day in the Life of OKCF/the-civil-wars.jpg) A (Sun)Day in the Life of OKC First
Reflections by Pastor Jon 02.20.12
Ain't going back to Barton Hollow Devil gonna follow me e'er I go Won't do me no good washing in the river Can't no preacher man save my soul
The above is from “Barton Hollow,” one of best and most popular songs from The Civil Wars, a duo awarded their first Grammy just this month.
I love this song. I love the powerful acoustic guitar and the drive of the beat. It’s a good jogging song for me. And I love the lyrics as well. I think someone put some thought into this one, and the story that’s told, while it is intriguing, is more evidence that the Church still has some work to do when talking about forgiveness.
The author/singer seems to have done a bad thing, a really ugly, stains-your-soul bad thing. And though this guilty party seems to have mastered the language of faith and religion (baptism, preachers, soul), he hasn't heard or internalized the Good News- that in Christ we see the full embodiment of a full-bodied message of God’s forgiveness that is so dynamic, so powerful that everything, everything, everything changes- with this one word.
Forgiven.
That word, when spoken from the mouth of God, does more than you think. Does it relieve me of the penalty I’ve earned? Yes, but please don’t stop there.
According to Jesus, as we heard yesterday from Mark 2, this word cancels the debt, releases you from the label or stigma that may be associated with your sin, and it sends your sins packing, separating you from them as far as the east is from the west.
Forgiveness, when God says it, allows for a brand new future.
And we, the forgiven of God, can be deputized to forgive like this as well! Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians- 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
This kind of forgiveness is big and strong enough to change the world. Don’t believe it? Listen to this interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu who has witnessed the nation-shaping power of forgiveness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZsYSH4f9QQ&feature=related Be forgiven. And forgive.
Jon
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