Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-21 or Numbers 11:24-30; Psalm 104:25-35,37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 or Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-23 or John 7:37-39

Interesting how much choice is given in the readings, isn’t it?  I wonder what’s up with that.

I’m leading a recovery retreat focused on forgiveness this weekend, so my readings are Acts, 1 Corinthians, and John 20.  I was tickled to see the John reading especially: “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”  I love that this instruction is given to all the disciples, not only to Peter (and I imagine there were male and female disciples in that room).  We all receive that Spirit at baptism, and we all have this power.  But what does it mean, to have the power to forgive or to retain sins?

This is a dense passage.  If you aren’t up for a slog, you might stop now.  But we’re going someplace important.  I’m following Gail O’Day’s commentary here, as best I can.

For John, “sin” is not a moral category so much as a theological one.  Sin is the state of separation from God, not by our bad acts but by our failure to see God in Jesus.  When John’s Jesus accuses the Pharisees of being “sinners” he is not calling them morally bad, but he’s saying they are blind to the presence of God among them (John 9).

“Forgiving sins” for John is not about removing a stain from our character, but is about revealing God at work in Christ.  If the faith community does not “forgive” this blindness by proclaiming and witnessing, then people will be left in their state of separation - their “sins will be retained.”  This is not then about penance and confession and absolution, as the Church later developed them (based on a passage in Matthew, very different); it’s about manifesting God and giving people a chance to see what we have seen.

Why use the word “forgive” here?  It doesn’t sound like the way we use it at all.  And because of that, it might open a new window on forgiveness.  When I forgive someone for particular violations, that’s a good thing; but if I’m really about new life, I don’t want to leave it there.  If I want release for myself and others, release from the past that so easily becomes the future, I need to find another way forward.  How about turning to God, turning to Jesus, seeing the glory that awaits us all?  Not so much about turning like “have mercy on me, a sinner” (which is still all about me), but turning like “Wow!  I never knew how much beauty and love are here all around!”

What if forgiveness is sharing the “Wow!” and letting the anger and regret of the past heal itself?  What if gratitude is the key to forgiveness?

If I retain your sin, I do my part to leave you in the dark.  I don’t really think I can claim to live in the light and do that.  I can’t make you live in the light; I can’t always even be sure I’m there!.  But I can do my best to let the light shine through me, so others might see what I’ve glimpsed.  Jesus isn’t authorizing the disciples to withhold or judge the “sins” of others; he’s commissioning them to do their best to let the light shine.  Peter’s speech on Pentecost is an example.  He doesn’t walk around forgiving people; he announces God at work in Christ, and opens the door for others to experience what he has experienced. 

Let’s do that.