on the walk

I have been planning for some time to return to blogging. I have missed the outlet for writing and I have a few ideas that have been building up. I had hoped to return to blogging sooner, but today’s sermon by Rodney Ross has pushed me over the edge.

He was teaching on forgiveness. It was fantastically creative (it was kid’s Sunday). The central text was the story of Joseph. He shared all the sins that fractured Joseph from his brothers. (And of course the sins of Joseph’s tactlessness that fractured them from Joseph.) He drew the sermon to a climax by drawing our attention on Genesis 45:4. In this verse, as Joseph prepares to reveal himself to his brothers, he says to them, “Come closer.” It is a beautiful moment, and as Rodney told the story I was so deeply struck. (You can listen to the same sermon from Jenny Krichton here.)

That is the heart of forgiveness. Sin breaks relationships. And when we are wronged it is so natural to let sin have its effect and pull away. But when we do this, we are giving in to the power of sin. Paul teaches that we are not slaves to sin. That means that I am not a slave to my own sin. But it also means that I am not a slave to the sins of others. If someone sins against me, their sins separates us. But by the power of Christ, I can say the same thing that Joseph says, “Come closer.”

This is of course precisely what Jesus commands in Matthew 18. “If someone sins against, go to them.” There is more to that teaching and if sin continues things get more difficult. But this does not change the first impulse. The first impulse is to resist the fundamental power of sin to separate and tear apart. This is what God has done in Christ and what we are called to do for each other.

To those who have wronged us, let us say – as God has said to us – “Come closer.”

on the walk

-Ethan