As We Forgive, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.

As We Forgive, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: The Jesus Prayer: 7 Spiritual Practices for the New Year A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 18.21-22; Luke 23.34.

Join us this Sunday to hear a powerful message on the transformative power of forgiveness. We’ll explore how to overcome hatred with love, even in the face of unimaginable tragedy. Attend in-person or online – all are welcome.

About the Series, The Jesus Prayer: 7 Spiritual Practices for the New Year: In the midst of their own uncertainty and anxiety, the disciples asked Jesus how to pray. Jesus replied, “Pray this way” and taught what is known as the Lord’s Prayer or Jesus Prayer. This series will focus on this teaching of Jesus as an invitation to 7 spiritual practices that will strengthen our faith and help us show up in the world with courage and compassion.

Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.

At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.

We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.

Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.

Keywords:

Forgiveness, hate, reconciliation, Dylann Roof, Charleston shooting, Desmond Tutu, Lord’s Prayer, Ruby Bridges, Black History Month, anti-racism, collective responsibility, healing, grace, evil, love., presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

Transcript

Whitney: 0:20

Welcome to worship at First Presbyterian, we at first, Presbyterian practice a spacious Christianity, which means, no matter where you are in your faith journey, you belong, and there is space for you at the table, there is space for your doubts and questions. We believe doubts and questions are a gift that invite us into deeper conversations and a more authentic faith. We believe diversity is a strength. Every story is sacred and everybody matters. We do our best to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus so that all might have a chance to flourish in this world. We are so glad to connect with you in this way. We would also love to worship with you in person if you're ever in the neighborhood on Sunday mornings at 830 or 10am and never hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about us or how we might support you. I hope you enjoy this worship service, welcome.

Steven Koski: 4:02

A prayer using the words of Psalm, 51 have mercy on us, O gracious one, according to your steadfast love, according to Your abundant kindness, forgive us where our thoughts and deeds have hurt others, lead us in the path of justice, guide our steps on the paths of peace, forgive all that binds us in fear that we that we might radiate love, cleanse us, that your light might shine in and through us, look not on our past mistakes, but on the aspirations of our hearts. Create in us a clean heart, O gracious one, put a new and right spirit within us, enfold us in the. Of love and fill us with your Holy Spirit, restore in us the joy of your saving grace, and encourage us and embolden us with a new spirit.

