Forgiving Obnoxious Stinkers – by Greg Albrecht
Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes. God bless little children while they’re still too young to hate. – Tom T. Hall, Old Dogs, Little Children and Watermelon Wine
His mother told the little four-year old boy he should learn to forgive those who trespassed against him. Her son had never heard the King James word “trespass” – but he realized trespass must be something someone did/does that is really bad. He “translated” the word “trespass” into one of the worst things he had been taught not to do. A few days later, when he was having dinner with his parents, his mother asked him what he had learned about forgiveness. He summarized what he knew about forgiveness so far: “God wants us to forgive those who pass gas (his translation of trespass) on us.”
Forgiveness involves passing over those who pass gas on us! God’s love living in us leads us to look past and pass over the flaws and sins of others. When we forgive others, we do so in the name of Jesus, our Passover lamb who lives within us.
Forgiveness means loving and accepting and reconciling even in the midst of a less than perfect situation, whose mess smells “to high heaven” – because of obnoxious stinkers (like you and me). A realistic understanding of our own imperfections can enable us to be grateful of the love of others, and of God, and help us love others as God loves us. Friendships and relationships survive and they thrive when forgiveness is given and received.
When it comes to marital love, so many people are not willing to forgive, blaming their husband or wife for all marital difficulties, and then off they go “looking for love in all the wrong places.” They fail to forgive the imperfections of others and they fail to realize their own flaws and foibles and thus they start looking for their “soul mate” – thinking that someone somewhere will make them deliriously happy, without stopping to consider how they might make that someone happy.
“Dear Abby” once included this short letter in her newspaper advice column: “Dear Abby: I am divorced, 50 years old and I would like to meet a man who has no bad habits.” Abby gave the woman a short reply: “So would I.”
Perfect people don’t exist. The world is filled with imperfect people, filled with flaws and shortcomings. God’s love enables us to be gracious and forgiving, to overlook and look beyond the obvious and the real problems – in some ways God’s love is blind. In our case, God loves us, knowing exactly who we are and what we have done, but he chooses to ignore and wink at the obvious.
It’s certainly no news flash to conclude that forgiveness, tolerance and compassion in our world seems rare, almost on the brink of extinction. So many people are isolated in self-contained interest groups, self-absorbed in their immediate culture, interests, traditions and customs. Many who live in a self-contained world prefer to watch cable news networks and read newspapers that reassure them that what they already believe is true. They socialize with people who have the same biases and prejudices as they do. They attend church because the church teaches what they have always believed. People who live in holy huddles enclosing and embodying all they presume to be true, correct and righteous can never imagine that they “pass gas” – but they are quick to point out those who do!
There’s a story about an older gentleman who owned a classic Cadillac about the length of a small yacht that illustrates the deep divides in our society. The old man was trying to carefully back his “boat” into a parking space when a teenager zipped in with a little “Smart” car and stole the parking place.
The teenager, who had not been taught to respect seniors, jumped out of his little car and said, “You’ve got to be young and quick to zip in and out of parking places, Pop.” The senior citizen continued to back up his massive Cadillac, rolling over the mini electric car like a tank, crunching it into a total wreck. He smiled at the shocked young man, “And you have to be old and rich to be able to do what I just did, son.”
As hard as it is for us to fathom, God really does love the whole world. He loves the ones who drive little electric cars the size of a shoe box and those who pilot their gas-guzzling battleships around parking lots. He loves old and young, rich and poor… he loves us. The world is not perfect, and, in terms of his love, that’s OK with God. Come to think of it, you and I are not perfect, and in terms of his love, that’s OK with God too!
God’s love is non-denominational. God doesn’t love or not love you because of where you go to church or even if you do. God’s love is not measured out in direct proportion to how much you study the Bible, how long you pray or how aligned you are with “correct” doctrine.
God is not as interested as we think he is with all of our doctrinal squabbles and arguments. God is not that concerned with the dogmas in which we take such great pride… that’s not his emphasis and his priority. God’s deepest desire and supreme concern is love. He wants us to embrace his love, and yield to him so that his love lives within us in such a way that we are enabled to love him and our neighbor.
God’s love is amazing because he loves us anyway. God’s love forgives obnoxious stinkers … like you and me! God’s love is always and forever in spite of the dizzying roller coaster ride of contradictions and struggles which sums up our life.
God forgives us, and by his grace, enables us to pass on forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is one of the central ingredients in God’s love – or, looking at the flip side, forgiveness is also one of the primary fruits and products of God’s love.
The pastor had just given a sermon which he knew would afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. He had just poured out the new heart God had given him, talking about the amazing grace of God. He knew that there were wonderful people sitting there who were so indebted to and enslaved by the law that they would become upset by the notion that God’s love and grace is not predicated upon how observant and obedient a person might be.
The sermon was over, the congregation was standing, singing a final hymn when an usher handed the pastor a note. The note had been written by someone in the audience who was obviously afflicted by the message – it contained just one word, in block letters: “FOOL!”
The pastor loved God and he loved serving others in the name of Jesus. He did not want to let his immediate reactions get the better of him and thus further upset the anonymous note writer, but he felt he should say something before the congregation was dismissed. As the final hymn concluded the pastor walked to the platform and told everyone about the note he had just received and its one-word message, a response to his sermon from someone who was obviously displeased.
The pastor also had a wonderful sense of humor, so he said, with a twinkle in his eye, “I have received notes in the past from people who forgot to sign their name, but this is the first time I have ever received a note from someone who signed their name but forgot to say what was on their mind!” The congregation laughed, appreciating how their pastor gently and kindly handled the insult, forgiving the disrespect so that instead of yielding to the toxic poison of retribution, he yielded to the gracious and healing waters of God’s grace as they might also flow into the lives of those he served.
This world today is filled with people who are overwhelmed by the expectations placed on them. They know they cannot measure up to the standards placed on them, and trying to find some healing and help, they turn to God. Sadly, Christ-less religion places even greater burdens on those who are seeking forgiveness as it explains that God is a monster, filled with wrath and punishment. God’s love, mercy, grace and forgiveness is a river that washes away shame, guilt, impurity and sin – the gospel of Jesus Christ is a healing medicine and a soothing balm.
This is the world that you and I join arms together to help. These are the people who hunger for the love, mercy, grace and forgiveness of God. This is the mission of CWR/PTM – to explain who God is and that he is not mad at us, but rather, for some strange (to us) reason, he really does love us. Don’t ever think, for a second, that what we are joined together to do is unimportant or insignificant or that your part doesn’t matter!
And remember – you and I are not perfect, and neither is anyone else, but that’s OK with God!
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from May 2019
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