Proper 15 (A) + Forgiveness + 8.16.20

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 M. Campbell-Langdell

All Saints, Oxnard

(Genesis 45:1–15; Ps. 133; St Matthew 15: 21–28)

 

Forgiveness. Can you imagine?
When we were traveling on the road to visit a few family members in a socially distanced fashion this past week, Genesis often took a turn at playing DJ in the car. She loved to put on, amongst other things, music from Hamilton. And when I read the passage from Genesis appointed as one of the readings this week, I thought again of one of my favorite moments in that play. A moment of forgiveness. Hamilton has made a mess of things. He has cheated on his wife. But somehow, in their grief at the loss of their son, Hamilton is able to be humble and Eliza is able to forgive.

As Shane Liesegang of the Society of Jesuits describes the scene,

“Hamilton hits bottom, and lets go of his pride. He pleads with Eliza, reprising a song from earlier in the show, but now singing her melody and recognizing that he’s unworthy of her [he is finally able to stop talking and listen to her]. She stands, expressionless and motionless, as Alexander finally meets a problem he can’t talk his way out of. His words can’t fix these things. Nothing can. If she would just let him stay, let him be with her, that would be enough. He commits to doing the work.”[1]

And, sitting in a garden, she takes his hand. Forgiveness. Can you imagine?

The story we see in Genesis today is not so dissimilar. Joseph has been mightily wronged by his own brothers, the ones who should have had his back. Because he was extraordinary or different as a child, they did not know how to deal with him. He was a little too smart, a little too connected to God with all his dreaming, and a little too ambitious. He wore flamboyant clothes. And so they decided to ditch him. Actually, literally they put him in a ditch. To die. And then they say, let’s sell him to slave traders.
But amazingly, and not without challenges, Joseph rises. He rises into a position of prominence, falls, and then rises again, higher. And now his brothers come before him, humbled. He is in the position of power. He literally has the power of life or death over them as they are in a famine and Joseph has all of the food in the region under his control.
And he chooses… forgiveness. But interestingly, not until he tests his brothers a bit. He wants to see their character, whether they are still the same hard youths they were or whether they have humbled.

And they are actually willing to do the work this time. Even though they have no idea at first why they are doing so.
And in this dramatic scene, Joseph lets them know who he is and how he has forgiven them because God has used all that happened for good.
Forgiveness. Can you imagine?

Very few of us who have walked this earth for any length of time have not been wronged in some way or another by someone close to us. It is a sad thing about humanity, but it is hard for us to be in close quarters for any time without intentionally or unintentionally harming each other.
And so today’s challenge from the scriptures is to think of whatever situation like that which exists in your life, and to begin the process of forgiveness.

But I say process. Because first, we have to bear in mind whether the other person involved is contrite. If they are not able to be humble and refrain from hurting us again, we may not be able to move forward in relationship. But we can still forgive in that we can write a letter to God, or seal it in a prayer that we will no longer hold what a person did against them. We will commend them into God’s hands. And trust that, when they are ready, they may approach us. And by the grace of God, we may be ready to forgive in person.

Forgiveness. It is not about humbling ourselves to be hurt again. But it is about letting something go that doesn’t serve us. It is about moving forward in our lives. If we do not, it often affects us spiritually. We may feel we have to hold back on receiving communion (spiritual or physical) or in our relationship with God. But God doesn’t want us to do that! God wants to welcome us at every moment with loving arms. God wants us to thrive.

A last thought. The woman in today’s gospel also exercises forgiveness. If I were her, I might have been so mad at Jesus calling me a dog that I might have stomped off. But no. She wanted to claim her blessing. So she even forgave God incarnate, and in return she received a blessing! Healing for her child. The hope of her heart.
We too can claim our blessings. But we may need to take the hard step of forgiveness first, even if it means forgiving God. Amen.


[1] Shane Liesegang, SJ, “A Grace Too Powerful to Name: Forgiveness in Hamilton,” Jesuit Post, July 6, 2020, https://thejesuitpost.org/2020/07/a-grace-too-powerful-to-name-forgiveness-in-hamilton/

 

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