Our spiritual theme for October is forgiveness. It is a religious concept that invites us to learn more each time we engage with it. We think of the Biblical story of the prodigal son and the forgiveness every family I’ve known well has had to muster to sustain their love and commitment. We think of the difficulty of forgiving people who commit the most evil deeds, the truly deplorables. We think of Mother Teresa and of “turning the other cheek.”

But why would we use an image of the breaking of a chain to symbolize forgiveness this season?

Harold Kushner speaks of forgiveness as an act of liberation for us:

Forgiving happens inside us. It represents a letting go of the sense of grievance, and perhaps most importantly, a letting go of the role of victim. For a Jew to forgive the Nazis would not mean, God forbid, saying to them ‘What you did was understandable, I can understand what led you to do it and I don’t hate you for it.’ It would mean saying ‘What you did was thoroughly despicable and puts you outside the category of decent human beings. But I refuse to give you the power to define me as a victim. I refuse to let your blind hatred define the shape and content of my Jewishness. I don’t hate you. I reject you.’ And then the Nazi would remain chained to his past and to his conscience, but the Jew would be free.

It is a mystery, but forgiveness turns out to be very much about power, about our power. Despite the hardships and oppressions and physical harm we may endure from others, our capacity to forgive can free us. Authentic forgiveness can be an act of liberation. It is an unexpected kind of spiritual jujitsu that I will say more about on Sunday.

Although forgiveness is often associated with a gentle heart, the discipline of forgiveness is an exercise in empowerment, an exercise in strength sufficient to break chains of bondage we run the risk of feeling we deserve.

Bill