First Presbyterian Church
Wausau, Wisconsin
Rev. Ray H. Kiely, April 6, 1952
What Can Modern [People] Believe In?
edited for preaching on Palm Sunday, March 16, 2008 by the Rev. Stephen Hamilton Wright
as part of the congregation’s 150th anniversary celebration year

“I Believe in the Forgiveness of Sins”
“forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
“for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged.”

We put foot today on the road that leads to the cross. From Palm Sunday to Good Friday the events of Christ’s life lead us scene by scene to Calvary, the place of crucifixion. From one point of view it was a sorry affair. And the worst part of it all is that indirectly all of us are involved in calling for Christ’s life. Actually in the end the important question is not “Who crucified Christ?” but rather “What crucified Him?” Enumerate those particular sins which led up to the cross and see if we can go scot-free. It was the sin of wavering love—joining voice with those who acclaim Him one minute and siding with His enemies the next—which is as typical of our age as of the time in which Jesus lived that made the cross inevitable. The Apostle Paul said, “It was for envy they crucified Him.” That selfish jealousy which hung Him on His cross is with us as it was with those who then stood beneath Him. The impatience which caused Judas to betray the Master for thirty pieces of silver is typical of our lives. The sin of stoning the prophets is present in every age—ours and theirs. These were the base passions which took Jesus’ life and which, since they are present in our lives even today, have a way of placing us beneath His cross in the role of His crucifiers. It is understandably a road which we survey with some reluctance because we in our sins play such unlovely parts in it.
And yet from another point of view the cross towards which the Palm Sunday road leads us was a welcome and memorable blessing. For it was from that shameful cross there were spoken those words of forgiveness which cover your sins and mine: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Since our sins cause us uneasily to picture ourselves among those who crucified Him we can feel that He meant those words for us. Hence with real gratitude we join in saying in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”

I
Because we see ourselves mirrored in those who brought about the crucifixion of the Pioneer of life—
Because we know in our humblest moments that there is a vast difference between our lives as we vowed to make them and that which they actually are—
Because we recognize that it is not alone sins of transgression but as well sins of omission of which we are guilty—
Because we know that we have compromised Christ’s principles and often betrayed Him in thought, word and deed—
Because of all these reasons we know that we have need for forgiveness. Others may make light of sin—may pass it off with a wave of the hand saying, “There is nothing serious about that. Everybody sins. So what?” They may rationalize their misdeeds and condone their misconduct, but not we. For we hear uneasily those words,

You call me Master and obey me not,
You call me Light and see me not,
You call me Way and walk not,
You call me Life and desire Me not,
You call me wise and follow Me not,
You call me eternal and seek Me not,
You call me gracious and trust Me not,
You call me Mighty and honor Me not,
You call me just and fear me not:
If I condemn you, blame me not.

We know that the “wages of sin is death, but the gift of God’s forgiveness is eternal life.” We recognize that sin causes us to reject Christ and we still have enough wisdom to realize that we cannot afford to have Him reject us, saying, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” The fondest hope of the condemned prisoner is that one day he may be pardoned and set free. The most cherished hope of all but the most superficial and irresponsible is that we may be forgiven and released from the terrible weight of guilt. We can bear up under almost any burden or disappointment save that of unforgiven sin. For us to feel that we are not or cannot be forgiven causes us untold anguish, makes us lose our desire for righteousness, and generally tears our lives apart. Hans Christian Anderson once said, “Blame dulls me; praise gives me courage. It makes me cling to God . . . God forgive me if I judge your ways, but a little more kindness would better improve me.”

II
And because God loves us and understands us, that longing is answered with forgiveness. When we say, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins” we mean not alone that to us the forgiveness is important but as well that through Christ’s [faithfulness] . . . our sins are forgiven. The sinner cannot read the pages of the Bible without feeling confident that if he is repentant God does forgive him. “As we are faithful to confess our sins, so God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. . . . As the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us.”

However let us not imagine that with God forgiveness is an easy thing. We may think that it doesn’t hurt the Almighty One to cover our sins with forgiving grace. Someone has said, however, “As far as we know it cost God nothing to give us a Christmas with God’s own Son in a manger. But on Good Friday [in response to our sins] it cost the Cross for that same Son.” For the one who cares nothing for truth and justice and righteousness it may be a little matter to excuse sin in another. But to one who is just-- . . . to the one whose very nature is truth and righteousness, it cannot be a simple and easy thing to forgive sin.

For that reason it was only when Jesus was on the Cross . . . that He could appropriately say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” It probably was harder for Christ to forgive sins than for us, because He took sin more seriously. Harry Emerson Fosdick said, “Suppose that some one were a specialist in tapestries, adored them, loved them; and suppose he saw some vandals ruin one worth a king’s ransom without knowing what they were doing—would it be easy for him to forgive that? Another man who could not tell tapestry from cheesecloth—he would find it easy to . . . pass it over. But for the expert to say, ‘Forgive them for they know not what they do,’ would not be easy.”

III
Now, if forgiving sins is difficult for Christ, He recognizes that it must be difficult for us. But it also follows that if we want His forgiveness, it is important that we forgive those who have sinned against us.

How often is this charge thrown at us in the Scriptures: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For the judgment you give shall be the judgment you get.” “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Christ recognized our difficulty in ability to forgive adequately, so He urged us to make it a matter of daily prayer. “Our Father in heaven . . . forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Jesus suggested that we pray for strength to pardon, recognizing that we can pray for forgiveness only to the degree that we ourselves have the grace to forgive. “For remember,” said Jesus, “if you do not forgive people their sins, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your sins.”

There is an old book by John Bojer entitled The Great Hunger. In that story, a man named Peer Troen had plenty of reason to help the other men in the region destroy a heartless neighbor whose dog had killed Troen’s own little daughter. The other men refused to sell seed to the neighbor for his farm, or to help him in any way. But Troen found no happiness in the barren fields. “It won’t do us any good,” he told his wife, “It won’t do us any good, you know, to see his bit of field lying bare all summer.” And one night Peer slipped out and sowed his neighbor’s field. He reasoned this way: “I went out and sowed corn in my enemy’s field that God might exist.”

There is another story of a man who had been seriously harmed by a powerful politician. After relating the particulars to a British prison reformer, Sir Eardley Wilmot, if it would not be the manly thing to resent this gross injustice. “Yes,” said Eardley, “it would doubtless be the manly thing to resent it, but it would be Godlike to forgive it.”

We cannot earn our own forgiveness through merely practicing the act of forgiving. Our forgiveness from God is forever an unmerited gift. But that gift can be felt only by those who themselves are capable of forgiving others.

Conclusion
Because we cannot afford the luxury of bearing a grudge—because we cannot afford the luxury of sins unforgiven—because God has provided a way of forgiveness through the life, death and resurrection of Christ—we join gladly and exultantly in proclaiming, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”