November 27, 2001

• Gender references to God

• Defining and practicing forgiveness

God surrounds each of you with His unfathomable love. We speak of His, not with any intention of suggesting male or female, but merely a great Presence. Christians are becoming more inclined to refer to God in neutral or shared terms. We feel this is entirely understandable, but it is important that all recognize that God is a God totally independent of identity as Mother God or Father God. For many, the choice of using both terms is an acknowledgment of the characteristics, the human characteristics, that humankind wishes to assign for an understanding of God: strength, sensitivity, compassion, resolve, nurturing, providing. There are so many adjectives which are associated with mother or father.

These concepts are indeed as old as humanity has been aware of a higher spiritual existence. For countless centuries there has been a recognition of earth as Mother Earth that provides, and Father God that protects. The essential characteristic of God nevertheless is love, as you know. Love is both nurturing and protecting. It provides, it defends, it builds, it affirms. God is all of these attributes.

We want to focus your prayers and thoughts and our collective efforts to one attribute of God that is sorely missing from much of humanity and yet is essential for the progress of humankind. You refer to this attribute in your discussions—that is the character, the challenge, the quality of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a concept that has been bandied about by all religions. There is no religious concept that exists now or has existed in the past or shall arise in the future that does not approach the question of forgiveness. Every spiritual belief acknowledges the importance of forgiveness.

The difference often comes in accepting the source or place or level at which forgiveness is offered. Some believe that humans are incapable of forgiving and that such is only the providence of the Supreme Spiritual Presence—God, Yahweh, Allah, whatever name you choose. Others believe that forgiveness begins really at the human level, and that it is the responsibility of all to exercise forgiveness. Where then does forgiveness belong?

You must accept the reality that all human beings contain within them elements that are divine. An important component of that divinity is the potential to forgive. Forgiveness comes from God. Forgiveness is a natural act of the spirit, but for human beings it is the responsibility of drawing that capacity to forgive from their spiritual selves into the manifestation of human life. You are all asked to forgive. It is not just a Christian tenet. It is a spiritual reality. It is an undeniable truth.

Human beings, all human beings have the capacity to forgive and they have the responsibility to seek ways of exercising that act. It makes no difference what your spiritual allegiance may be. Forgiveness is for you to exercise. It is a challenge, but it is your destiny. You are not destined to hate. You are not destined to judge. You are not destined to kill. You are destined to express and embody all that love is. Forgiveness is a natural and undeniable result of loving. You love, and therefore you forgive. You are loved, and therefore you are forgiven.

You recognize you are loved by God. What does that mean? If it does not mean you are forgiven, then such love has little meaning. You are loved by your parents. That means you are forgiven. You are allowed to be who you are and not be rejected. You are allowed to act as you may act, and although it may be approved of or disapproved of, you are accepted. When that behavior warrants disapproval, you are forgiven.

If there is no forgiveness, then you only feel loved when you are in some manner acceptable to someone else. Being accepted by another only when your actions are approved by that other person, you are not being loved. You are being loved when you are accepted regardless of your own actions. Unconditional love requires forgiveness, for without forgiveness love is, by definition, conditional.

You are loved by God. That means you are forgiven by God. You are not forgiven because of the act of Jesus or any other human being or soul. You are forgiven because you are loved. For so long you have been instructed in the ways of being loving. That means you must be forgiving. You cannot live a life lovingly without exercising forgiveness.

Those who speak out for human rights are speaking of the importance of forgiveness, whether or not it is labeled as such. What does it mean to be forgiving? It certainly does not mean turning the other cheek, looking away, allowing errors to continue unabated. It does not mean condoning all actions. That is not forgiveness. Forgiveness requires a view of what is ultimately godly, but it also requires a recognition that God exists everywhere, within everything, within every inanimate as well as animate object, within every person.

Forgiving is an act of giving. When you forgive you are giving recognition of divinity. You are giving recognition of value—not the actions, but the people. When you forgive you acknowledge the value of another human being. You value the common bond that all share. When you forgive, the spiritual unity of all that is is put between the actions and the actor, between the events of human life and the people who generate those events. There is a difference.

You act out of faith. You act out of your own beliefs. At times those beliefs, the faith that you have, will be inconsistent and in opposition to the beliefs of another. It is understandable that another may therefore disagree with your beliefs and therefore your actions, and you may be criticized as a result. But the person who forgives is giving acknowledgment of your value without sharing the same beliefs. You may have just cause to disagree with another person’s perspective, but you “fore give.” You put forth in front of you an acknowledgment of that other person’s value in life. That other individual is loved, is forgiven by God as much as you are loved and forgiven. Recognizing that forgiveness of God, how can you possibly respond by withholding such forgiveness? It cannot be done unless you lose your sight of God’s forgiveness.

