{"id":1381,"date":"2016-06-12T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2019-09-24T14:28:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T18:28:54","slug":"forgiven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2016\/06\/12\/forgiven\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgiven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 7:36-8:3<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the\u00a0meditations\u00a0only<\/a><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Please forgive the intrusive nature of this sermon. \u00a0\u00a0For I want to begin by taking a walk with you into the attic of your soul. \u00a0Though we are friends, it is not my right to initiate such a visit. \u00a0Though we are pastors and parishioners, it is not our right to force such a trek back up through the mist of time. \u00a0You would need to make an invitation, yourself. \u00a0Even to suggest the climb, without any initiative on your part, is rude of me. \u00a0I apologize.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gospel, however, intrudes upon our very souls, whether the preacher has a right or not. \u00a0As kingfishers catch fire, and dragonflies draw flame, so truth\u2014that light in which we see light\u2014advances upon us. \u00a0So we go ahead. \u00a0We walk together upstairs to the landing. \u00a0You kindly have turned on the hall light. \u00a0Thank you. \u00a0I wonder if this is a sign from you that you will welcome this joint venture? \u00a0We pull down in the chain that loosens the attic portal. \u00a0You know how that little door in the ceiling falls open, and slowly a flank of wooden stairs comes down, \u00a0and down, and down, and touches our feet. \u00a0We are ready to climb up into the darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch your step. \u00a0You have not been up into the cobwebs and the dust of memory, the mothballs and the coverlets of history, the grime and the darkness of the past. \u00a0\u00a0It is a little slow going. \u00a0\u00a0This is your attic, though. \u00a0You know it as well as you know your own past. \u00a0In fact, it is your past, box by box, and crate by crate. \u00a0I have no right to be here, and if you ask me, I will leave. \u00a0A man has a right to his own regrets. \u00a0They are not common property. \u00a0They are yours, these boxes and labels and shoes and hangers and records and amulets and souveniers from the dusty past. \u00a0\u00a0One of you is looking over at an old service uniform from the great war\u2014brown and rumpled. \u00a0Another sees bobby sox and a political poster\u2014I LIKE IKE. \u00a0She has stumbled past three old Beatles albums\u2014greatest hits, Abbey Road, the White album. \u00a0I notice a Jim Croce tape. \u00a0I wonder if it still plays? \u00a0He thumbs through a pile of other newer albums. \u00a0Of course there are lots of photographs. \u00a0What kind of an attic would it be without boxes and records and photographs? <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the attic of memory. \u00a0No, we won\u2019t stop at the wardrobe<\/span><\/p>\n

Today. The wardrobe is for another day, a day of hope and imagination. \u00a0Lions and witches come from wardrobes. \u00a0Today we are looking back, though. \u00a0We are going to stumble and claw our way over into the back corner. \u00a0There is not much light here. \u00a0It is a long time since anyone came back in, all this way. \u00a0Dust, cobwebs\u2014it makes you sneeze.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Over in the corner there is a small, low box, carefully closed, and tied around with a little bailer\u2019s twine. \u00a0This is yours. \u00a0No one else knows it is here, or if they do they have forgotten or never understood or just don\u2019t care. \u00a0But you know and remember and understand and care. \u00a0I really do not want to be here, and you probably don\u2019t want to either. \u00a0I\u2014for it is not my business. \u00a0You\u2014because in black ink, now dusty, is penned across the top of the box a single, awful, hellish word\u2014regret. \u00a0Regret is a short synonym for hell. \u00a0\u00a0And up here in the attic of memory, off in the corner, sits this stupid box, which means nothing to anyone, except to you. \u00a0There it is\u2014a single box labeled \u201cregret\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Open it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Go ahead. \u00a0Try it. \u00a0If you want. \u00a0I think you have wanted to come up here, but just never had 20 minutes of quiet to do so. \u00a0Remember last summer when you thought about the box? \u00a0And remember that early morning dream? \u00a0That was a strange thing. \u00a0I want to encourage you to open it. \u00a0Hold it in both hands. \u00a0Untie the twine. \u00a0Loosen the top. \u00a0Turn it over, and let it all fall out. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That was a gutsy thing to do. \u00a0Good for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The reason the box was marked \u201cregret\u201d is that this is one thing you regret. \u00a0You have a regret. \u00a0That is part of being human. \u00a0Can you live with being human? \u00a0Can you live with being a little lower than the angels? \u00a0How do I know all this? \u00a0As my great aunt would say, \u201cIf you\u2019re so smart how come you aren\u2019t rich?\u201d \u00a0A real good question. \u00a0I know because I have boxes in my attic too. \u00a0They too are covered with cobwebs. \u00a0I too make my visits, my attic climbs, very seldom. \u00a0And, yes, I know about regret. \u00a0Not just vicariously, either. \u00a0There is nothing quite as bitter. \u00a0If only\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

