Midweek Musing- 1/29/2025

There was once a missionary priest who was sent to live and work in the Philippines. While effective in his ministry he personally struggled with his own forgiveness. You see years before, while in seminary, he had committed a terrible sin—one he had kept secret from everyone. Everyone, that is, except God. Over and over, he had confessed it, weeping, and pleading for mercy. Yet no matter how many times he prayed, he never felt forgiven.

In his parish, there was a woman known for her deep spirituality. Some folks in the community even called her a mystic, claiming she spoke with Jesus in visions. The priest was skeptical. One day, hoping to expose her as a fraud, he approached her and said, “The next time you speak with Christ, do me a favor. Ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary.”

A few days later, he saw her again. “Did you ask Jesus what sin I committed?” he inquired.

“Yes,” she replied.

The priest’s heart pounded. “And what did He say?”

She smiled. “He said, ‘I don’t remember.’”

What reminded me of this story was some research I was doing last week in preparation for last week’s worship service and sermon. In my study I was looking at several passages in the book of Isaiah. One verse that stuck out to me came from the 43rd chapter.

In the 25th verse the prophet shares these words.

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Eugene Peterson shares it this way in The Message. “But I, yes, I, am the one who takes care of your sins—that’s what I do. I don’t keep a list of your sins.”   Isaiah 43:25 MSG

It’s strange, isn’t it? The things we carry with us, the burdens we refuse to set down. We replay our mistakes, turning them over in our minds like old stones in our hands, rough with regret. We lose sleep tossing and turning over our past. We whisper our sins to God, but instead of letting them go, we clutch them tightly, as if keeping them close will somehow make up for what we’ve done.

And yet, when we ask God about our past, our loving Creator answers: I don’t remember.

God doesn’t forgive the way we do. We say we forgive, but we keep a record. We let go, but only until something reminds us. Not God. When God forgives, it is complete. God does not keep score. God does not carry a ledger of our sins. God chooses—deliberately—to blot them out.

But this is where I run into the much more difficult challenge. And that is, can I forgive myself?

Do you ever struggle with the same issue of forgiving yourself?

That priest in the story had long since been forgiven. God had let it go. But he couldn’t. He kept carrying a weight that was no longer his to bear. How often do we do the same? How many times do we keep punishing ourselves for something that God has already erased?

Maybe today is the day to stop remembering what God has forgotten. Maybe today is the day to step forward, unburdened, into the grace that has already been given.

Because God says, I don’t remember. Maybe it’s time we stop remembering too. So that with this weight removed we can walk fully into our future ready to do the good that is ours to do for the proclamation of the gospel, the preservation of the truth, the promotion of social righteousness, and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia Amen.