Words for Worship

Ministry Today

I am sure you know the scene!

 

Poncho swinging in the wind,

Clint Eastwood emerges

through the saloon swing doors

into the blazing dusty street

to confront

the sleazy gunslinger.

 

He chews a cigar

under his ten gallon hat

as the tumble weed

sweeps past.

 

They walk towards

each other

watching intently.

 

Suddenly, the black hat’s hand

goes for his gun

and it’s all over.  

 

For Clint is now blowing

on his revolver barrel

as he surveys

the carcase on the deck.  

 

Well recent research

has shown

it’s the one who draws second

in a western style gunfight

who is the one that lives on

and the one

who goes for his pistol first

bits the dust.

 

The reason is that

when you draw first

both excitement gets in the way

and voluntary action

just isn’t as fast

as the primeval instinct to react.

 

Well – what in heavens name

has this to do

with lost and found;

quite a lot in fact.

 

If – that is –

the thing lost

and sought

is forgiveness.

 

Or as the Lord’s prayer has it –

forgive us our debts

as we forgive our debtors.

 

Because in the business of forgiveness,

we often have doubts

about offering forgiveness first –

shooting first

if you like.

 

How will it be received? –

will be rejected? –

will make matters worse? –

or the recipient make clear,

he or she couldn’t care less?

 

We are nervous

in other words

of hitting our target.

 

But the lesson

from our spaghetti western is

if we fire off forgiveness first –

likely as not

it will cause a reflex

in our target

and forgiveness

will be shot back;

quicker indeed

than we offered it!

 

But why bother

with this forgiveness shoot out

in the first place.

 

Well, in the time honoured words

of the Church of Scotland’s form

of the Lord’s Prayer –

it’s all about debts.

 

And that in itself

that seems

to be clear enough.

 

Yet in the original language

of the Lord’s prayer’s –

debts

which is referring to sin

has various meanings.

 

And the one worthy,

when considering

the slinging of forgiveness

back and forward,

is Harmartia.  

 

Since that literally means

missing the target.

 

In other words

the one who sins

by having no forgiveness –

is missing the target –

is missing what they really want

to aim at –

is missing being

the person who they could be.

 

For, after all,

 

who would rather

be the honourable big guy

that is always Eastwood’s character

rather than the squalid,

two-timing

and shifty hired Gun with no name.

 

 

Well my reference

to gunslingers and spaghetti westerns

has been

hopefully

a light hearted way

of talking about lost and found;

debts and debtors;

forgiving and forgiveness.

 

However, there is

a far more sombre story

that illustrates

my point

about getting the first shot

in order to speed up

the reaction.

 

I know I have mentioned it

to you before –

yet please hear it afresh

since

it has so much to tell.

 

It comes

from a Captain Ernest Gordon’s book –

The miracle on the river Kwai.

 

 

As the title suggests

In this work

he was relating

his terrible experiences

at the hands of

his Japanese captors.

 

 

Well Ernest Gordon tells of

something that happened

on the Christmas Day

of 1944.

 

 

He says that it was then

that the prisoners learned

to forgive the hardest

of all debtors.

 

For a young NCO

was leading the men

in worship.

 

When he came to the lines

of the Lord’s Prayer –

forgive us …

as we forgive those

that trespasses against us –

he spoke alone.

 

Pausing a moment,

he repeated the phrase

and this time

a hundred voices spoke with him,

firmly and resolutely.

 

Today we have

rightly honoured

the brave crews

who man the lifeboats

that guards lives

round our coasts.

 

It is one thing

to help another

for reward

but quite another

to risk life and limb

to preserve

life simply

because it is precious in itself.

 

Few of us here

Other than Christopher

are asked

for such similar courageous

even sacrificial giving.

 

And in that

maybe

we are missing

the person we could be.

 

Yet the first step

to being that better person

is to know

that God is hunting for us –

he is desperate to find us.

 

And the way he finds us

is in the giving and receiving

of forgiveness.

 

Let us then

want to be found –

let us

want to be rescued –

let help others

be rediscovered by God.

 

Let us ask –

forgive us our debts

and mean it –

let us say

I forgive you your debts

and mean it

and let us

truly know the meaning

of being forgiven

by our debtors.

 

For these

collectively

make up

the meaning of life.

 

Because Ernest Gordon

in his book

tells of another time

in Chungkai prison

when he cried out -  

how can any man

find meaning in this hell?

 

To which a young corporal replied –

Sir, an unknown poet once wrote something

that explains it all –

 

I sought my soul, but my soul could not see

I sought my God, but my God eluded me

I sought my brother – and I found all three.

 

Amen

 

Offering

 

HYMN…………

 

 

Forgiveness Shoot-out!