The Imperative to Give as We Receive

 HOMILY, ST. PAUL’S, FOLEY – 6 EASTER, YEAR B

MAY 9, 2021

 

TEXT:                        JOHN 15:9-17; THE LORD’S PRAYER, BCP PAGE 364

 

            The most easily received gift is also the one that is hardest to give.

 

            Ponder that for a moment.

 

            It is readily-available to be received – which is why many of us are here – but there is profound difficulty in giving it to others.

 

            That gift follows close on the heels of Jesus’ words in the gospel lesson today:

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

            These words – among Jesus’ final instructions to his disciples – follow his instruction’s last imperative:  That we love one another.

            The gift to which I am referring both precedes and follows this new commandment from Jesus.  It is both the proof of that love, and the fruit of that love.

            It is forgiveness.

            Each Sunday, as we prepare to approach the Holy Table, we pray these words: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We come to the altar rail recipients of that gracious gift of forgiveness of all that is past.  We are new beings.  The slate has been wiped clean.

            What do we do with the gift we have received?  How do we respond to the second phrase in that prayer: “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

            This is core theology to Christian faith.  There is no faith without forgiveness – either being received or being given.

            We have all been hurt – by life, by our own deeds, or by others. The key is to forgive those hurts… those disappointments… those betrayals.  The more we hold onto them, the heavier they become.  The more they control us. The less free we are to become what God has created us to be.

            It is in forgiving that we let go of the burdens we carry.  Bitterness melts away. Anger dissipates.  Resentment dissolves.  We are free to live again. Profound healing occurs.

            And if your anger is against another person, you are freed even more.  You are freed to love that person – by which I do not mean acting like nothing ever happened, but to intend the best for him or her.

            You have been forgiven and have forgiven. You have both received and given.  You are free to be the person God calls you to be.