Prayer is “shaped to heal relationships” even the worst of oppressive relationships. Forgiveness is at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer. Our capacity to forgive is based on the knowledge that God has already been forgiven us. I was struck by the ready forgiveness by the survivors of the gunman who infiltrated the Bible study class in the Charleston church. While we say the Lord’s Prayer at least once a week, how many of us even think about the meaning of ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’? This has to do with the formation of relationships. Trespass is to cross over without permission, right? Some say debtors and debts instead of trespass and trespassers. We might say sin and sinners. All of our language here is out of date or loaded. What we mean to say is forgive us for breaking relationships with others as we forgive them for breaking relationships with us. But that sounds a bit mild until we consider extreme forms of breaking a relationship – then we recognize it can be very serious business. Murder is an extreme form of a broken relationship – there is no hope for reconciliation with the dead person. The women who were able to respond to the gunman knew about forgiveness and broken relationships.