I asked to come up here with you for a reason. \u00a0Up in the attic here, with that swinging bare light bulb and the Johnny Mathis record and all this dust, we may feel God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Look at the box again, and all its contents spread across the floor. \u00a0In the dark I cannot see the floor, but after 22 years and 7 pulpits I truly doubt if any of it would surprise me. \u00a0After reading the Bible and Shakespeare and a few decades worth of the New York Times, there is not much that surprises. \u00a0But it is different for you. \u00a0This is your attic, your memory, your box, your regret. \u00a0It is YOURS. \u00a0In a way, this box is more yours than any of the others.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this box are the articles of impeachment brought by life against us. \u00a0They are multiple and they are damning and unlike civil and criminal law, the laws of the soul do not give way to lawyerly cunning. \u00a0And there is no vote, no 2\/3 majority needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is that you say? \u00a0Not you? \u00a0Never a cutting word? \u00a0Never a selfish deed? \u00a0Never an unhealthy habit? \u00a0Never a compulsive trend? \u00a0Never a myopic judgment? \u00a0Never a temptation accepted? \u00a0Never an ungenerous year? \u00a0Never a non-giving decade? \u00a0\u00a0Not you? \u00a0Never a misspent dollar or day or dream? \u00a0You don\u2019t go to enough funerals.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the box doesn\u2019t \u00a0lie. \u00a0Nor does the conscience. \u00a0Nor does the memory. \u00a0Nor does life. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>It simply spells \u201cregret\u201d. \u00a0That, I regret.<\/span><\/p>\n

God Forgives You<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

There is something that both can and must be said, as we pack up the regret box. \u00a0It is not a human thing to say, though we are the only saying beings around so we do the best we can. \u00a0It is a God word. \u00a0And only God speaks God words.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, looking down at the dusty cardboard of past regret\u2014something that if not removed can fester and infect and cripple\u2014first there is this. \u00a0God forgives you. \u00a0It is, according to the Scripture, the divine promise and intention to forgive and to forgive. \u00a0Abraham felt it. \u00a0Joseph practiced it. \u00a0Hosea proclaimed it. \u00a0Jesus taught us to pray for it. \u00a0And for 2000 years the church has tried to exemplify, embody this one word. \u00a0God forgives. \u00a0John Wesley asked his preachers one initial question. \u00a0\u201cDo you know God to be a pardoning God?\u201d \u00a0Now that, in the face of a box marked \u201cregret\u201d, that is good news. \u00a0In the face of the worst rejection and the most regrettable misjudgment on earth, God practices a powerful forgiveness. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You know in the midst of all the harshness of the religious right and the flightiness of the New Age, it can be hard to hear the central truth about God and about us. \u00a0God forgives. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

God forgives before we are up in the attic at all. \u00a0God forgives when we realize what we have to regret. \u00a0God forgives as we carry the regret around. \u00a0God forgives when we hear and when we do not and it does not depend on our hearing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Do you know God to be a pardoning God? \u00a0If so, you know God, the God of Jesus Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are Scriptures worth memorizing about God who forgives\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? \u00a0\u2026 I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.<\/span><\/p>\n

