 | The New England Church PulpitNew England Congregational Church UCC |
BIKE LESSON | Luke 6.43-49 | November 10, 2002 |
“Is there a welcome sign on the front of the church?’ he asked.
“No,” said the kids.
“Well, welcome signs don’t mean much. It’s the way we treat people that makes them feel welcome or not.” Do you welcome people here, especially other children?”
“Yes,” was the resounding response.
“Is the welcome word something you’d use if someone different from you, say someone from another culture was here?”
“Yes,” the children answered universally. They were too young to have learned discrimination and prejudice, Marty comments.
“What about someone who is poorer than you or who dresses kinda funny?” the intern asked. Again, none of the children pointed to the ‘keep out’ sign. They were all sure they’d welcome them.
“Let’s make it harder,” said the intern. “Would you say ‘welcome’ if someone who had stolen your bike came to church?”
And the answer was a unanimous ‘NO.’ Keep Out was the sign they pointed to.
“Didn’t you hear the words of Jesus about forgiveness?” he asked. “Jesus wants you to act differently than other people.
Remember, it’s all about forgiveness.” he said naively.
“No, it’s all about the bike!” a child piped up in tones that mingled hurt with anger. The adults were now leaning forward to see where this important lesson was going, but there had been a failure of communication. The intern was picturing a scenario in which the thief had been apprehended, repented, fined, and the bicycle returned. He was asking if the children can forgive and then welcome such a person.
The children heard it differently: in their imagination the kid who had stolen the bike had not been apprehended, the bike had not been returned, and showing up at church would not be welcomed. Though we say it’s all about welcome and forgiveness, the child who spoke up made a point that can not be easily ignored: sometimes it’s all about the bike.
Trust the child to know better than to dispense what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called ‘cheap grace.’ In the framework of the way the child pictured the scenario, there was to be no superficial and smiling ‘judge not” or “let him that is without sin cast the first stone’ or “let’s all be nice.” (‘Bike Lesson’, Christian Century, Oct 23-Nov5, 2002, p.55)
The child raises an important tension we all confront at one time or another: is forgiveness realistic when the crime is great and the losses significant? Can we forgive Hitler for killing 12 million people? I think it is obscene to even consider the question if we are not one of the victims. How can I even imagine what it is like to survive such a travesty? It is not for me to forgive. Can we forgive the snipers who terrorized Washington DC and parts beyond even if we do learn that it was prompted by deep-seated emotional dysfunction or mental illness? Again, it is not ours to forgive if we are not one of the families of the victims.
Answers and solutions are elusive. Sometimes it is all about forgiveness. When genuine remorse is offered and amends are made, differences and tensions must be set aside for a larger purpose; forgiveness is about cleaning the slate to move forward. Sometimes it is all about forgiveness, when someone has wronged us, and repents, and changes their ways; to withhold forgiveness would be to punish vindictively and unnecessarily.
And sometimes it’s about the bike. There are times when forgiveness is beyond our ability, when the hurt is so deep and the pain so intense and our lives significantly ruined because of someone else’s intentional evil perpetrated against us. And when it’s about the bike, then it’s all about the bike and it’s important to own up to it. A false or forced forgiveness has no integrity.
Forgiveness that is only lip-service to pretend that everything is set right, where the words are spoken out of obligation, but the heart and mind have not followed suit, is inauthentic. It is bad fruit coming from a bad tree. It sets up an inner conflict that has potential of destroying a person who harbors resentment inside, even though the words of forgiveness have been spoken. When forgiveness is only obligation, the integrity is to admit that it’s really about the bike.
There are twin dangers in false forgiveness. We refuse to recognize the need for appropriate rage and expressed anger, suppressing these in favor of some nicety expected of our religion or our value system of what it means to be a nice person. And forgiving too quickly may suppress a vital grief that is necessary for health and perhaps a truly genuine forgiveness at some later time.
Our faith journey will not always have clear-cut answers. Jesus said forgive seventy times seven, but I don’t think he was asking us to forgive and forget in these situations where it is all about the bike. What Jesus does ask us to do is build our lives on a solid foundation, so that the storms of confusing obligations will not topple us. Our foundations must be built on more than rules and regulations, which, like sand, change and crumble in time. The foundation of our lives must be built on the solid foundation of integrity and justice, on peace and trust which may not provide easy solutions to life’s most difficult situations, but will allow us to wrestle with these situations upon firm footings.
We bear fruit and act according to the attitude of our heart, the way we think and the value systems we build over a lifetime of successes and failures. While sometimes it is about the bike, Jesus points out that you don’t get figs from thornbushes, and when forgiveness is the order of the day, we had best produce fruit according to the integrity of our being.
He who sees me in everything
and everything within me
will not be lost to me, nor
will I ever be lost to him.
He who is rooted in oneness
realizes that I am
in every being: wherever
he goes, he remains in me.
Wherever he sees all beings as equal
in suffering or in joy
because they are like himself,
he has grown perfect in practice and meditation.
(Bhagavad Gita 6.30-32, translated by Stephen Mitchell)
There is a Catholic mantra that sums up the boy’s reaction: There will be no hearing without justice; no justice without truth; no truth without accountability. It’s all about forgiveness and it’s all about the bike. We live in the tension of our lives still in progress. We are expected to be nothing more than human, but nothing less than human, either, built on solid foundations, bearing good fruit. Amen.
–Gary L. McCann
PASTORAL PRAYER
Peace that passes all human understanding, grant us sanctuary in this hour that we may be saved from the clamor of a hectic world by the inner quiet and peaceful serenity we find here. Bathe us in colored light, immerse us in the beauty of this day, and nurture us by the Spirit of life that creates and re-creates all things.
Make us aware of our shortcomings and failures, not so we feel badly about ourselves, but so we may know our limits and seek to do well where we are able. We seek forgiveness for the times we have been less than helpful to those around us and for the times we have purposely been hurtful. Give us courage to seek restitution and find what we need to become better people.
For those who are in the hospital, and those who are dying, and those who grieve the loss of a loved one, for those celebrating a new addition to the family, and those celebrating successes and good fortune, we pray for your spirit to be with them. Make us sensitive to grieve with those who grieve and celebrate with those who celebrate, and thus become the community of hope we say we are.
For our world, in all of it’s warmongering and hatred, we seek peace. We feel so helpless at the hands of those who make decisions on our behalf, and pray for wisdom in knowing how to respond. Guide those who make decisions for the nations of the world, that they may be empowered for the good of all humanity, deciding for what is best for all, not just a powerful few.
May this day be one of refreshment for us, that we may find in each moment of this day the delights that would nurture our spirit. And be to us peace. In the name of Christ, Amen.
| Copyright © 2002 by Gary L. McCann. All rights reserved. |