Recently I was made aware of this film called The Kingdom of Heaven, which is a piece of historical fiction, um, with one of the characters being Balian of Ibelin.

In it, he is preparing at one point to defend Jerusalem and he needs more knights. He needs a larger army. So, he begins knighting ordinary men. In the movie, there’s this scene where he says to these ordinary men that he is making into knights, “Look up at me. See in my eyes something more and far greater than you see and know in your limitations.” He wanted these men to have more strength and courage than they knew of themselves.

It reminded me of Hafiz. “I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness the astonishing light of your own being.” – Hafiz of Shiraz

When I heard this, I thought about Onesimus in our scripture. We know why the letter’s written, but we don’t know what relationship Paul and Onesimus really had. It seems that, that Onesimus was quite helpful to Paul, and Paul saw him as more than he saw himself, and certainly more than a slave to Philemon.

So I wanted to start there as we get into this scripture lesson for today, Philemon 1:8-17

If you read my come Sunday, it’s the third shortest book of the Bible, based on word count, um, it’s only beat by the letter of first John and the letter of second John. It’s this very short piece and it is this letter from Paul to Someone Paul knows.

Paul knows Philemon and has met Onesimus and wants Onesimus to go back to Philemon. Onesimus is a runaway slave. Now you need to know something about slavery in Roman culture. It was economic, but it was economic based on debt. You became someone’s slave while you paid off your debt to them.

So, what Paul has done in this letter is he is reaching out to Philemon and saying, I’m sending Onesimus back to you. I’m returning your slave, but I don’t want you to treat him as a slave. Because in that culture, a runaway slave, if they were captured or brought back, they were branded on their face with an F for fugitive. Which even if they paid their debt, that brand stayed there for the rest of their lives. Paul’s trying to avoid that. He’s trying to avoid any punishment for Onesimus.

Onesimus has great value. He can be of use to both Philemon and to Paul. So rather than punishing him, Paul asks for forgiveness. He asks that Onesimus be welcomed as a brother. Be welcomed in love more like the story of the prodigal son who is welcomed back into welcoming arms and brought back into the table, part of the family, no longer a slave.

If you continue, I’m not sure if we hit that part or if it’s in the next verses, Paul is willing to even pay Philemon’s debt. Paul will cover that debt. So Philemon has lost nothing, but gained a brother. This is Paul in his most persuasive. Trying to be that person who says, choose love over fear.

When I was sitting with that, this scripture from 1 John came to my mind. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love.”

I think that’s something important for us to think about and remember right now. You see, there is within all of us judgement. It is a piece in our brain that can be very critical of us and of others.

It can help us make sense of the world. It can help us avoid danger. But it also can be an impediment. To relationships. It can stop us from forgiveness. It can stop us from loving the way we are called to love because it prevents us from being our best selves. It prevents us from seeing them as a child of God. And that’s our charge.

That’s Jesus expectation of us, that we see each person as a child of God, worthy of God’s love, a person who has received the mercy of God. Even though they may be someone who is saying something that we completely disagree with, we are still called to be in relation with them. We are called to love them because we are called to love the stranger and the enemy.

I was just in a conversation recently with Rabbi Jack Paskoff of Congregation Shaarai Shomayim. We were talking about these calls on us to love.

And one of the other Christians in the group said, we are called to love the enemy. And Jack said, we’re not. It surprised me, but he’s right, that’s only in the New Testament. The Old Testament is the love your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and spirit and to love your neighbor as yourself.

They are called to care for the stranger. The alien is actually is is the way it’s translated, the alien in your midst the one you don’t know. Just to clarify neighbor, although that is next week’s sermon, “Who Is My Neigbor?”

But, we are also called to love the enemy. That is Jesus call on us. That is a call that I think we need to take very seriously right now.

So I told you that I was in this conversation with Jack and this is what came of it. I get to give you a sneak preview. Below is an ad that’s going to show up in the Lancaster newspapers. I think it’s going to run twice because I am still part of the Lancaster Interfaith Coalition.

We are called to be co-creating with God the beloved community.

Recently, Pope Francis got the Catholic community pretty excited. Did you see that? If you didn’t, I’m going to share it with you because I’m proud of him.

He recently said, all religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy. They are like different languages that express the divine. If Pope Francis can get there, I think the rest of us can too. This is not about demonizing anyone.

We have to learn to work together, to find the commonalities, to appreciate the differences and to figure out how we will be ONE beloved community.

It’s a tall ask, but it is what Jesus looks for us to do. May it be so. Amen.

This story, often called the story of the Syrophoenician woman, is one of the many stories told in the Gospels, which are repeated in more than one Gospel.

In this case, we have a version in Mark 7:24-30, which is brief. There’s another version of this story in Matthew. Both Mark and Matthew put this story in a similar context.

But what is this story about? Is it a story of a casting out of a demon? Is it a story of a non-Jewish woman talking with the Jewish rabbi and coming away looking smart and victorious, where his disciples look like fools? Not right in that story, but in the larger context, they certainly do not seem terribly competent.

