Vann Knight, Parish Minister
Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn
October 5, 2003
God and Forgiveness. This is the second in a series of sermons titled “Developing a Healthy Theology of God.”
In the first sermon “Foundations for a Theology of God,” I mentioned several things that will be helpful in the process of rethinking our notions of God. Let’s quickly review those.
First, the word “God” is a code word, a language symbol of our culture that points to a reality that is beyond name, beyond definition, beyond description. Whatever this word means to you, you can be relatively sure that it does not mean exactly that to those about you. But the language symbol, “God,” does serve as a convenience for conversation to point us all in the same general direction.
Second, I suggested that we understand God not as human, nor as super human, and especially not as man. The childhood image of “old man, white beard” is not going to be helpful. In its place, I suggested that we consider the possibility that God’s body is the universe and that whatever life is to the human body, God is to the universe.
If God is not human, how then do we relate to conversational references to God as human, especially the pronouns “he” and “she”? We do so by understanding these references as metaphor. A metaphor affirms that the reality it points to is like “this,” but it quickly whispers in the other ear, “It’s also not like this.” Therefore when we hear or use human references for God, we do so knowing that these are conveniences of conversation that affirm that God is more like a person than a thing, but we do not interpret the words literally. As with almost all religious language, if we want to take it seriously, we cannot take it literally.
My third suggestion for building a healthy theology of God was to be willing to let go of crude childhood images and concepts of God that no longer work but are deeply engrained. Closely related to this is the need to distinguish between God and our thoughts of God. This is an extremely subjective task, but extremely important; because most of our difficulty with God has nothing to do with God and everything to do with unreasonable and offensive notions of God that we learned as children. As adults, we can either let go of old images and concepts that no longer work, or we can hold onto them, using them as shields to protect us from any serious reconsideration of God.
In that first sermon, I also reminded us that the primary purpose of religion is not to arrive at right theology. Theology is always secondary to our consciousness of and our experience of oneness. But theology is important, because our theology of God influences how comfortable we are in the world, how comfortable we are with one another, with ourselves and with death. Theology is secondary to consciousness, but theology is important.
In the introductory sermon, I also noted that to some degree we are all agnostic. Ultimately, we do not know, or at least our knowledge is partial. Everything that you and I believe about God is a faith affirmation. And the reverse is also true. Everything that you and I don’t believe about God is a faith affirmation. Neither God nor anything about God can be scientifically proven to the satisfaction of a skeptic. Let us therefore hold our theology with some degree of humility, knowing that it is an affirmation of faith. On the other hand, we need to hold our theology with enough conviction that it can guide, sustain, and nurture us. In the final analysis, our theology is the synthesis of our reason and conscience, but as Pascal said, “The heart has reasons reason knows nothing of.”
My final reminder from the first sermon is that I will share with you the theology that has evolved in my reason and conscience, but I am not your religious authority. You are, and you must follow your own reason and conscience in building a healthy theology of God.
With that background, let’s now turn our attention to the concept of God and forgiveness.
This topic raises for me several fundamental questions:
What is forgiveness?
Do we need forgiveness?
What is the relationship between forgiveness and karma/consequences?
What, if anything, does God have to do with forgiveness?
What, if anything, is the relationship of forgiveness to faith?
I chose to address the subject, “God and Forgiveness,” on this particular Sunday because today at sundown begins the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Yom Kippur is the most solemn holy day of the Jewish year. It comes ten days after Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Together, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are a time set aside for the spirit. They do not commemorate any special historical event nor any cyclical change in nature. Rather, they are devoted to critical self-examination, introspection, and spiritual stocktaking. It is a time of repentance. The Hebrew word for repentance means to re-turn. It implies returning to the point where one went astray and then proceeding on a new path which avoids the errors of the old. It connotes turning to God and to God’s ways. (See Embracing Judaism, Simcha Kling, p. 63.)
The present day observance of Yom Kippur is quite different from the original ceremony outlined in Leviticus 16. From the first observance of Yom Kippur, which occurred hundreds of years Before the Common Era, until the year 70 of the Common Era, or 70 A.D., the sacrifice of bulls, rams and goats and the sprinkling of their blood was a standard part of the Yom Kippur ceremony.
But the practice of sacrificing animals and sprinkling their blood came to an end in the year 70 A.D. when the Romans came into Jerusalem and totally destroyed the Temple. With the Temple destroyed and Jews now scattering to other parts of the world, the Yom Kippur ritual became more focused on prayer, reflection on the Torah, and repentance performed primarily in scattered synagogues.
The destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. precipitated the final break between Judaism and the Christian sect that had remained within it for 40 years. Remember, Jesus was a Jew and all the original disciples were Jews. Paul, the Apostle, was a Jew, and his preaching was primarily in synagogues. However, with the destruction of the Temple, the tension between the mother religion and this tiny sect was just too great, and in the year 70 they parted ways.
Remember that date, 70 of the Common Era. Now remember that Jesus was crucified somewhere around the years 30 to 33. What that means in relation to Yom Kippur and the concept of forgiveness is that all of the earliest disciples of Jesus had grown up in a culture that connected blood sacrifice with forgiveness, and they would have continued to observe Yom Kippur, with its blood sacrifices, until the year 70.
Now, guess when the Christian Scriptures were written? The earliest material, attributed to the Apostle Paul, was written in the mid 40s, and the Gospel material was written between the years 55 and 110. What this means is that the theology of forgiveness written into the Christian Scriptures reflects the childhood theology of the writers, their deep sense that there is some connection between the shedding of blood and the forgiveness of sins.
Within the context of that ancient tradition of Yom Kippur, is it any wonder that many of the first Christians interpreted the crucifixion of Jesus as they did: that Jesus was the Lamb without blemish, slain for the forgiveness of sins? In that historical context, is it any wonder that much of the early Christian theology of forgiveness reflected the ancient connection between forgiveness and the shedding of blood?
In one form or another, either a Jewish theology of forgiveness or a Christian theology of forgiveness got passed down to most of us. As children, we often assume that the theology we first learned is the only theology, or at least the only right theology. But as we get older, many of us come to have some problems with our childhood theology. Often it raises serious questions about the nature of God or just doesn’t make sense.
What I’m about to present works for me, and I offer it with the hope it will be helpful to some of you. But my theology won’t work for all of you. For you, I hope the following will serve as something solid that you can push against as you work out your own theology.
So now I will answer the questions I raised earlier.
What is forgiveness? For me, forgiveness is acceptance and affirmation after I’ve disappointed myself, or others, or God. This forgiveness, this acceptance and affirmation is both an objective reality and a subjective experience. By this I mean one may be forgiven but may not experience one’s self as forgiven. This forgiveness, this acceptance and affirmation, may be experienced as forgiveness of one’s self, forgiveness to and from another, and forgiveness to and from God. Yes, we sometimes need to forgive God.
Do we need forgiveness? Not always. We are not depraved, and we are not always awash in sin. In fact, one of the most unfortunate and destructive things that comes out of unhealthy religion and unhealthy homes is unwarranted guilt feelings. If we live in a culture of criticism, we may find ourselves feeling guilty for simply being who we are, or for actions that are, in fact, age appropriate. But in a culture of criticism, someone is telling us that we are inadequate, or that sexual curiosity is sinful, or that we don’t make our bed right. In the constant hearing of such things, we often believe the lie and turn on ourselves; and then we turn on others, condemning them as we have been condemned. Just because we have been taught to feel guilty doesn’t mean we are guilty. We don’t need forgiveness for unwarranted guilt feelings.
But there are occasions when we do need forgiveness. When we do damage to ourselves, to others, or to the earth, we need forgiveness. Sometimes we do damage in just a few words, or in one indiscretion, or through an addiction or habit. Whenever we have unlovingly hurt or hindered or alienated or destroyed, we stand in need of forgiveness. Having a healthy sense of sin is an important quality in building healthy relationships. Persons who don’t know where the boundaries are, or who choose to ignore the boundaries, live in almost constant trespass with those around them. When we trespass – whether against ourself, our neighbor, or the earth – we stand in need of forgiveness.
And there may be occasions when we have acted so severely, when we have so broken faith with life, that we can only describe what we have done as a sin against God. In anger, a parent is drowning their struggling infant, but at the last moment pulls the child up. No one will ever know, not even the infant. But the parent knows they have done something terribly wrong, and for years the parent searches in silence for the forgiveness of God. If you ever doubt the human need for forgiveness, just read the morning newspaper or watch the evening news. Yes, there are times when we need forgiveness.