Unknown: 5:18

O most gracious and compassionate one, melt our Hearts of Stone, break through the fears that lead us into darkness and guide our steps into the way of peace. Amen, 10 years ago, Dylann Roof killed nine church members who had welcomed him into their Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, at Dylan Roof trial, the family members of the shooting victims looked directly at him through their tear strained eyes, and one after another, begged him to Give their to give his heart to God, and they said, We forgive you. It was not the violence that was so shocking. Tragically, such violence has become the norm. What shocked people is that the families of those killed refused to let hate win when unspeakable pain and grief were present. But it was the absence of hate that left everyone baffled in a world overwhelmed by evil, these families demonstrated a forgiveness that overwhelms evil. I mean, it was the Christianity we profess, but which they practice, that left us shocked when apartheid ended in South Africa. Desmond Tutu recognized healing and reconciliation was only beginning, and he said there is no future without forgiveness, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind with hatred. The cycle of hate and anger and vengeance needs to be broken, and what's true on a global and political scale is just as true on a personal scale. I've watched too many lives eaten away by the acid of Unforgiven hurts. I mean, holding on to anger and hate, refusing to forgive is like drinking rat poison yourself and expecting the rat to die. We're continuing our series on the prayer that Jesus taught, the Lord's Prayer, suggesting that this is more than a prayer that we recite and worship each week, that Jesus is actually teaching an orientation of the heart, a way of being and living in the world. And Jesus said, Pray this way, forgive us as we forgive others. Now last week's focus was, forgive us. Today's focus is the second part of that sentence, as we forgive others. You know, forgiveness is tricky. There's often the criticism that, criticism that that forgiveness fails to take seriously the tragedy, pain, suffering caused by others. I mean, we've all heard you. You can't forgive. You can't let them get away with that. Some argue that forgiveness trivializes the pain that's been inflicted and is even a betrayal of those who've been harmed. There's a beautiful story of a six year old boy who's whose mother asked him to stop running through the house because he might stumble and fall and hurt himself or break something. So of course, he ran through the house and he stumbled and fell and broke a vase. Now his father saw it, saw it all happen, picked him up, dusted him off, and said, Don't worry, son, it's just a vase. His mother, however, knelt down beside him, gathered up the shattered pieces and said softly, it wasn't just a vase. It was my favorite vase. My mother gave it to me. Her mother gave it to her. I looked forward to giving it to my grandchildren one day, and she wept, and the little boy wept, and the mother took the little boy in her arms and hugged him. And. And he hugged her back, who forgave the father or the mother? Forgiveness confronts the pain and the reality of the harm caused and decides to break the cycle of violence and vengeance and bitterness and resentment, decides to be released and to be free of it. Forgiveness literally means the word literally means to be released, to be released from what what might bind our hearts, so that we might return to what our lives are intended for, for giving love. Jesus taught his followers about forgiveness. Once Peter thought that he was being actually pretty magnanimous when, when he asked Jesus teacher, how many times do I do? I forgive someone who has hurt me seven times and now Peter had a reason for phrasing it that way. In the Jewish tradition, the teaching was that that you should forgive someone three times, so that seven times actually seemed pretty darn generous to Peter and Jesus startled him when he said seven, hardly try 70 times seven. The number wasn't to be taken literally, but men were to forgive an infinite number of times for Jesus to love is to forgive, and Jesus didn't simply teach about forgiveness. He modeled forgiveness with his own life. Last week, I said that we believe Jesus showed us what God's love looks like, and the clearest expression of that love is Jesus hanging on a cross, His strength fading, the life literally bleeding out of him, looking down, watching as his friends ran away, the authorities mocking and taunting him, the soldiers throwing dice for what was left of his garments, and it was then that Jesus spoke. He didn't say you're going to burn in hell for this. You'll get yours one day, you'll be sorry. I hate you. He didn't curse them. The Bible says he looked into the eyes of those who hammered the nails into his hands and said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Father, forgive this is what love looks like when it stares evil in the face. God doesn't parcel out forgiveness like teaspoons of sugar. God is forgiveness, and if God is forgiveness, and we bear the image of God within us, what does that mean for the way we're called to live and to love in this wounded, angry, violent world that lives like a clenched fist, maybe forgiveness is the courage to stare evil in the face, to face the pain that's been inflicted, and Choose to be released from the hold that it has on our hearts so that a new story can be told. Forgiveness is Grace made possible by grace. February is Black History, month and today, I want to, I want to honor Ruby Bridges at just six years old, she was the first black child to desegregate an all white Elementary School in New Orleans. She was just six when federal marshals had to escort her as she walked by loud, hateful, violent protesters. This happened on November 14, 1960 Ruby Bridges is still alive as a civil rights activist in New Orleans today, 65 years later, there is legislation limiting how teachers talk about race and racism. Austin Channing Brown said, the work of anti racism is being willing to face and acknowledge our collective. History of being horrible human beings so that we can learn to become better human beings writing a new story for humanity where we treat one another better we seem incapable of acknowledging and owning our horrific history of denying the inherent worth, valued dignity of every human being every single Day right now, we are witnessing this history repeat itself. One of the books on the list of books to be banned in Tennessee is called Ruby Bridges. Goes to School written by Ruby Bridges herself. Now the argument for banning this book states that the mention of a large crowd of angry white people who didn't want black children in a white school will make white students feel guilty and uncomfortable, and that the book didn't offer Redemption at The end. So some are literally, literally trying to keep Ruby Bridges out of public school again, the people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school are now upset their grandchildren might feel uncomfortable learning about them throwing rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school. Maybe the redemption they're talking about hasn't arrived yet because we're unwilling to face uncomfortable truth. We're unwilling to face the pain and ugliness of the past so that the cycle of violence can be broken, evil can be overcome, pain that is not faced, that is not faced, healed, transformed. Just keeps getting passed on from generation to generation. Maybe that's why Jesus taught us, taught us to pray, forgive us as we forgive. Forgive us. Forgiveness is being being willing to confront the realities of our collective sin so that we can break the cycle and be free of it, released from it. Can we really be released from the sins of our past that continue to be repeated in the present,

