“God’s Amnesia”

(Jer 31:27-34; 2 Tim 3:14 - 4:5; Lk 18:1-8) JG White

10:30 am, Sun, Oct 19, 2025, FBC Amherst

As we make our way through the maze of postmodern life, there are plenty of ups and downs. Many a wrong turn is made. There’s many a harm that has hurt us, many a sin to forgive. ‘Forgive and forget,’ people say. Both can be important. Both are a challenge. Both can take time. ‘Forgive and forget.’ Are they even possible?

You knew I’d say this: ‘With God, all things are possible.’

 A pastor was giving the children’s message during worship. He was using squirrels as an object lesson on industriousness and being prepared. He started out, “I’m going to describe something, and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it is.” The kids nodded eagerly. “This thing lives in trees (pause) and eats nuts (pause)…” No hands went up. “And it is red (pause) and has a long bushy tail (pause)…” The children were looking at each other, but still no hands raised. “And it jumps from branch to branch (pause) and chatters and flips its tail when it’s excited (pause)…” Finally one little boy tentatively raised his hand. The pastor breathed a sigh of relief and called on him. “Well…,” said the boy, “I know the answer must be Jesus… but it sure sounds like a squirrel!”

The answer to forgiveness is Jesus, I could say. Forgiveness talk in a Faith community does take us to God. God, the great Forgiver. Today, we get into the final and hopeful chapters of Jeremiah, and hear this poignant word: No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. 

This beautiful language, of all the people knowing God intimately, seems to have its root, right here, in forgiveness, and God letting go of some things about what they did and did not do in the past. One Bible scholar spoke of the amnesia of God. ‘I will… remember their sin no more.’

SIN is, well, wrong stuff. Sin is a barrier between people and God. Because we understand God to be all right, completely right, not wrong or evil at all. For thousands of years, people have discovered that to be right with God, to be close and good with God, it takes forgiveness and grace and some blessings on God’s part. The promise is put again in the words of Psalm 103, as on our bulletin cover:  As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (P103:12)

Let go. Let the wrong go far away. At least, this is what we can learn our Creator does, our Saviour, the Spirit. Our forgiving heads in this direction, even though we don’t achieve perfection. 

We learn some important things about forgiving. Forgiveness is not about minimizing the wrong, the harm that’s been done. It is not saying what happened was not that bad. It takes harm seriously. Forgiveness is about letting go of the wrong, for the sake of the wrongdoer, and for the sake of the one wronged. There are a lot of layers and stages in letting go. I came up with some little lists. 

There is the letting go of the impact, the pain, the loss, the hurt. These must be known, and felt; experienced. Yes, we speak of forgetting, ‘forgive and forget.’ But it is not quite forgetting, at least, not forgetting what happened. It can be putting many of the ripples of a bad event far away from us. Like the east from the west. But we do not usually forget what happened.

Here is some more of what takes time in the process of forgiveness. There is letting go of the guilt (that person is guilty!), the shaming, the fault & blame we label them with, holding things against them, seeing them as not deserving, keeping them at a distance. Some of these things can be safety measures, even necessary helps to us. But along the way - a forgiving, healing journey - these are let go, one by one. There are blessings and miracles along the way that facilitate our forgiving of others. There is also our intent and action, our cooperation with Christ.

Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. "Don't you remember it?" her friend asked. "No," came Barton's reply, "I distinctly remember forgetting it."

One more list in the letting go, the putting some things far away as east is from west. There is the scorekeeping, the reminding, the distrust, the need for a response, the punishment, the revenge. So much of this is what we see is covered over in the Cross of Christ: that pinnacle of forgiving moments for humanity. Jesus/God lets go of what people might deserve, and even the natural results of bad behaviours and attitudes. Jesus does not fight back, Jesus dies. 

But how do we get justice if there is forgiveness? We may well ask. We heard Jesus’ parable of a persistent widow, to encourage prayer to God. That woman demanded justice for herself. We aren’t told what the issue was. But she sure went to town to get the local judge to fix things. The moral of Jesus’ story: surely Abba God is far better than the unjust judge, who had to be pestered to do the right thing. Yet there is something to this being persistent with prayer.

But how can we get the right things to happen if everyone is to be forgiven, at some stage? Well, even amid forgiveness, evil can be destroyed, healing of hurts can happen, reconciliation can blossom. I think again of Jesus’ question about His return: will He find faith on earth? Or, will we not believe that justice will be done, by God our Righteousness. The promise keeps going out: God is just. 

Forgiveness has so many layers of letting go. Of trusting that God in Christ can take us farther into freedom from our pain and offences. That Jesus deals with all guilt and shame. 

Forgiving and letting go is such a process. I want to invite Sharon White now to share a story in the sermon - because it is her story to tell. Part of the story of a forgiveness process in her own life. And God’s involvement…

We thank you, Sharon. 

When we know the intensity of serious harms, we see how big and dark and terrible the things are that eventually demand forgiveness. So we may well wonder about past traumas? What about being triggered? What about all that? There is a whole other sermon there, and probably to be preached by someone like Sharon, some other day. Forgetting in forgiving truly is miraculous! An act of God. A journey with Jesus. What amazing freedom we find as we are blessed to have some traumas and terrors diminished and defanged, bit by bit.

This sermon has been mainly about forgiving others. What about being forgiven by others? And by God? Perhaps that is for my next sermon. And what about forgiving yourself? 

See you in November. For now, we go forth to Proclaim the message! A message of forgiveness. A message of healing. Our proclamation, by the grace of God, is in how we do it. How we forgive. 

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.