REFLECTION

As the inquiry into the Manchester Arena bomb attack that killed 22 people gets under way, and as police arrest a man in connection with a series of stabbings in Birmingham that left one dead and seven injured, we are reminded of the horror of such events and their impact upon the lives of the victims, their families, their friends, and community itself. We ask ourselves why these things happen? could anything have been done to have prevented it? and how are we to respond? Understandably there is a clamour for justice to be done and to be seen to be done. Forgiveness is not a response that springs readily to mind, though some who have lost loved ones to terrorism or crime, like the mother of a victim of the New Zealand bombing a little time ago, have forgiven the perpetrator.
As the Old Testament story of Joseph draws to its close, we might expect as his brothers did, that now the tables were turned, Joseph would have his revenge. However annoying Joseph had been to his older siblings, however much Joseph's being their father's favourite had rankled, it does not excuse their behaviour in selling Joseph into slavery and pretending to their father that he had been killed by wild animals. This action thrust Joseph into a hard life as a slave, falling foul of his master's wife, being falsely accused and imprisoned, until coming to Pharoah's attention when he interpreted his dreams thereby warning of years of famine to come. Raised to a position of great height and prestige when his brothers, in the famine years came begging for food, they were in his power. He could have had revenge. He could have turned his back upon them as they had upon him. But, no, he forgave them and provided for them. Would we have done the same?
Peter's question in the Gospel reading raises the issue of forgiveness in a different situation. Here Peter reflects not upon the solitary and devastating actions of events like the Manchester Arena bombing or the Birmingham stabbings, but on repeated wrongs. How many times, he asks, should I forgive the person who repeatedly lets me down, or who by their actions hurts me? This is about how often we give someone a chance to change before imposing sanction or punishment if they do not. For Peter there is a limit to forgiveness - its about rights and wrongs, it's a matter of justice - there must be a time when one says 'enough is enough'. Perhaps Peter was fishing for complements - 'how forbearing you are, going the extra mile in forgiving seven times'. Or perhaps he expected Jesus to laugh at his preposterous suggestion and say 'no, the consensus among the rabbis of three times is enough'. To the calculating Peter, Jesus' answer of seventy times seven must have seemed even more preposterous. And to cap it all Jesus followed it with an illustration of fantastical proportions. In the parable, the king forgives a debt that someone has calculated as the equivalent of 6000 days wages (over 16 years worth). The servant, happy to be forgiven his own debt will not forgive a debt of much lesser proportions owed to him. The parable ends with the servant receiving what the hearers, and probably us too, consider just punishment, and it's rounded off with Jesus' real point - forgiveness is not about calculation, but a complete attitude of life.
Paul, in the reading from Romans, makes a parallel point, not so much about forgiveness but about judgement and tolerance. Paul here is not engaging in our modern vegan versus carnivore debates but referring to obedience to religious dietary regulations or the observance of special days as markers of a person's faith and religious fervour. His point was 'who are we to judge one another just because they do things differently?' Just as it is easy to be unforgiving for the hurts we receive, so it is easy to be judgemental of others with different ideas and ways of doing things, including in the church, and in our judgements to write them off. I have to admit that there are certain forms of worship that leave me cold, theologies to which I could never ascribe, and forms of churchmanship with which I am not comfortable. That does not mean, however, that I pass judgement on those who take those different paths, writing them off as delusional and beyond the pale. What matters - for them and for me - is that our whole life is lived for the Lord (v.8), is lived authentically by the principles we firmly believe to be Christ's way. On this, Paul says, we will be judged. He also says we should give those whose faith is expressed differently some slack, being tolerant of one another.
Forgiveness, forbearance and tolerance, and authentic living, are vital features for all relationships, inside the church and outside. True forgiveness does not hold grudges and is restorative of relationships. Not judging and deriding those with different views or ways is a first step to respectful engagement. Authentic, faithful living transforms relationships and all life. We cannot fool ourselves that any of this is easy, but these are the ways of God which he shows to us and calls us to emulate. With God's help, let us strive to do so.