Salvation and Death on the Red Sea, Forgiveness, and the Season of Creation - Some thoughts

Over the last few weeks, we have heard Jesus teach his disciples, Matthew’s community, and us, how to hold good community together. When asked by his disciples “who the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven”  Jesus responds by placing a child in their midst. It was not about their status. Instead Jesus reminded them that good community places the most vulnerable—like children, the marginalized, and those named in the Beatitudes —at its very centre. Good community has a common story that holds it together and gives it purpose. It is built on God’s deep love seen in the Exodus story and lived out in Jesus. Good community is not about us, but us living God’s deep love for creation and all who share this home with us.

Last week in the gospel reading Jesus taught that true community is about mirroring heaven on earth through common purpose, deep commitment to each other, as Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the honesty required to face conflict. . Matthew 18:18 is often read to mean that what we do here on earth holds true for heaven too. But maybe it is better understood using the Lord’s Prayer, “your will be done on earth as in heaven”. What we do here on earth is to mirror  heaven. When we truly live out community we become signs of the reign of God here on earth. 

This week, Peter’s question pushes us into the hard work of forgiveness. Like the first slave in Jesus’ story we are all recipients of God's immense grace. Too often this teaching has been be weaponized to keep people in abusive relationships or to excuse the ongoing harms of colonization. Forgiveness demands genuine repentance and systemic reform. It does not erase consequences, nor does it automatically restore broken relationships.

In this Season of Creation  we are invited to consider how we sin against God’s creation and those who bare the greatest cost of that sin. Pollution, bio-diversity loss, and climate change are having devastating consequences on those who have contributed the least  to these sins, including our Pacific neighbours. We routinely prioritize our own short-term economic costs over their survival, begging the question: have we even begun to ask for forgiveness for our action and inaction?

The Exodus reading is one of the foundational stories that sits at the heart of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. This is a story that shows the superiority of God over the would-be-gods of Egypt, including Pharaoh, and our would-be-gods of endless growth and progress. We are reminded that God’s love is universal, but never neutral. God stands with the oppressed Hebrew slaves, as God continues to stand with the poor and oppressed, including creation. As we reflect on our place in this story, an old rabbinic tradition reminds us of God's universal grief, showing Him silencing the angels who celebrated as the Egyptians drowned because they, too, were God’s children.

What do we need forgiveness for in this Season of Creation, and from whom must we seek it?