Date: March 23rd
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
Reading: Luke 6:27-36
Theme: Sin and Forgiveness
Our petition of the Lord’s Prayer for this week of Lent is one that has many different translations, which means there is a variety of ways to understand these words. Forgive us our sins OR debts OR trespasses, as we forgive those who sin against us OR are indebted to us OR trespass against us. All three of these words are used in the scripture verses that we take the Lord’s Prayer from. Each of these variations have different meanings and connotations depending on our own context, experiences, culture, and life view. So, our first question for tonight is:
Q: What comes to your mind for each of these words:
Sins? Debts? Trespasses?
It is interesting how we can all speak these words to one another and in our prayers and yet we all have different understandings of what they mean. A strength of our tradition is recognizing that all of these meanings can be true side-by-side. Sins can mean the things that separate us from God, and the things we do that harm our neighbor. Debts can mean monetary or financial amounts we owe, or actions that we want to pay back in kind. Trespasses could mean overstepping in someone else’s life, or literally entering into a space that we should not be in. All of these possibilities are a part of what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer when we acknowledge the things we have done wrong that have hurt our neighbor and our relationship with God.
Q: How does God forgive our sins/debts/trespasses?
We have a hope and a promise that through Jesus, all of our sins have been forgiven. This is something that we confess as a key part of our faith. But, we still find the need in our worship and in the Lord’s Prayer to confess that we have done wrong, and to ask for God’s forgiveness. We cannot help but sin. This is one of the reasons in our confession we often pray for forgiveness for the things we have done, and the things we have left undone, the things we know, and those known only to God. As Christians we recognize that we do bad things, sometime even unintentionally. But, we also recognize that the grace of God is bigger than anything we could try to do to counteract it. We pray this part of the Lord’s Prayer to acknowledge the wrongs we have done, and acknowledge that we know God’s grace and forgiveness is bigger than all of the things we have done wrong. But this petition is also about how we interact with others when it comes to forgiveness.
Q: What does it mean to forgive others like God forgives each of us?
If we know that God’s grace and forgiveness is promised and does not fail, then this petition in the Lord’s Prayer also becomes a reminder for us about how we are called to forgive. We recognize that God forgives us, and pray for the strength and guidance so that we might forgive those around us here on Earth as God forgives us. God’s help is requested in this endeavor just as much as we ask for our own forgiveness from God. Our reading tonight told us all about how to treat others with love. Those who hate us, those who hurt us, those who beg from us, those who sin against us, those who take from us. All of these are examples of those who we might have trouble forgiving normally. But our scripture says, do it anyway. Love those who hate, hurt, beg, sin, and take. Forgive and love them, especially because it is not easy. The passage ends with, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” And so again we are left with our request in the Lord’s Prayer for God to forgive us, and for God to help us forgive others. So, here is our reflection question for this coming week, it has two parts, but is still one question.
Q: Why is it hard to forgive others sometimes, and how can we rely on God to help guide us when it is hard?