Peace through forgiveness.

I've been reading a book by Paul Wadell recommended by a friend entitled Happiness and the Christian Moral life - an Introduction to Christian Ethics. Chapter seven, Finding a Story Worth Handing On has a subsection called Living God's story for us - Becoming a people of Reconciliation and Peace.

We sometimes think peace is little more that the absence of conflict, or else the sort of fragile truce that results when we leave on another alone, tolerate our divisions, and simply let things be. But such an approach does little to address the animosity, misunderstanding, or fears that engender suspicion and foster alienation; in fact, such peace is often little more than hostility disguised or delayed. the peace that comes in Christ is far richer and much more challenging....The New Testament presents the peace of Christ as God's ongoing work to overcome all the hostility, conflict, and divisions that leave us estranged from one another and threatened by one another. Christ's peace is the work of reconciliation and forgiveness. It is a peace that heals, a peace that overcomes barriers, and a peace that creates community where community was never though possible before.

Wadell talks about the fact that Christ came to reconcile Jew and Gentile, to open up for community those who through societal structures had been excluded; children, women, 'tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes'. It is my thought that He also came to reconcile communities that have been broken, Christian to Christian.

Christians, like everybody else, are no strangers to conflicts, divisions, hurts, and misunderstandings. But if they are faithful to the story of Jesus, they will work to overcome these things rather than allow them to prevail....This is what distinguishes the peace of Christ. Christ's peace characterizes relationships and communities where people prosper together not because they always get along, but because they refuse to let hurts, misunderstandings, disagreements, and divisions fester and abide.

Wadell speaks where my heart has been broken. For the community of believers that I have worshiped with and whom I have called my friends.

Such a peace is based on the recognition that my behavior is never simply "my own" because everything I do in some way affects somebody else. The good I do builds up my relationships and strengthens community, but the bad I do weakens them. Bad behavior cannot be overlooked if the goodness, life, and happiness that can only be found in partnerships with others can continue to be ours.

Which of course brings us to the area of forgiveness. Having broken relationships entails forgiveness in order to get to a place of peace and reconciliation. "Finally, if living the Christian story entails walking in the way of Christ's peace, this cannot be done without people willing to forgive one another."

This is what forgiveness does. Forgiveness does not let hurts, betrayals, divisions, and disappointments have the final word. It insists there is a love powerful enough to overcome all of these things if we open ourselves to receive it and commit ourselves to practicing it.

I hope that I have been able to model this in my own story, in my relationships that have experienced hurt and brokenness, where I have needed to give and receive forgiveness.

Only Christ and my friends really know for sure.