The Power of Forgiveness

Today our sermon was on forgiveness. Our vicar began with the story of two journalists in 1972 who witnessed the bombing of a village in Vietnam. They took photos of children fleeing their burning village. One picture will never be forgotten.





After years of being used for propaganda by her government (and being denied the chance to go to medical school because of it) she became a Christian and was later able to move to defect and move to Canada. Once she was speaking to a group in the US. I forget who exactly the group was, but I believe it was a group of Vietnamese living in the States. She talked about how we can't change history. But we can forgive and we can work to keep it from happening again. She talked about if she met the pilot who dropped the bomb on the village that burned her so horribly that she would forgive him. What happened can't be changed. After the talk a man in the audience wrote a note and asked one of the security men to give it to her. The note said, "I'm the man you're looking for." The security guy asked if she wanted to see him and she said she did. Here's what happened.



When the journalists found her they took her to the nearest hospital. They asked the nurse how she was. The nurse said she'd probably die the next day. One of them took out his bayonet, gave it to the nurse, and said to kill her now so she wouldn't have to suffer. He couldn't bear to see her go through that. The nurse called the doctor and after some arguing she was transferred to another hospital where she underwent months of treatment for her burns. Her family was told she'd never be able to carry children. Well, as we know, doctors don't always know everything.



There was a vicar in England who's daughter was killed in the bombings in London one July. She wrestled with trying to forgive the men who'd done it and found she just couldn't. She resigned. (I was messing with Kleenex after the first story so I missed whether or not she went back into the ministry after working through her grief. I hope she did. I'd to think they'd one any prize, KWIM?)


The first lesson was Acts 7: 55-60. Stephen forgave those who were stoning him. The man who held the coats of those throwing the stones not only was forgiven by Christ Himself on the road to Damascus, he spent the rest of his life spreading the Gospel throughout a large part of the Roman Empire and even bringing members of Caesar's household to Christ.


Our vicar said he attended a meeting of Methodist ministers a few years ago. One man got up and said he hated the verse from John 14 that says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He thought it was horrible to exclude those of other faiths who also believe in God. Apparently it created quite an uproar.

One older gentleman said that yes, the Father is God. No one can know God as Father unless he knows the Son. Many of other faiths know God, but not as their Father. Our vicar compared it to arranging to meet the Emir. He could go through all the proper channels and arrange to meet him. He would meet the Emir but he'd never get to know the man himself. He'd just meet him, shake hands, and never really be able to say that he knows him.

If, however, he met the Emir's son, got to be friends with him, maybe played snooker with him, there was always the chance that one time he'd be invited back to the house to play. They'd walk in, see his friend's dad, and his friend would say, "Hey, dad, this is my mate, Andy." He'd probably shake hands, and say, "Hi. Call me Baba." (The Arabic word for dad. At least I think that's what he said. Maybe he said "Bob" but that makes even less sense to me. LOL)

Do you see the difference? He could meet him through the usual, official channels, and not be able to say he knew him, but by coming to know the son he could come into the presence of the father and get to truly say he knows him. We can recognize God as God, but unless we have a relationship with the Son, we can't truly know Him as Father. Our Father. There's no chance for a real relationship with Him of any kind.

Yes, Jews and Muslims know God. They know Him as the one and only creator of the universe. They recognize Him as God. They know their very beings depend upon Him. But they don't know His Son so they can't know Him as Father. Muslims have 99 names for God. Not one of them is Father. Makes the rest of those names rather useless, doesn't it?


This last part I'll probably mess up but I'll give it a shot anyway. LOL "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father." Does this mean that we can perform greater miracles than Christ did? No. We can't even raise one man to life let alone more. But we can pray for healing and the casting out of demons. Christ did that but by being in the form of a man he was limited in time and space. He was limited to never being more than 60 km from Jerusalem. He could only heal as many people as He could encounter in 3 years of earthly ministry. His task has been multiplied so that instead of only the people of Palestine during the time of the Roman Empire being healed, people all over will be healed and demons can be cast out by prayer offered by the millions (should I say, billions?) of believers around the world.


A little girl from Vietname grew up to forgive those responsible for her burns. Stephen was able to forgive those stoning him. God does forgive. Accept it and your life will never be the same.


(And the best part about today's sermon? The twins stayed upstairs the WHOLE time!)