Resources

Preaching Forgiveness Conference
Plenary Sessions
The Faces of Forgiveness: Psychological Contributions - Steven Sandage (Watch)
The Faces of Forgiveness: Theological Contributions - LeRon Shults (Watch)
Learning Points for Preaching - Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
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Co-authors of The Faces of Forgiveness: Searching for Wholeness and Salvation and colleagues at Bethel Seminary, Steven Sandage and LeRon Shults presented back-to-back plenary addresses to open the Preaching Forgiveness Conference.

Sandage warned against "a cheap view of forgiveness that glosses over pain." Premature forgiveness, he said, amounts to "pseudo-forgiveness" when it comes from a sense of obligation and "not from the heart." This only leads to "more residual hurt than we're aware of, and it can leave us feeling quite wounded."

A more thorough understanding of forgiveness, informed by psychology, is that forgiveness is a process that is both intrapsychic (influenced by dynamics going on inside a person) and intersubjective (influenced by the dynamics of the relationship and how one looks at the other person). Sandage's full definition of forgiveness is "a process of soothing one's demand for revenge or internal avoidance in order to provide a pathway toward restoring an attitude of goodwill toward's one's offender."

Sandage distinguished between forgiveness and reconciliation-the latter of which, improperly understood, could amount to "enablement [of] patterns that are unhealthy for the relationship." Rather than reconcile too hastily in an effort to reduce anxiety, Sandage said, "I have to be able to tolerate anxiety in relationships that matter to me, rather than just play the forgiveness card."

Both Sandage and Schults emphasized the integral role of the face in forgiveness. The face is a complex instrument in relationships; it is "the main display site for revealing emotions"; at the same time, the face can "both reveal and conceal what's in our souls." Appropriately enough for an audience of pastors, Sandage said we need to develop "facial hermeneutics"-a method for interpreting facial signals.

The full work of forgiveness, Sandage concluded, includes empathy-the effort to "rehumanize" (and not "totalize") our offender. Rather than try to rush relationships out of periods of conflict, pastors must cultivate the patience it takes for relationships to grow from serious offenses and the forgiveness of them. Forgiveness, Sandage said, should be considered a process rather than an event. "We have to look at it like a skill or craft; it takes time and work," he said. "We need relational containers that can hold the transforming power of forgiveness."

'Facing, Forgiving, and Feasting'

LeRon Shults linked three words beginning with the same letter that we may not naturally associate: facing, forgiving, and feasting. You can't have any one without the other two, he suggested. After a beginning with a colorful recap of a family reunion of his in East Texas, Shults said that the anxiety that can accompany family reunions-analogous to the anxiety of Jacob before his reunion with Esau-adds to the potency of the combination of facing, forgiving, and feasting with others.

Shults began by describing the role of the face in Old Testament imagery-from the plea of the psalmist and Ezekiel that God not hide his face, to the first commandment, which literally says, "You shall have no other gods before my face." "Knowing and being known by God [means] facing and being faced by God," Shults said.

A community that faces each other in forgiveness, he added, is a "Eucharistic community." While we consider the Last Supper as the model for our Eucharistic feasting, Shults said that "all of Jesus' suppers should inform us of what it means to be a Eucharistic community." Jesus "lived his life facing the father, and faced others in a way that called them into Eucharistic community." Whether it was the wedding at Cana, the woman at the well, or the men on the road to Emmaus, Shults said, "the way Jesus manifested grace and peace [was] by supping in community. . . . Jesus' way of being present at a table became an iconic representation of the presence of the God who forgives."

'Good Spiritual Hygiene'

After an afternoon of breakout sessions, the conference reconvened in the chapel for some closing thoughts and questions. Neal Plantinga opened with three summary observations: first, that forgiveness is not just obedience of an order, but "a recipe for health ... a form of good spiritual hygeine"; second, that preaching forgiveness can only begin, not complete, "a wider discussion about forgiveness in the church"; and third, that true forgiveness of a serious offense is highly unnatural, and thus it is nothing short of "a Holy Ghost miracle."

-Nathan Bierma

Related Resource
Read a review of The Faces of Forgiveness in the Trinity Journal

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