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other People Forgive You<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/span>But maybe that is not what keeps you awake, not what makes you linger today in the attic. \u00a0You may well believe and trust that God forgives. \u00a0But what about those you have regrettably hurt? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This can be particularly hard for those who have grown up around especially hardened parents and other adults. \u00a0\u00a0If you have not heard an encouraging word much growing up, it can be hard later in life to believe that those other humans around you can be gracious.<\/span><\/p>\n

They can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a matter of fact, most of the time they are. \u00a0More than most of the time. \u00a0People forgive, more than you know and more than you may think you deserve. \u00a0It really delights me. \u00a0People have a profound capacity to forgive and forget. \u00a0It is God given, and it is real and it is good. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>I think of the waiting father and the prodigal son.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of Paul forgiving Peter\u2019s two faced behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of Augustine\u2019s mother forgiving his selfishness.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>I think of Erasmus forgiving the wayward Popes.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of Grant and Lee at Appomatox.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of Abraham Lincoln walking through Richmond.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of the Marshall Plan and rebuilding of Germany in the 1940\u2019s<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of women and men, night after day, for millenia.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may have to ask sometime for forgiveness. \u00a0You probably should. \u00a0Say, \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d. \u00a0Like the Fonz, who could never utter the word, \u201cI was wrong..\u201d \u00a0But my experience is that most people most of the time when confronted with a heartfelt, sincere apology from a person of integrity will say, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it. \u00a0I forgive you.\u201d \u00a0It is one of the greatest things about other people. \u00a0You may have to give it a little time. \u00a0You may have to pray about it. \u00a0You may have to trust a little. \u00a0But\u2014other people will forgive you. <\/span><\/p>\n

Forgiving Yourself<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/span>But that may not be what holds you here in the attic. \u00a0As a matter of fact, I bet that the box is still up here, wrapped in twine and covered with dirt and marked regret, for another reason. \u00a0It\u2019s one thing for God to forgive you. \u00a0It\u2019s one thing to accept another\u2019s kindness. \u00a0But in the end \u00a0that still leaves you a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and a few french fries short of a happy meal. \u00a0God has forgiven you! \u00a0Your neighbor has forgiven you! \u00a0Now comes the hard part.<\/span><\/p>\n

You have to forgive yourself. \u00a0You have to let yourself off the hook. \u00a0You have to find a way to admit to yourself that you are not 101% perfect. \u00a0You have to, well, accept your own acceptance. \u00a0And that can be a lot easier said than done. \u00a0Because we have a way of holding onto what poisons us. \u00a0We have a way of just wrapping ourselves in a miserable kind of self-conceited self-condemnation. \u00a0Up in the attic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lent is a good time to dump your guilt. \u00a0God doesn\u2019t want it. No neighbor finally has much use for it. \u00a0So why is it still in the box? \u00a0\u00a0What good is it? \u00a0Get rid of it. \u00a0When it doubt, throw it out.<\/span><\/p>\n

God forgives you. \u00a0So does your neighbor. \u00a0Forgive yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Matter of fact, while we are here, up in the attic\u2014let\u2019s just take that box out of here. \u00a0I\u2019ll hold the ladder for you while your coming down. \u00a0You can carry it, with a little homiletical help. \u00a0If we hurry we can get out on the curb before noon, and the heavenly garbage truck always comes by this part of your mental world Sunday at noon. \u00a0There, it\u2019s out on the curb, and soon it will be gone for good. \u00a0William Blake:<\/span><\/p>\n

And throughout all eternity<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I forgive you, you forgive me.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

And throughout all eternity<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I forgive you, you forgive me.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

And throughout all eternity<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I forgive you, you forgive me.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

– The Reverend Doctor, Robert Allan Hill, Dean.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service Luke 7:36-8:3 Click here to listen to the\u00a0meditations\u00a0only Introduction Please forgive the intrusive nature of this sermon. \u00a0\u00a0For I want to begin by taking a walk with you into the attic of your soul. \u00a0Though we are friends, it is not my right to initiate such a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1959,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions\/1959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}