The Good Work of Forgiveness: A Reflection on Community Rule #10

The Mid-Week Missive is based on Community Rules: An Episcopal Manual by Ian Markham and Kathryn Glover, both administrators at Virginia Theological Seminary. I am working my way through this book, reading and writing  through the lens of our Life Together as part of the Christ the King Episcopal Church family, as well as part of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. 

Rule #10: Learn to Forgive. Markham and Glover’s reflection on this rule can be found in their book, which can be purchased here. 

How does this rule apply to our Life Together at Christ the King? Last week, we discussed the discipline of apologizing, or “making things right.” The faithful response to an apology is forgiveness, which is what we are called to explore this week. If we attend worship and/or pray the Daily Office regularly, we say (or sing) these words with regularity – “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The central prayer of the Christian faith addresses forgiveness in an interesting way because we petition God to forgive us, under the condition of or the assumption that we ourselves forgive others. Perhaps it is living in confidence that we are forgiven by God empowers us to then forgive others. Forgiveness – like love - can be contagious if we allow it to be.

But forgiveness can be terribly difficult work. Just like apologies, forgiveness needs to be genuine, authentic, and self-sacrificing. False apologies and forgiveness are grounded in cheap grace whereas true reconciliation values the restoration of self and the other.

Just as apologies can take time, so can forgiveness. The work of the Holy Spirit can be slow – frustratingly so at times. So we remember that the two-fold work of apology and forgiveness isn’t always fast, but, if taken seriously, is worth the work and the wait.

My prayer for us at Christ the King is that as we live our life together in Christ, we can be a church community that apologizes well and forgives well. Such a charism is one that can sustain us as a healthy church family for generations to come.

Eastertide blessings and peace,

Richard+