The full text as prepared for the Sunday, April 21, 2013 message:
After a busy week of national news events:
bombings, Ricin laced letters, fertilizer plant explosion, car chases,
gunfights, a major U.S. City on lock-down, and a manhunt it seems like ages
since we were here last week and talked about forgiveness.
Amidst the busy 24 hour-a-day reporting of death, and destruction,
did your week include forgiveness?
Did you get upset this past week? Did you get scared,
angry, or frightened? Did you practice any forgiveness?
Last week I said that Forgiveness is the key to happiness
and during the week I was asked, “Are you saying that if I forgive the person
who did the bombings I'm going to be all “smiley-faced” and happy about
the people who died and the people who lost their limbs?”
No, I was not saying that. I was saying that despite circumstances we can feel
happiness.
Perhaps the idea might be better assimilated this
way: Forgiveness is the key to internal peace.
The question is not "How guilty is that man," but
"How do I stand in the sight of the Father as to my ideas about his guilt?
Let's look at Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything except to
love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
“Owe no man anything” is the council, and yet we sometimes
feel that in order to forgive, someone owes us something... usually some sort
of sniveling apology. But what happens if we go through life never getting the
shameful admission of guilt from another that we “Oh, so, deserve?” Would this
be our legacy?
Last week I spoke about carrying around potatoes and
mentioned that if we hang unto them long enough they get slimy and smelly. Each of these unmet demands for apologies (or
punishment) blocks the awareness of our inner peace with something rotten.
Where might Paul have gotten this crazy, wild, radical idea
that we should love one another? Perhaps
from the words of Jesus found in John 13:34-35, “I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another. As I have loved you, you also should love one
another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for
one another.”
“Your thoughts should at all times be worthy of your
highest self, your fellow man, and God. The thoughts that most frequently work
ill to you and your associates are thoughts of criticism and condemnation. Fill
your mind with thoughts of divine love, justice, peace, and forgiveness. This
will pay your debts of love, which are the only debts you really owe.”
(Prosperity/123)
Our thoughts should at all times be worthy of our
highest self, our fellow man, and God. But what about when it hurts? What about
when we are so consumed with fear, anger, guilt, etc.?
When our thoughts bring us hurt; forgive.
When our thoughts bring us fear; forgive.
When our thoughts bring us guilt, anger, shame, etc.;
forgive.
When you are looking for inner peace for any reason;
forgive.
In the world, forgiveness does not absolve another
of responsibility for their actions. In the world we compare and
contrast a person’s action against the laws of man and assess a punishment as
payment for a person’s transgression.
But I’m not speaking of worldly things; I'm speaking of spiritual
things, and spiritual things bring us a lasting peace.
How forgiveness works, and “Why should I forgive?” is a mystery
to many.
Here is a beginning way to understand how forgiveness
works: forgiveness removes the “painful emotional charge” from the event and
allows us to experience the memory of the event without the pain.
Example: Here I have a piece of electrical wire. If this
wire were connected to the power grid and I asked you to grasp it? What would you say, and why? (No, because the
electrical current running through it will kill me)
Now what if I just handed you this short length of wire,
disconnected from any power source, and asked you to grasp it, would you do it,
and why? (Yes, because the wire is not connected to a power generator.)
Turn off what generates the charge and the line becomes
safe; it no longer holds the power to harm you.
It's still a line – just no charge.
When you forgive, you still have the event but it no longer
carries the power to harm you emotionally because forgiveness turns off that
harmful power. (And remember that holding onto negative emotions is ultimately
damaging physically.)
We all share a common purpose beyond our goals and
aspirations in the world: to reclaim our rightful inheritance as Children of
God, and return “Home;” return to the awareness of Heaven. We would do well to
keep our eyes on that prize while we go about our business in the world.
The purpose of my position as a minister is to help you
(and remind myself) to, “...train the mind to keep it's eyes on the prize,
remembering our daily purpose of healing relationships, from the moment our
eyes open in the morning to the time we go to sleep, and them through the night
until our eyes reopen to greet the new day.” (Ken Wapnick, The Lighthouse
Newsletter, vol 24, number 1)
Somewhere along the way we consciously chose to embark on a
spiritual path. Why? Because something someone said, or something we read
ignited in us “the attraction of Love for Love” (ibid.)
Do you value
anything more than inner peace?
Apparently we do because we to allow the thief called
judgment, fear, hate, criticism, anger, jealousy, self-righteousness,
inferiority, superiority, etc. to break into our hearts and minds and steal our
peace!
What is it that catches the “thief” and “returns” our peace
to us? Forgiveness.
Whether we are stirred up in a big way, stirred up over big
events like we've had this week, or we are mildly annoyed, the thief has broken
in and stolen our peace!
“...when you look in on the thief that has broken into [your
heart and mind] and say, “I forgive you,” you are... decreeing that [your inner
peace] can [never really] be taken from you at any time... and you are healing
yourself.” (The Way of Mastery/page 33)
Love is the great healer and harmonizer and where forgiveness
goes, Love follows.
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