• Blog
  • Media
  • Prepare/Enrich
  • Bio
  • Links
Michael Mercer: teacher. writer. father. husband. follower.

Finding a Path for Forgiveness Without Experiencing Short Term Memory Loss

8/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
As a pastor and as a Christian I realize the necessity and the discipline of forgiveness.  However, as a human I realize the difficulty in its practice.

They say "forgive and forget."  It is great alliteration.  It is a fine pithy statement.  It even sounds very biblical.  However, in many ways it seems irrational and illogical.

The events of this past weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia have fueled the media cycles and outraged a people.  The outrage is completely understandable and the condemnation of racism and violence is unfortunately becoming a resounding refrain to a song that never should have been sung.  The fact that in 2017 we must continue to fight against judgement of people based on their skin color, nationality, sexual preference, ideologies, or ethnicity is a pure sign that our country, our world is broken.  I don't and won't have the best words for what has recently happened.  I am a white middle-class man in southern America who since my years in college has not been very wanting for the luxuries of this world.  Unfortunately I participated in prejudices and racist ideas when a child, because of the ignorance that surrounded me at the time.  And yet even in that time I had friends of different races and backgrounds.  My mind though worked in such a way where my belief was that since I was white and Christian I was better than others.  Even to write those sentences now hurts the recesses of my heart. When I think of the way that I teased peers who were overweight or told racist jokes or found only people just like me to be friends with I cringe at that person.  Sure I was a kid.  Sure I wasn't exposed to a plethora of ethnicities or nationalities. Sure I changed over time and have borne witness to a different thinking.  I never wore a mask, carried a torch, wreaked mischief, or enacted violence on those that were different than me, but I didn't necessarily speak out against it either. This all makes me sad and guilty too.

I'm forgiven.  I'm redeemed.

And you are too.

And what we really want is it all to be forgotten too.  But do we really?!

Let's chase that rabbit a minute.  If I could take that paragraph above and erase it.  And not just from this blog, but from the history of my past.  So that even if I tried to recall the ways in which I thought and acted, I could not.  What is to keep my heart from hurting with those who are having racism and prejudice enacted upon them?  What is to keep a righteous anger from burning against the practice of evil, violence, and damaging rhetoric against a people?  When we forget the pain we have caused through our own brokenness and sin, we are condoning once again these evil acts.   Remembering how we have fallen short isn't an opportunity to glorify a past sin or the evil behind it, but it is an opportunity to remember how sin creates pain and how we have been forgiven and redeemed.

God has forgiven me of my past racism, elitism, and sin.  God has forgiven you of the same.  And yet I believe God does not want us to engage in short term memory loss so that we either return to that evil and sin or that we forget the pain it causes only to let others experience the pain when it could be stopped.

1 John 4:7-12 says, "7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

Jesus himself when asked about what the greatest commands were, replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” -Matthew 22:37-40

God is a god of love.  Christians are a people of love.

We cannot claim to be what we aren't.  So if we claim to be Christian, we claim to be love to God and the world.  

Fighting against racism shouldn't have to take grand statements and gestures (unfortunately it is being required).  Because if Christians are being who they claim to be, love will be ruling and every little and big act won't be propagated on whether we get what we want or not, but rather will be about how we love God and everyone else.

God loved us enough to forgive us.  

God love us enough to not allow us to forget.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Michael Mercer

    I like to explore different things about theology and the life of the church.  You might also find things here about me and my family.

    Prayer Requests: 

    mercerprays@gmail.com

    God Is... by Michael Mercer

    Available in Paperback and ebook!

    Picture


    God Is... -God is... is a book that takes a look at Genesis and portrays six true images of God.  There are many ways we think about God that are unhealthy and even destructive.  These six images help turn our attention to who God really is and how we might follow him more closely.  Click the Lulu button below to download your copy!

    Support independent publishing: Buy this e-book on Lulu.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Ash Wednesday
    Baptism
    Book Of John
    Christmas
    Church
    C'Mon Man
    Cross
    Culture
    Current Events
    Discipleship
    Easter
    Elevate
    End Times
    Escape
    Evil
    Expectations
    Faith
    Faithfulness
    Fall Of Man
    Family
    Following
    Freedom
    Funny
    God
    Gospel
    Grace
    Grief
    Halloween
    Happiness
    Hell
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Week
    Hospitality
    Humility
    Hypocrite
    Imitation
    Impartation
    Implantation
    Incarnation
    Jesus
    Jonah
    Journey
    Joy
    Justice
    Kingdom
    Lent
    Life
    Loss
    Love
    Marriage
    Mary
    Memaw
    Mlk
    Monday Car Ride
    New Beginning
    New Beginnings
    New Year
    Nice
    Palm Sunday
    Parables
    Patriotic
    Pharisees
    Praise
    Preaching
    Promise
    Prophecy
    Prophet
    Reckless
    Redemption
    Regeneration
    Rejoice
    Relationships
    Renewal
    Repentance
    Resolution
    Resurrection
    Sabbath
    Sacrifice
    Santa
    Scripture
    Senior Sunday
    Series
    Spiritual Renewal
    Sports
    Story
    Suffering
    Summer
    Technology
    Temptation
    Thankfulness
    Theology
    Transition
    Tuning Our Voice
    Ucc
    Urgency
    Veterans Day
    Visions
    Whining
    Wordle
    Worship

    Archives

    April 2020
    August 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010