")

In his chapter on Forgiveness, Brackley suggests something about Confession and Forgiveness that continues to stick with me.

First he suggests that it comes not just through churchly rites but through other people. God's forgiveness is "channeled by people who accept and forgive us in their own human way" (34). We might know this from personal experiences in our lives where a relationship has been restored after forgiveness took place.

But then he suggests that the same thing could be true on a global scale! What I mean here - and what I think Brackley means here - is not a matter of governments making carefully-worded public apologies for past misdeeds. Rather, what I think he is getting at is this (35):

Plenty of people suffer terrible injustice closer to home, in all our countries: abused women and children, oppressed minorities, homeless people, immigrants. Engaging them puts us in touch with the world, with ourselves, and with divine mercy.

Brackley goes so far as to suggest that this engagement, this restoration of relationship with the poor and the marginalized is the very "sacrament" of Confession and Forgiveness happening not in the church but out in the world. He writes (34):

It seems that God has chosen people like them as ambassadors of grace for people like me.

Then he lists others who have come to know this truth: Dorothy Day, Mohandas Gandhi, Che Guevara, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Simone Veil, Oscar Romero... perhaps you know of others. Perhaps you have come to know this truth yourself.

It is the truth that makes the words from Sunday real.

God, who is rich in mercy, loved us
even when we were dead in sin,
and made us alive
together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
your sins are forgiven.
Almighty God
strengthen you with power
through the Holy Spirit,
that Christ may live in your hearts
through faith.

Amen.