Grace and Forgiveness

“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do . . .
they know not what they do . . . .”

April 12, 2022

          They are the most powerful lyrics of our Good Friday service every year.  I never hear them without being a little shaken.  They come to mind now having just watched a news clip of a Ukrainian woman discovering her son’s body, murdered and stuffed into a well.  I know, an offensive, appalling thing to write into a morning devotional.  Nevertheless . . . the woman was wild with grief, inconsolable to say the least.  I couldn’t help but wonder what if that was my Ben, so cold and alone in the ground.  How could I not rise up in hate toward those who had done it?

          I have no idea how to preach the forgiveness we sing on Good Friday.  I wouldn’t dare suggest it to mothers and fathers whose children are slaughtering one another every day in Ukraine.  I only know that this grace is the heart and soul of our faith, and without it we have nothing else.  Grace that somehow forgives the most unimaginable offenses.  Grace that preaches the power of love to release us from the choking sorrow of grief and hate.

          I can type the words but I don’t begin to understand it.  Not for a single moment.  In some ways, I pray not to.  I pray not ever to know such sorrow or grief.  That mama is still on my heart.  I can pray for her, that she has good friends, people to sit with her and remember her boy.  I wish her deep comfort in his memory and a swift end to the nightmare around her.  I pray for the ten thousand and more other parents like her, for the healing that will not begin until the nightmare ends.  May their grief inspire us to better prayer and braver faith in our own daily lives this Holy Week.
~ peace & prayers, 
pastor annette