Forgiveness. This concept often gets a bad name, to participate in forgiveness one might think you're being whimpy or passive. I think the opposite. Forgiveness is like bulldozing. Its rough and tumble, it clears the way for something new. Here's a cutting from this week's sermon, inspired by one women's bulldozing spirit and the POWER of forgiveness.
[recomenation: Half the Sky is not for the faint of heart, but it is a necessary and powerful read. go it it!]
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I recently pulled a book from our church library called Half the Sky... This book told me the story of Mukhtar Mai. Her story begins as many others do, she is an uneducated peasant, whose family is labeled as low-class in her village in Pakistan. A higher class family wrongly accuses her brother of indiscretion and Mukhtar, then thirty years old, goes to a tribal meeting to smooth things over and plead for forgiveness for her falsely accused brother. The elders of the village decide that Mukhtar is to pay the price for her families shame and gives her the punishment of being raped by four men of the village. This added shame leaves Mukhtar with one choice to redeem her family. She, like many women before her, should have taken her own life so that her family might be vindicated.
Mukhtar's parents say NO. They will not see their daughter's life taken, their son judged and the family torn apart by this horrific tradition. So, they do the unthinkable and prosecute her daughters attackers who are miraculously arrested, thrown into prison and Mukhtar's family is sent some compensation from the Pakistan government. It was nothing short of a miracle! Mukhtar takes the opportunity and runs like wild with it. Through the power of her story and her refusal to remain voiceless, Mukhtar has built three schools for girls from rural villages, she is passionate about providing education to all girls. With the support of humanitarian aid, there is also a shelter for abused women, free clinic and legal aid center has all been built because of one young women's strong voice and tireless spirit.
And then, forgiveness occurs. That outwardly focused, passionate love for something so much greater than self breaks in. You see, Mukhtar's first school was built to serve her home village. So the building for the school is within a stone's throw of a small house, which is the homestead of the family of her attackers. Mukhtar fights government censorship, village tradition, oppression from males on every side and works in the shadows of her attackers. However, the forgiveness she extends is as broad and bold as the work she is doing. As Mukhtar is now working so that her attacker's daughters will be able to enroll in school.
Mukhtar forgives for the love of education and for the love of voiceless girls everywhere...with no exception.
Jesus said, “I have not come to condemn the world, but to serve it.” The forgiveness of God is always, always outwardly focused, not to judge the world guilty as charged, but to serve, to forgive to set free. And perhaps we have lost the word 'forgiveness' because we have lost the reason for it as well. It is awfully hard to speak a word of forgiveness to a world that does not acknowledge sin. Sin, is another church word, that perhaps we, people of faith, have not properly represented to the world that cannot hear a word of 'forgiveness'.
You may not be able to point to sin directly, but you can pick up a newspaper read a couple of headlines and name the injustice, the corruption, the systemic brokenness of the powers of the world.
You can think about your closest relationships and know what anger, betrayal, confusion and loneliness can do to your heart. You can consider those who will go without basic needs of food, water and shelter tonight and know the oppressive nature of greed, selfishness and our place in it.
I could go on, but because of the worldly-reality that we live in, I'm not sure anyone needs help pointing to the brokenness of life, the world which operates differently than God intended. This is why, the word of the church is “forgiveness” or we can nuance the word and make it “wholeness, justice, mercy, healing, peace”. Whatever your take on it is, it is a word that needs to be preached, this is what the church stands or dies on!
Because God's passionate love is too big to leave us alone. Because of God's unyielding desire to be in relationship with each person and the whole of creation...because of God's heartbreak and the brokenness we live in, because of God's mercy and compassion for the voiceless and oppressed. God was humbled, and sent Jesus to our world to speak one word, to carry out one mission, to make good on one promise...forgiveness.
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