The Power of Forgiveness
My thoughts and feelings have been all over the place during these past few weeks. On a personal level, I’ve attended and taken part in some funerals which always leaves me in a hopeful, but depleted and somewhat vulnerable spiritual state. Simultaneously, there’s been a lot stirred up in the USA because of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. As a proud American, I have stubbornly clung to the belief that what unites us as Americans is significantly stronger than that which divides us. But the last few weeks have shaken that confidence.
And then in the midst of the chaos and confusion, there was a mega-memorial service last Sunday for Charlie Kirk. I haven't been able to watch the whole thing – it was more than five hours long! (Please keep that in mind next time a worship service runs a little overtime : )
There was a lot of music, a lot of speeches and sermons. The interplay between Christian convictions and political convictions was frequently muddled, but then these powerful words came from the mouth of Erika Kirk, recently widowed, and certainly the person in the room (stadium) who has been hurt the most
My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life. That young man. That young man! On the cross, our Savior said, "Father, forgive them for they not know what they do." That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him, because… because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the Gospel is love, and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.
What followed was the longest ovation of the entire five hours. Rightly so. Later speeches returned to the “our side is good, the other side is horrible” kind of rhetoric, but I’m suspicious that no other “take” carried much weight after Erika’s perspective.
I’ve been mulling her words (Jesus’ words, really) over and over again, letting them recenter me and restore my hope. What Erika spoke forth cleaves through all the confusion and political crap, and shines a light on our only hope in life and death: Forgiveness. Redemption. Grace. The blood of Jesus. I didn’t know how badly I was needing to have somebody shine the light again!
I know that Erika Kirk will have to practice forgiveness over and over and over again. Saying “I forgive you” in a crowded stadium is not the end of the process. It doesn’t magically make everything OK for her and her family. But it’s a noble, Jesus-oriented beginning. It’s the only way forward. Perhaps some of us will have an opportunity to follow her lead in this.
We say we want to be a free people. But often we forget that “to forgive is to set a prisoner free, and then to discover that the prisoner was you.”* Maybe there’s somebody in close proximity to you who needs a second – or seventy-second – chance. Maybe you do, too.
– Pastor Gregg
* Quote from theologian/writer, Lewis Smedes