You are asked to love one another. You are asked to love your enemies. You are asked to love those who oppose you, who may persecute you, who may threaten you, and you blithely accept that as important and absolutely true. But you resist so often the act of forgiveness, and you surround yourselves with an attitude of criticism, of intolerance. Forgiveness goes beyond those petty, transitory, localized reactions. Forgiveness is spread to the wider world and makes indeed a significant difference in that world.

Forgiveness is seeing God in the most difficult and, at times, repulsive situations. God does not create pain. God does not cause suffering, so where do you find God in those environments? You find God in one another. You find God in your acknowledgment of the value of another. You find God as a result of your forgiveness.

You may experience great reluctance at times to exercise forgiveness because you feel wronged or pained. You feel victimized. You feel taken advantage of. You feel anger. It could be that your view of God is clouded at that moment. But if you could bring yourself to try to forgive in your mind, God’s presence will be blinding in its brilliance. When you truly forgive, you see God in your life. The next time you are pressed by negative forces and you look for God in your life, seek out an opportunity to forgive. Find someone that you can place your thoughts next to and forgive that person. You will immediately sense God’s presence.

You understand the reason for forgiveness and its connection to God’s love, but you may exercise that forgiveness intentionally, even as you question where God is. The forgiveness, the act of forgiving, opens your eyes to God in your world. You become part of that Presence through your forgiveness. Forgiveness then is not just something you do. It is in the exercise of forgiveness that you may see God. It is you who initiate that action. It is not necessary to first see God and then act. It is an example of action that brings a vision of God. You become aware of God and the individual whom you forgive begins to see God through your forgiveness. As a result, God is made manifest in both of you. Forgiveness is an enormously powerful means of bringing God into life and into your relationship with others.

Where does forgiveness belong in a nation that feels victimized by forces it cannot see and cannot control? You must understand that violence, terrorism as you label it, does not occur in a vacuum independent of any cause. There are reasons why humankind chooses to act in ways that are repulsive to others. No individual is totally evil. No individual lives in the shadow, unknowing, not illuminated by the Divine Presence. Rather, individuals are moved to action on the basis of convictions that are strongly held. Just as you are motivated to act in a particular manner that you feel is appropriate, so are others equally motivated. The problem is not the individual. The difficulty arises out of what motivates that individual, and it is that difference that provides the appropriate grounds for forgiveness. You can forgive an individual for being motivated by perceptions that may be inappropriate, that may cause great pain, personal suffering, emotional trauma. That person is not the same as the motivation. That individual is merely responding as that individual believes appropriate to the motivations.

Each of you has causes that you feel strongly about, that you identify with. It could be some of those causes are less worthy than others. When you act in response to those causes, even though those actions are sincerely felt, you are at the same time forgiven by God for your misunderstanding of the relationship between you and the causes from which you are motivated. You are not the cause; you are the interpreter of the cause. Interpretation is a human attribute. It is subject to misjudgment, misguided understandings. When you are misguided, when you make mistakes, be they large or small, you are forgiven by the one who loves you. You are forgiven by God. And it is the same for your response to the actions of others.

Be willing to forgive. That does not mean you approve of what someone does. You do not condone the act by forgiving the actor. You are merely separating the individual from the action. You are affirming. You are giving value. You are placing before you the validity of that person and that validity exceeds all that anyone does in actions.

You do not have a monopoly on what is right and what is loving, what is just. You try to gain in your understanding, and so do all others. That search for the absolute, that search for the connection to a supreme spiritual being will take many directions. If you did not believe in what motivates you, you would not follow that direction. Therefore your actions reflect your beliefs, but you are not your beliefs. You are merely responding to those beliefs. As those beliefs change, your response changes, and yet you are the same person. All the more reason to exercise forgiveness because you are recognizing the sameness of that person, and you are recognizing the sameness, the union that all of you share.

Forgiveness is not a word that should be used lightly, for it requires a firm and courageous commitment to acknowledging the divinity that is shared by all human beings. We ask you to hold that divinity above you that it may provide direction, provide a context with which you may interact as a reflection of the true godly spirit that resides in you all. You are forgiven by God. It is for you to forgive with God. You are blessed by that forgiveness and you can bless through your forgiveness.

Your lives are illuminated by God’s unconditional love forever.

Amen.