The psychotherapist and author Claudia Black once said Forgiving is not forgetting, it’s remembering and letting go. I don’t know if Dr. Black is a Christian, I don’t know how familiar she is with Christian Scripture. I don’t even know if she thinks about Jesus at all, but I have to say that phrase sounds an awful lot like the Jesus we hear in today’s readings.
For the Jesus we meet in our reading from Acts as well as the Jesus who encounters the disciples along the sea of Tiberius in today’s Gospel was not into forgetting.
I think knowing that your followers are being persecuted is not something easily forgotten, nor is having your presumed staunchest supporter desert and deny you. No these are the things one has a tendency to remember….to dwell on…to stew about. But Jesus didn’t remember these things so he could exact revenge. He remembered these things so he could forgive. He remembered the actions of Paul and Peter not to punish them but to redeem them, to equip them to spread the good news far and wide. Jesus forgave: he remembered, he let go and he moved on.
Saul needed a lot of forgiving. He was a zealous persecutor of the new Christian movement and he was hell bent on getting to Damascus to rid that ancient city of it’s Christian elements. Saul wanted nothing more than to squelch this burgeoning sect and their proclamations of a resurrected messiah. But as we all know and just heard, something happens to Saul on that road to Damascus—probably the most famous conversion story of all time—and the resurrected and ascended Jesus calls out to him. Not in anger, not in retribution not even in revenge. No the voice of Jesus calls out to Saul full of remembering and completely willing to let it go. For Jesus knows that giving Saul a new perspective will change everything. Saul becomes Paul, the persecutor becomes the preacher and Paul, never forgetting what he had done in the past, walks boldly into the future, determined to amend his life. Jesus forgave Paul, not by forgetting but by remembering and then moving on. I don’t know if Paul forgave himself, but I do know that Paul didn’t let his past behavior hold him back, he let his remembering of what he was capable of fuel him as he embarked on his new life in Christ. By remembering and letting go, Paul was free to preach the good news from Damascus to Rome. By remembering and letting go Jesus was able to take the destructive evil in the heart of Saul and transform it into the constructive good of Paul.
Forgiving is not forgetting it is remembering and letting go.
When Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed Peter was indignant He was zealous in his proclamation that he would never ever let his teacher down….yet within hours Peter lost all his nerve and denied, abandoned and hurt the one he loved most in the entire world. In a matter of moments Peter, the rock upon which the church was to be built, crumbled into pieces. With three accusations and three denials Peter became a shadow of his former self. But instead of finding someone new, instead of giving up on Peter, instead of letting Peter destroy himself with the self-loathing which haunted him from the moment the cock crowed, the risen Jesus, as he shares breakfast with his friends, asks Simon Peter three exact questions in rapid succession: Simon, son of John do you love me? Simon, son of John do you love me? Simon, son of John do you love me? It’s as if Jesus is saying, Peter I remember and I forgive!
Peter vehemently answers YES I LOVE YOU. But then, just as he is getting hurt and angry with Jesus for doubting him----it hits him, it hits all of us. Jesus isn’t asking for a promise he isn’t asking for an assurance. Jesus is forgiving Peter his betrayal. Jesus is forgiving us our betrayal for Jesus knows that each one of us will deny, each of us will betray, each and every one of us will let Christ down. Yet, in spite of all that, Jesus offers us a chance for redemption. Jesus, remembering all that has been done, simply reminds us that there are sheep to tend and lambs to feed. By remembering and letting go, Jesus is telling Peter, Jesus is telling us, amend your life, dust yourself off, pick yourself up and get on with it, because there are sheep to tend and lambs to feed. There isn’t time to wallow in what has been done or left undone—there is work to be done so Jesus simply asks us to remember, to let go and move on to do what we have been called to do. We are capable of tremendous misdeeds, we are capable of terrible hurt, we are capable of great betrayal but in spite of that, regardless of that --we are called to live a life of redemption, we are called to live a life of renewal we are called to live an Easter life, a life of remembering, a life of forgiving, a life of moving on.
Today on this third Sunday of Easter in the storied parish Church of the Good Shepherd in beautiful Parkside we have a task ahead of us. We have a new life in Christ to proclaim to the world, The journey will not be easy-- We’ll be the Peter of Good Friday and the Peter on the Sea of Tiberius. We’ll be Saul, we’ll be Paul. We’ll disagree, we’ll question, we’ll doubt and we’ll worry. But we’ll also agree, answer, believe and hope. We’ll hurt each other and forgive each other. We’ll remember, we’ll let go and we’ll move on.--because we have sheep to tend and lambs to feed.
Together, illumined by the light of Christ, emboldened by the steadfast love of God and invigorated by the power of the Holy Spirit, The Church of the Good Shepherd will continue to be a beacon for Parkside, North Buffalo and Western New York. So let’s remember all that this place has meant to our community, let’s remember what our Lord and Savior has asked us to do and then let’s get busy. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to begin.
Amen.
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