Steven Koski: 18:00

if we're not willing to sit in the discomfort of owning our past, what will some say? Some say, Well, you know, I wasn't I wasn't there in 1960 it's not my fault. It may it may not be your fault. But healing reconciliation is our collective responsibility. And healing begins with the words forgive us. So rather than ban Ruby Bridges, I want to honor her. Invite her to be our teacher. Ruby went to school accompanied by federal marshals as she walked through a hostile crowd calling her names, throwing throwing things at her. She was six years old. Robert Coles was a psychiatrist at a nearby Air Force Base, and he was asked to to somehow help Ruby, the six year old, handle, handle. All of that stress. At one point, there was concern that Ruby has just stopped eating, and that weirdly, she would only, she would only eat potato chips out of a new bag. It was Coles who discovered hostile parents threatened to poison her food. One day, Ruby's teacher called Coles, concerned that that Ruby was was standing by the windows, staring at at this angry crowd, talking to herself.

Unknown: 19:41

Ruby said, I wasn't talking to myself. I was praying. I was looking at the hateful crowd, and I was praying for God to forgive them. I mean, Coles. Coles was stunned. I. And he told Ruby's Mom, mom about what she said, And Ruby's mom said, Yeah, my baby knows that story. Ruby knows Jesus in her heart. Ruby Bridges never broke under all that pressure. What did begin to break was a racist system. Before the year's end, the white students returned to the classroom. The next year, more black students arrived.

Steven Koski: 20:39

I think of the sacrifice the extraordinary courage of Ruby Bridges, six years old, who stared evil in the face with a heart of forgiveness, because she was taught there is a love stronger than hate, a healing for every hurt. Her history is our history, remembering and owning that history, every painful part of it is what keeps us from repeating it. There is no future without forgiveness now. Forgiveness doesn't ignore, deny, trivialize the realities of the pain inflicted in the past. Forgiveness releases us, frees us to live a different future, to break the cycle and begin writing a new and different story. As followers of Jesus, we are called to forgive, not just to forgive, but to forgive 70 times seven, not just forgive, but live as the expression of God's forgiveness in the world. I confess right now that that that feels impossible, and maybe that's the genius in the plan. What do the wise folks at AA remind us? It is only when we acknowledge we're powerless do we rely on a higher power. It is only when we give up control acknowledge our deep need for God's grace that we surrender and turn to the presence of that grace in our lives. Rose Simmons. Rose, Simmons's father, Reverend Daniel Simmons, was shot and killed by Dylan roof. Roof, Rose looked Dylann Roof in the eyes and said, our hearts are broken. Our pain is so deep, but our hearts have no room for hate. We refuse to let hate win. We forgive you. I forgive you. She was later asked how she could possibly forgive, and she said, only with God's help, only with grace. Forgiveness is Grace made possible by grace. In a world overwhelmed by evil, may we be given the grace to overwhelm evil with forgiveness and love, Forgive us as we forgive. May it be so friends in a world that lives like a clenched fist, may we be graced with the courage to live with with tender hearts and open hands in a world overwhelmed by evil, may we be given the grace to overwhelm evil with forgiveness and love go in the peace, love and forgiveness of Christ, and May the love and forgiveness that you bring into The World help heal our broken world and bring peace Amen.

Whitney: 28:26

Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed this worship service. If you would like to make a donation helping make these podcasts possible or support the many ways, first, Presbyterian seeks to serve our community, you can make a financial gift online at bend fp.org, every week, we hear from someone thanking us for the gift of these broadcasts, and what a difference they make. Your support makes that possible. Our church is committed to reach beyond our walls, bringing hope where there is despair and love where it is needed the most. Your generous support helps us to be generous in love. Go to our website, bend fp.org, and click on the link. Give online. Your support is really appreciated and makes a difference in people's lives. Thanks again. I hope to See you next week. You