10:30 am, Sun, May 24, 2026 (Acts 2:1-21; Jn 20:19-23) JGW, FBC Amherst

One of my devotional books I have not been using for years is simply a selection of little cartoons and phrases. One page asks: 

WHO IS THAT INSIDE OF ME (BESIDES ME)?  IS THAT YOU, HOLY SPIRIT?

It is Pentecost Sunday, here to remind us God the Spirit can often be known inside us, among us. Hallelujah! Yet our short Gospel reading is actually from Resurrection Sunday: John remembers Jesus breathing the Spirit upon the disciples then. And among the things Christ says is this, with a promise of great power: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

‘To forgive and forget,’ it is said. I shall put this phrase to use by subdividing it. Forgiveness is for giving. For giving to others, and even to ourselves. We even need to forgive God when our emotions blame our dear Deity for various things in life. Some of the Psalms in the Bible will help you do that.

Forgiveness is also for getting. For getting ourselves, for receiving. At times, many times, we need forgiveness. I must admit I think I have a problem with this. In the little bits of praying I do on my own, from day to day, I realize that very little of it is confessing my sins. Sometimes I need the help of a prayer book like this one…

I do cry aloud, O Lord,

And seek your pardon.

Forgive me that I repent

Not because I have done wrong,

But because my wrongdoing may become known.

May my repentance be real

So that I may experience the joy

That your forgiveness brings.

What is it to forgive? To forgive is to let go of what was done, what they did. To forgive is to let go of penalties, quite often. Not that wrongdoers don’t need to be stopped from doing wrong again, but the revenge and retribution and so on gets toned down in the justice system of our God. To forgive is to let go of what might be deserved, or not be deserved by the perpetrator. What did Jesus say from the cross? “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

To forgive is to let go of dwelling upon it, or making it bigger. When we do stew about it, this is what can hurt us all the more. Instead of overreacting to someone, we can work to underreact, as we stay in touch with God about the situation. 

Just yesterday I attended the ordination of a Baptist Minister, over in Lawrencetown, Annapolis County. It was unusual because the candidate was failed last summer by the interview committee of the CBAC, likely for the wrong reasons; so the Church went ahead anyway, and made him REVEREND Andrew Taylor, yesterday.

It was in August of 1997 that I met with the Examining Council for Ordination, and failed. I was deferred for a year, and required to be supervised one more year by another minister. (Byron Corkum had been my first-year supervisor.) Anyway, the interview at which the committee ‘failed’ me, was just before the Baptist Convention meetings. I proceeded to attend them, as usual, despite whatever embarrassment or anger or injustice and all I would feel. Somehow, I was given the grace to ‘let it go’ and hang around with all the Baptists, meeting in Sackville, NB. It simply seemed the right thing to do: calmly stay around. Perhaps this also was a statement I made that I had not been defeated, I was not in the wrong, I was carrying on in the freedom to be me, in my ministry and my faith. And maybe it was the first step in forgiving those people who disagreed with me.

To forgive is to tell the truth, to communicate. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of communication, as the Pentecost event illustrates. To forgive is to be truthful and not minimize what happened. It is not hiding the harm and the hurt. Truth and reconciliation work shows us the need for truth telling – and hearing. 

But to forgive is also to let go of telling and telling and retelling, in a way. To forgive can also be to recognize the illness or injury in the perpetrator that could have led to that person hurting others. This changes the blame game. 

To forgive is a matter of will and choice. To give and to receive forgiveness. To forgive is to let go of thinking there is but one step to take. Forgiveness will often be a process. The bigger the problem, the more layers of the onion to peel. Might involve some crying. 

To forgive is to forgive again, to repeat more than the sin is repeated. Within limits. We remember Jesus’ words to the disciple’s question: ‘How many times should I forgive someone? Seven?’

To forgive is a healing of the heart. From the heart.

To forgive is to rely upon the mercy of God, the grace of God, the power of God. God who can do far more than we can ever ask or imagine. Dwell upon that scene, in your imagination, of Jesus with the disciples, breathing the Holy Spirit upon them. ‘Forgive,’ He says to them. ‘If you forgive…’ ‘If you do not forgive…’

To forgive is to remember that as all these steps and stages happen for you, so it is for everyone else around you. To forgive is to remember that it will be different for others who are different from you and from me. Whose wrongdoing or neglect is different. 

And to forgive is to look for the other ‘side of the coin.’ What I mean is this. Whatever fault someone has, there likely is a flip side, a possible goodness hidden there. For instance, someone seems lazy, goes with the flow, lets things slide? At their best they may have a gift for calmness and shalom and be easy to get along with. 

Someone else is very harsh when it comes to the criticisms they give and bothersome when it comes to having everything right and exact and just so. They may be gifted to help all the details come together and make a plan come to fruition beautifully. As iron sharpens iron, so we help one another: forgiveness being part of it.

Maybe we are like our pets. The sheepdog that is always nipping and chasing and following everyone and the other pets around the house. Oh, what a bother! Yet, that dog is gifted at shepherding the sheep and guiding them, keeping them together and safe. 

So with us. Our greatest sins have a redeemed side – or they can, by the grace of God. My main fault can become the root of my best gift to the world, in my personality, my skills. Your ‘superpower’ can be used for good, or for ill. 

So God has made us, and so we are. There is a God, a Spirit of forgiveness, whose work in Christ can transform us, and all those around us, for beautiful things in this world. I hope most of you have experienced this over and over. If you feel you are just beginning, then may you know that breath of the Spirit who Jesus gives, again and again, to the disciples. You can forgive, or not, those around you. You can forgive, or not, yourself. It actually is a holy power, and a privilege. 

The forgiving words of the great pastoral leader in Germany during World War Two, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, keep haunting me. I end with quotations from his beautiful little book, ‘Life Together.’ 

He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christinas, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. 

Then Bonhoeffer speaks of our brother (or sister’s) help to us in the fellowship. He has been given to us to help us. He hears the confession of our sins in Christ’s stead and he forgives our sins in Christ’s name. He keeps the secret of our confession as God keeps it. When I go to my brother to confess, I am going to God. 

Such is the ministry of forgiveness. Such is the work of the Holy Spirit among us. Such is the hopeful message of Christ for our world.