Is this a story about demons, children, bread, and dogs? Is this a story about a mother’s love for her daughter? Is this a story about faith? Matthew says so. Mark never uses the word. Is it about bread and leftovers? Is it about having a place at the table and greater sharing?

I think that it’s all of these things. And I think that it is also a cue for us not to take no as an answer, even when we’re talking with God. Also, it alerts us to seek God’s abundance wherever it may be found. I think of the words in the song “Oh, I Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands on Me”, some seek the Lord, but don’t seek him right.

This story is placed in a context, in both Matthew and Mark, between a feeding of 5,000 people with 12 baskets left over and a feeding of 4,000 people with seven baskets left over.

At the end of both Matthew’s version and Mark’s version, Jesus tweaks his disciples, saying, Don’t you understand? Didn’t you get this? We fed 5,000 people and had 12 baskets left over. We fed 4,000 people and had 7 baskets left over. Don’t you get it? First of all, it’s not about bread.

This is the context between these two stories about bread is a story, of all things, about bread, about demons, children, bread, dogs. This is a story about a feast. It’s a little bit disguised.

We have several words in this story about the Syrophoenician woman that point to banqueting. One is that the master’s table from which the crumbs slip down to the dogs. In Greek, that’s the very word that’s used of a banqueting table. It’s a specialty word in Greek. It refers to a banqueting table.

When the girl is recovered from the demon, she’s placed, in some translations, a bed, some say a couch, and the word in Greek is the word that’s used for the couch upon which people recline at a feast. What has happened is that at the end, the healing is not just that the demon has left, but that the daughter is placed reclining for the feast.

This story is also preceded in both Matthew and Mark by a curious debate.

Jesus is in Galilee, which is north of Israel. It’s in the modern country of Israel near to the border with Lebanon. Jerusalem is far south, but some elders and Pharisees have come out from Jerusalem to meet Jesus, specifically to grill him on the way that his disciples eat with, it’s often translated as, unclean or defiled hands.

Now, the word in Greek is “Koinon”, which means common or shared. The problem with the disciples is that they’re eating with just anybody. They’re not eating like good Jews are supposed to eat. Separating themselves from everybody else. Cleaning themselves of the common dirt of the world. Blessing the food at the beginning. Blessing the food at the end. Following a careful protocol. Jesus’ disciples don’t do that.

Now here’s Jesus in immediately the next little section of text. Meeting with a woman who is not a Jew. She’s a single woman. She’s a single mom. She’s got a problem. Her daughter has a demon. She comes to Jesus because she figures that he can help. He’s been helping all kinds of people with problems. So she comes to him. She doesn’t get someone as a middle person. She doesn’t have a male relative who comes to him. This means basically that she’s living on her own. She is isolated. Possibly by her daughter’s affliction.

She has a real problem. She has a real need. At first, Jesus response to her seems kind of strange. Because he says you don’t need help with the demon. There is no demon. He doesn’t dismiss her. He says it’s not right to give the children’s bread to the dogs.

It sounds like Jesus is being a little mean. I have heard in the past year, like four sermons on this, that really dwell on Jesus use of the word dogs. As though he is accusing this woman of being a dog. Which, maybe he is. But it’s also quite possible that just having come from this debate with the Pharisees about defilement and what makes one clean or unclean, which he says is what comes out of you and not what goes into you that makes you clean.

If you remember that from a couple of weeks ago, now he’s faced with this woman and he says this thing, and I think that we could interpret this as being a bit of irony. Matthew reports that Jesus is with his disciples and they play kind of gatekeeper role. But in Mark, it’s just the woman and Jesus. Still, I think that we can imagine that his disciples are with him when Jesus says it’s not right to throw the food of the children to the dogs. With maybe a little sly look at his disciples to see whether they got the message which is to share with everyone.

The woman at any rate does get it. She sees this as a riddle and she answers it in a riddle fashion. She says, even the dogs get crumbs. Just maybe, she understands what the disciples don’t. Which is that Jesus is talking about sharing and he is talking about food, but he’s also talking about bread in a cosmic sort of way, in a, you might say philosophic sense, that it is that which gives one life, and that is the abundance of God. Amen.

It is the property of God that God is abundant, but one of the things that is difficult to grasp is that God’s abundance is not everywhere and in all places at all times.

I think of one of those nature documentaries, you know with David Attenborough, maybe. Here, the fig tree has come into its full ripeness, and now the monkeys feast for the day. But, when the figs have all gone, the monkeys are left with nothing, and they must go to the next fig tree, which is ten kilometers away. And how do they find it? By the smell of it.

Well, what is the smell of it, but the wind, the breath, the spirit in the same way we need to be directed to God’s abundance wherever we can smell it out and be guided to it by the Holy Spirit reaching to us. If you ever remember those cartoons where the odor of the pie would come to the person and draw them away, we should be drawn by the Holy Spirit to God’s abundance.

This woman has recognized that, she gives a proper answer. If you are receiving the bread of life, what’s the difference between a big slice and a crumb? It’s infinite. It’s God’s eternity. You can’t break it down into pieces. The crumb will be enough.

