Forgiving in a Small Town

In the email today I got Harry's sermon -- I guess since we missed church (one more way that "community" evidences itself ambivalently -- people *expect* you to be places -- when you aren't your position and identity become more (or less) precarious within the community).

It's funny because when I *read* the bulletins / sermons / follow up that ACRAC (our church) sends, I've always read them invitationally -- we miss you, come again when you can. But I know that other churches I've been a part of would have sent such missives steeped in implicit messages of judgement -- "where WERE you? HMMM?"

And that's the funny thing that I'm thinking about this concept about COMMUNITY -- that the more we BECOME community -- the more RESPONSIBLE we are to each other -- the more RESPONSIBLE we are to each other -- the more OBLIGATED we are to one another -- the more OBLIGATED we feel -- the less AUTHENTIC and PASSIONATE we feel about our actions (always our actions before our relationships lose their passion...).

Lynn's growing-up-life-in-a-genuine-old-school-community (farm life americana) has made me deeply aware of the perils of COMMUNITY. of SMALLNESS.

Harry asked in his sermon -- this poignant leading question:

Today’s gospel reading raises another theological conundrum concerning prayer and forgiveness when we read: “If you forgive anyone his or her sins, they’re forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they’re not forgiven.” What about that statement? How does that fit into our theological framework?

And then after developing a contextual reading -- answered it this way:

We Christians, have actually become God’s instruments of grace to this world. We Christians, are the way that the world experiences the forgiveness of God. That’s a pretty weighty thought I think.

YEAH. me too. He talked about forgiveness within the context of a family -- how our tendency to think about how those around us perceive us collectively -- undermines our ability to *forgive* each other (but fill in the blank on "forgive" -- "invite", "enjoy", "celebrate", "engage", "listen."

I'll get into the institutionalization of relationships in another blog, though. Gotta take a bowl of soup down to my sick daughter who is watching ELMO...