Scandalous forgiveness Rev Steve Stockman highlights the upcoming 4 Corners Festival in Belfast, entitled ‘Scandalous forgiveness’.
“F
orgiveness. What does or son or daughter. It could easily be seen that look like?” as a scandal if a paramilitary murderer Those were the words was forgiven. Some might suggest that of Fr Brian Lennon at that isn’t justice. Yet, it might also be a panel event during 2018’s 4 Corners scandalous if those of us who talk so Festival. A question had come from Alan much about God’s forgiveness are not McBride, sitting in the audience. Alan acting in forgiving ways – if forgiveness is wanted to know if it was necessary to forgive. Very aware that Alan had lost I believe that forgiveness his wife in the Shankill bomb, I was very is a resource, maybe the cautious about demanding forgiveness. It was then that Brian asked what most powerful resource forgiveness looks like. in delivering for us a The words triggered something inside my head. Forgiveness was a word I had better future. used for almost 40 years. It is at the very centre of the Christian faith and yet we were asking what it looked like. Surely that question should have a quick and confident answer. In the context of Northern Ireland, forgiveness was complex, but I reckoned vital if we were ever going to be able to deal with our past. I think it was Alan’s question that probably fired the direction of the 2019 Festival. Professor John Brewer has for some years Rev Steve Stockman challenged us in the church to keep words like ‘forgiveness’ in the public conversation. That is what we will not at the forefront of all that we do. be doing in the 2019 Festival. I was struck recently by a scene in a We took a lot of time over adding the television documentary. A woman, whose word ‘scandalous’. I have been using the mother had been murdered many years idea of ‘scandalous grace’ for some time. before, was being told how miserable her Jesus was constantly doing scandalous mother’s murderer was in prison. She acts. Whether it was the forgiveness he was so pleased to hear that. He deserved showed to a woman caught in the act that. I have sympathy with her thoughts, of adultery or having dinner with a tax but on the wall in front of her was a collector; sharing a drink at a well with big cross with another small cross by its a Samaritan woman or telling a Roman side. The cross is a symbol of forgiveness. centurion that he had never seen such Have we concentrated ourselves on faith in all of Israel. In Jesus’ culture these God’s forgiveness to us but somehow were all scandalous acts and forgiveness is blocked out and ignored that Jesus asks somewhere in the mix. us to follow him in being In Northern Ireland, many will see it forgiving to others the as scandalous if someone forgives the way he is forgiving to us? person who killed their husband or wife I do believe that
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Herald February 2019
forgiveness is a key contributor to peace building. I believe that it can contribute to personal peace as well as societal peace. To forgive someone who has caused you deep pain is not for the good of the one you forgive so much as for you who forgives. The bitterness that we hold can damage us even more. Forgiving can let go some of the hurt and indeed control that the perpetrator holds over us. In Northern Ireland we need to be able to find forgiveness for what our communities have done to one another for hundreds of years. I believe that forgiveness is a resource, maybe the most powerful resource in delivering for us a better future. The Bible has the hope of shalom at the heart of God’s dream for the world. I believe forgiveness between human and human, community and community as well as God and humanity are intrinsic to that intention of God’s. So, our hope for 2019’s 4 Corners Festival is to look at forgiveness from a whole range of angles. We want to use poetry, song, drama, personal story, practical teaching as well as theological wrestling, to open up and highlight the pearl of forgiveness. It will be messy and difficult. We will struggle with it, find complications in its outworking. At times it will get scandalous, but maybe as we surmise it over the 10 days of the festival, and beyond, we will journey to the very heart of God and towards our own salvation and the transformation of our country. The 4 Corners Festival will take place from 30 January to 10 February 2019. For more information and a full programme of events please go to www.4cornersfestival.com
