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Darold Bigger

833 sermons

June 2009

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by Darold Bigger
about Forgiveness

Sermon

T 3410 Forgiveness Report

Title:                                        Forgiveness Report
 
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Preached:                                080429 LLU “Strengthening Families for the 21st Century” Conference
 \\ Forgiveness Report
! I.             Context.
Forgiveness is the subject of many books and much contemporary attention.  Secular writers have described the consequences of non-forgiveness and suggested steps and skills to employ forgiveness.  They have verified the results in increased physical, mental, emotional and relational functioning.
! II.           Our Project.
Our project built on this foundation of established information, especially the work of Dr. Fred Luskin and his “Learning to Forgive” workshop.  We adjusted some of that, personalized it and added several in-class and outside-of-class exercises to help attendees to apply and experience forgiveness.
To all that we added an explicit religious component.  Wholeness was central for us.
! III.          Religious Component.
!! A.           Misunderstandings.
That religious component confronted what we saw as an inadequate religious understanding of forgiveness, a misunderstanding that limits the full benefits of forgiveness.
[ not used at LLU  Many religious writers have described forgiveness as a way to comply with Christian admonitions to become Godlike, to love our enemies, to treat others as we would like to be treated, to forgive others so god can forgive us.  These admonitions often lead to the assumption that forgiving others is a matter of choice, that to refuse to forgive indicates resistance to God and a lack of true conversion.  
Many try to forgive.  The unsuccessful end up feeling guilty and estranged from God.  The successful feel relieved for having insured and authenticated their own righteousness.  It gives them another “work” to earn their way to spiritual success and lulls them into believing that they can do this on their own.]
!! B.           Myths and Truths.
We confronted several myths about forgiveness by asserting that forgiveness is not forgetting, condoning, pardoning or reconciling.  We intended to establish a theologically sound message of what forgiveness is:  accepting reality (about yourself and others), receiving forgiveness (by acknowledging our guilt and experiencing God’s forgiveness), and sharing forgiveness (a grateful and willing sharing of what we have received).
! IV.         Conclusion.
We found that defining and applying forgiveness as something we receive as well as give expands our human ability to be forgiving.  Forgiveness is both a skill and a gift.  The impact of that perspective is what our study intended to measure.

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