Where - Church event, movie night, epilogue at end of variety evening?

Objective - That people would understand we have a God who longs to forgive us, if only we will let him.  Not a first-contact type talk

Fit for Forgiveness?

Show Spiderman 3 clip – ‘the hardest thing to do is forgive yourself.’ (1:40:25 – 1:42:55)

Introduction

As with all decent movies, Spiderman III plays with themes which are important in our culture. The issues of guilt and forgiveness run like threads through the film, and in particular Peter Parker’s underlying battle with the evil he knows is within himself.

Over recent months and years there has been significant interest in these issue, guilt and forgiveness.   Radio five live had a phone in about forgiveness following a statement made by Gee Walker, the mother of the murdered teenaged Anthony Walker in 2005.  Coming from a Christian background herself she said of the people who killed her son - ‘At the point of death, Jesus said: “I forgive them, they don't know what they do.” I’ve got to forgive them – I still forgive them. My family and I still stand by what we believe – forgiveness.”

The phone-in debated the value of what she was doing. Was she right?  Oscar Wilde once said – ‘always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.’  But that doesn’t seem to be the gist of her statement.

The problem is, this is something that touches all of us. We have been hurt, damaged by others whether they be friends, family or colleagues. And we have all done the damaging too. We all need forgiveness.

In Spiderman III Peter Parkers Aunt May raises the underlying issue; to forgive others means asking the question 'Can we forgive ourselves?'

Jesus once told a story of a young man who had a brother and a wealthy Father.

The Prodigal : The insult

As the young man grew older he grew greedy and impatient.  His greed led to the ultimate insult towards his Father - he asked for his share of the inheritance early, when he wanted it. This was tantamount to him wishing his Father was dead – seeing him as simply a source of income and entertainment, nothing else.

The Father gave him what he wanted and the son left home for a distant city, squandering his inheritance on the best (from his perspective!) life could offer  Parties, cars, clothes, food, women, the lights, glamour and clamour of the distant city.  But then it ran out.

The Prodigal : The desperation

He ended up in dead end jobs, with nothing to show for his spent wealth except the physical scars of the manual work he was doing but wasn’t cut out for, and the emotional scars springing from the guilt of his waste and squander. He was desperate. Where should he turn? 

The Prodigal : The grace

He realised he has no where to go but home, to the shame and the ignominy of facing up to his sleight on his Father. So he walks the road home, rehearsing his apology, overwhelmed by his guilt. Ready to serve his Father, not as a Son but a Servant..

And the Bible is clear. The story Jesus told was not a true story or a real individual, yet it has been true in every life of history. Jesus' parable makes clear, we are all on the similar journey but at different points in the story line - in need of forgiveness from the Father that Jesus speaks of in the story. And he leaves us in no doubt that he is speaking about God the Father.

Desmond Tutu once said – ‘Without forgiveness there is no future’  So the future is wrapped up in the type of Father we have.  A forgiving Father or a justly judging Father

As Jesus concludes the story, we discover that we have a Father who comes to find us even when we are a long way away from him.  We are loved – every one of us. We are offered forgiveness – every one of us. We are offered arms open wide - every one of us.

Listen to this poem, written based on Jesus story. We pick it up as the Father is still at home having not heard from his Son for years

The years I do not count

passing the window in the front,

searching the road for signs

of that cat no leash could check,

unmuzzled, free, and bleeding.

 

The helpless ache is ordinary,

the Thursday tedious, as I give a

passing glance through the window

at the dot on the far horizon, walking

as many have walked before.

 

But the way he swings his arms,

turns his head, slightly

pigeon-toed. I am out the door,

down the stairs, down the road,

running, arms outstretched.

 

My embrace, my tears, my laughter

gather in all the years,

my kiss stops rehearsed

genealogies of sin, outlawing of self.

Of course, you are my son.

 

Be quick, steward, clothe him

like the son of an Eastern king,

the best robe from my chest,

wake the cook, load

the table with meats and wines.

 

call in friends and foes,

blaze the night into day

with torches, push the chairs

against the wall, pluck-the harps,

strike the largest timbrel.

 

When the dead come back you drink.

When the lost are found you dance.

Fr. Kilian McDonnell, OSB Collegeville, Minn

Peter Parker has hurt 2 people. He has hurt his girl MJ, and he has hurt himself. His life is possessed by guilt. Some of us are like that in fact most of us, it is just that some of us don’t know it. We bury our heads in the sand.  And as a result we all need to do 2 things.

Forgiveness?

We all need to be forgiven – by the one we have sinned against,  that is the God who made us.  The problem is we think that forgiveness comes through ritual, rules and regulations. 'Religion' is designed to make people feel better because it means we feel we can do something towards our own restoration.  But God does not function like that.

Peter, a close friend of Jesus once wrote these life-changing verses –

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God”  1 Peter 3:18

And the God we come to is a God who doesn’t downplay the significance of justice and evil – that is why his Son Jesus died a horrendous death on the cross, but he is also a Father who is ‘out the door, down the stairs, down the road, running, arms outstretched.’

All he wants us to do is to walk to him and ask for forgiveness for our daily insulting and independence from him.  We must turn to him.

I once had a man in my office who was about 60 and was desperate broken down and in tears. He had done some terrible things in his life and he admitted they were terrible. He had been told God loved him and wanted to forgive him.  But he could not forgive himself and therefore allow God to forgive him.  He had to do it himself but he couldn’t. It was eating him up and he was a broken man.

You are I cannot do it ourselves either. We need the Christ who died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.

But will we let him?