"Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." So goes the version of the Lord's Prayer found in Luke. During Lent, the notion of sin can weigh heavy on our minds and hearts. As we reflect on the events of the past liturgical year and the ways in which we have conducted our relationships with God and our fellow men and women, our attention is often drawn to those ways in which we have fallen short and lost our way.
And in a sense, that's one way to define sin -- losing our way. We lose our way when we fail to come through for our friends and family in their time of trouble. We lose our way when we let a cruel or thoughtless remark pass our lips. We lose our way when we take more than we need. Sin does not have to involve a huge event like stealing millions of dollars or taking a life -- sin can be those little actions that fray at our spirits and slowly wear away at our efforts to live in community or draw closer to God.
In this week's lectionary texts, we hear about the ways in which sin can serve to divide us from those we love. In Luke's gospel, we read the story of the prodigal son, a parable Jesus shares with the Pharisees who have accused him of associating with sinners.
A man, Jesus explains, has two sons, and one wishes to claim his inheritance early. His father consents, and the young man "travel[s] to a distant country, and there he squander[s] his property in dissolute living" (Luke 15:13). He soon begins to starve, and decides to return to his father to beg to be treated as a servant, exclaiming, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Luke 15:21).
Yet his father is simply overjoyed that his son has returned. The other son, upset about the warm welcome received by his brother, complains to his father. But his father replies, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found" (Luke 15:31-32).
Lost and found: indeed, this is what forgiveness is all about. When we sin, we distance ourselves from God and our neighbor; we lose ourselves. But when we acknowledge the pain or hurt we have caused, make amends for what we have done, and begin to follow a life-giving path once again, we are promised God's forgiveness.
As Paul writes to the Corinthians, Christ has made all things new: "In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us" (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). God wants to be reconciled with us, and for us to be reconciled with one another. God wants us to find our way back home.
The psalmist writes in Psalm 32 of the joy that is to be found in forgiveness: "Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Psalm 32:1). As he writes, "Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the guilt of my sin" (Psalm 32:5). Owning up to our sin is not always easy -- but once we do, the psalmist writes, we will be "surround[ed]" by "glad cries of deliverance" (Psalm 32:7).
Sin can be a painful topic; no one likes to dwell on the ways they have hurt others, or the ways that others have hurt them. But this Lent, let us take the time to reflect on where we may have lost our way -- and how being forgiven or offering forgiveness to others can help us find that way again.
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