Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

The Meaning of Forgiveness

An excerpt from Evil and the Justice of God by N.T. Wright

We return to the point at which we began. In the new heavens and the new earth there will be no more sea, no more chaos, no more monsters coming up from the abyss. And, as with all Christian eschatology, the best news of all is that we don't have to wait for the future to start experiencing our deliverance from evil. We are invited, summoned, bidden to start living this way in the present. I suspect that the problems this poses for us the immediate problems of forgiving ourselves and our neighbors ,.. yet the more we learn the meaning of forgiveness in our own lives, the more we shall glimpse the deep theological truth that all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well, and the more we shall be enabled to anticipate that reality even in the midst of our suffering world.

A Prayer Walter Bruggemann

Or did we get it wrong
We salute you Prince of Peace
Then we daily commit violence:
against our neighbor close at hand, by word and deed; against our neighbor far away,
by our systems that keep hurt invisible;
against creation by our heavy consuming;
... wittingly, unwittingly, greedily, without caring.
And then find much of our violence
is in the name of your righteousness,
that you have started these cycles of violence with your ethnic cleansing.
Or did we get it wrong?
Or did you get it wrong?
Prince of Peace: Purge the hungry violence among us.
Use this Lent to turn away our devouring habits,
Make us thin and lean and quiet, and led beyond your fierceness.
Prince of peace!
Amen.

Creating Space for Enemies

The Bible calls us to love our enemies, which is probably one of the hardest things we can do. To love your enemy does not mean we give harmful people access to our lives. You can walk in forgiveness and enforce healthy boundaries needed for wholeness and healing. Who is someone you need to forgive? What could forgiveness look like in this relationship? What do you need to step into forgiveness?