Next question: What is the relationship between forgiveness and karma? In other words, does forgiveness cancel the consequences of destructive attitudes, words and deeds? The answer is “no.” Though it may not appear so at the times even when we are forgiven, we still reap the consequences of our actions. For instance, the person from whom money was stolen may forgive the thief and cancel the debt, but the thief will in some way experience the consequences of stealing. The consequences are inextricably bound to the action. Once the arrow has left the bow, you can’t call it back. Forgiveness and karma work something like this: If you destroy another person’s hand by holding it in the fire, you may be forgiven by that person and you may be able to forgive yourself, and you may come to know the forgiveness of God, but the burned person will live the rest of their life with a physical scar, and you will live the rest of your life with a spiritual scar. Here’s a spiritual hypothesis that I believe to be true: to whatever degree I inflict injury of any kind on another, I inflict an equal injury of some kind on myself. Forgiveness does not cancel consequences, but forgiveness does mean that I experience those consequences in the context of grace.
Now, listen very carefully. Forgiveness does not cancel the consequences of what I have already done, but forgiveness may alter, for the better, future actions and therefore future consequences. A basic concept related to forgiveness is that of “turning.” This turning implies a turning away from that which is destructive and turning to that which is creative. To the degree that forgiveness prompts me to do good, I am then set on a course to reap positive creative consequences. In this sense, forgiveness has the potential for changing our future – our future actions and therefore their future consequences.
Keep in mind that I said forgiveness has the “potential” for changing our future. Whether our future becomes better because we are forgiven depends on our response to forgiveness. If I know myself to be forgiven but take it for granted with no sense of gratitude, or if I have little or no appreciation for the damage that I did, or if I have no real intent to change my destructive ways, then the fact that I have been forgiven will have minimal impact on my future actions and therefore minimal impact on future consequences. In essence, even if you are forgiven, if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re going to keep getting what you’ve been getting.
What, if anything does God have to do with forgiveness? Traditional Jewish and Christian theology would argue that turning to God is a prerequisite for forgiveness, that one has to turn from the destructive and turn to the creative in order to be forgiven.
From my perspective, I see this as one way that some people find forgiveness. When I was 16 years old, this is the way that I found a sense of forgiveness. I did not know if God would forgive me or not. The image I had at the time was that I was standing on the edge of a cliff, and I was contemplating jumping into the arms of God. But I didn’t know if God would catch me or not. In an act of faith, I jumped – I turned to God and committed my life to him. And God caught me – I had a sense of forgiveness and newness that I had never know before. Therefore, out of my own experience I know that one can find forgiveness by turning away from the destructive and turning to God.
However, my experience with God did not end there. Sixteen years later, at age 32, I had a life-changing burst of consciousness. I became aware, at a deep internal level, that God accepted me and affirmed me – just as I was. In contrast to my experience at age 16, in this experience, I did not turn to God for forgiveness. Rather, the turning was in response to the burst of consciousness. Sixteen years earlier, I had accepted God. But now, for the first time, I knew that God accepted me. That awareness evoked from me a turning – a turning away from self rejection, a turning away from the feeling that I was rejected by God, and a turning to a level of self acceptance that I had never known before, and a turning to God who loved me more than I loved myself.
Am I grateful for my experience as a 16 year old and for the Christian Church and minister that nurtured me? Absolutely yes, and I will always be grateful. The traditional message that they presented to me was, “You can be forgiven.” And they were right, and I did find forgiveness, their way – by turning to God.
But from where I am now, I think there is a healthier message and a more accurate one. I don’t think the message of Jesus was, “You can be forgiven.” I believe that Jesus was saying, “You are forgiven.” I believe that Yom Kippur is pointing to the reality, “You are forgiven.” And I believe that God, in the still, quiet center of our being, continually affirms, “You are forgiven.”
The word of God, as I hear it, is not, “You can be forgiven.” The word of God, as I hear it, is, “You are forgiven.” Forgiveness is simply built into the universe. Forgiveness is the unconditional gift of God. I’m convinced that the very core of our Universalist theology is that God’s forgiveness is universal. As Universalists, we affirm that all persons live and move and have their being within the context of God’s grace and forgiveness.
What part does faith play in forgiveness? Faith influences our ability to accept the gift of forgiveness. Faith is the precursor to consciousness of forgiveness. There is no written contract. Forgiveness is a spiritual state of being given unconditionally and continually by God. It’s yours. It’s ours. But only to the degree we are able to believe it and experience it. Are you really forgiven? Yes, yes you are. Do you really have a clean slate today? Yes, you really do. Does God really accept you and affirm you just as you are? Yes, God really loves you just as you are. In fact, there is absolutely nothing you can do to be more loved or more forgiven by God than you are this moment. Faith is the courage to accept your acceptance.
To the degree that you can do that, your life will turn, to your source and your destiny.
Amen.