Now, let me say that there is an abundance of riches in these five verses, which I am not plumbing here.

I would be delighted to discuss this at much greater length with anyone who was interested. But now, I want to come back to the basic point. We are called to change our minds. That’s the meaning of repentance.

It is, in Greek, it is “Metanoia”, to change the mind. We are called to change our mind. God’s rule is all around us. We do not need to fear scarcity. If we seek God’s abundance, we will find it. We must find ways to seek God’s abundance and support others in their search.

Those who have ears, let them hear.

This Sermon given by Mark Achtermann

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Church of the Apostles will be hosting “Mocktails & Meaning”, a social group forming to discuss current topics while sipping on delicious mocktails.

The purpose of this group is to provide an opportunity for community – to discuss current topics of interest both in terms of learning more about them but also considering the different nuances of each topic in terms of who benefits and who might be hurt by the current system/process.

While registration is not mandatory, we encourage you to register in advance to assist us with event planning. Please look for the individual registration link under the event tabs. We look forward to sharing these meaningful evenings with you!

As I was thinking about our theme that love accepts, I thought about 1 Corinthians 13.

So, I started reading that in different versions of the Bible. The one I particularly liked, the version out of the Amplified Bible, I’d like to talk about it. 1 Corinthians 13 is often a scripture that we read at weddings because it defines love.

But you know, it was written for the church in Corinth, that couldn’t get along. It was written for a church that picked fights with itself and blamed each other for issues. Paul wrote this to remind them of who they were meant to be.

Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening]. 

– 1 Corinthians 13 (Amplified Bible)

What I liked about the amplified version is what it put in the parentheses, or brackets, it added text in brackets. I think that’s powerful. I think this leads us to important questions.

What happens if we accept all things as they are rather than judging them for what they are not?

Accepting all things doesn’t mean approving all things. You can accept, but is doesn’t mean you need to like it. It doesn’t mean you need to approve or condone it, but you can accept it and let it be what it is. Respect what it is, even if you don’t understand it. It does mean giving ourselves and others grace and accepting our own limitations because we may need to accept what is true about us.

Today’s scripture from Luke could be called a tale of two sisters.

First we have Martha. It just tells us that they’re sisters, but everybody has a perception that Martha is older. It’s very interesting. It sort of makes sense based on how the story plays out. Older sisters or firstborn have a tendency to be rule followers. They have a tendency to be very dutiful. They’re people pleasers. They understand the cultural expectations on them. Martha being a female in this culture understood that when 13 people show up at her house, without invitation, then she needs to provide hospitality.

Hospitality looks like having some kind of food and beverages, so somebody needs making start making pitas and somebody better grind up some hummus because we got 13 extra people at the table. That, I think, was Martha’s mindset.

Then there’s Mary. Mary is generally perceived as being younger, something about younger children or the baby of the family, they tend to be more playful. They tend to be a little bit more self involved or self interested. They’re going to make sure their needs are met. It’s not always true, I’m talking in generalizations, but the baby tends to behave differently in a situation.

So, here are these two sisters. Martha goes to work in the kitchen. She’s about feeding everybody. Mary sits down in the living room and decides to listen. Actually, what happens in this is perfect example of triangulation. Martha is mad at Mary, but instead of talking to Mary, she talks to Jesus.

But in this version by Vermeer, what I love is you can’t tell the differences in age. Vermeer has Jesus look at Martha and gesture to Mary as if he is trying to connect them. He hears Martha, but he acknowledges Mary. Like there’s not, there’s not a, a right and wrong. Somebody needs to make dinner, but somebody needs to listen to what Jesus has to say.

Both roles are important. There’s not a good versus bad. There’s not a victim perpetrator. They’re both appropriate. Jesus kind of tries to smooth that through. That’s what Vermeer is trying to show.

I also really like this picture because that is not what I think we expect Jesus to look like. First of all, he looks very Jewish, but he doesn’t look like a savior. He doesn’t look like the superstar. This isn’t a Jesus that you’re going to say, Oh, wow. I want to see that guy. I think that just challenges us a little bit about Jesus.

But I thought about this story in the larger context of Luke, and I thought it’d be very interesting, and I think it’s a good short study for us to compare this story with the parable of the Good Samaritan because this comes immediately after the parable.

When writers put things like that together, it’s good to step back and say, are we supposed to learn something from this? Is there a deeper meaning in the fact that these are put together?

I’m not going to read the Good Samaritan story to us, but think back to the parable of the Good Samaritan. Does anybody remember what the problem was? What was the issue that needed to be addressed in the Good Samaritan? There was an injured man laying by the side of the road who needed help. What do the Levite and the priest do? Does anybody remember what they do? They walk away. They choose not to engage. Their attention is somewhere else. They say they crossed to the other side of the road and kept going.

It sounds like they saw it. There’s good reasons for a priest not to touch an injured body, especially if there’s blood obvious, because if he touches blood, then he is unclean. It’s like having COVID for a week, he has to seclude himself and do all of this ritual cleansing thing till he can go back to work. So it’s easier if he doesn’t get involved.

What does the Samaritan do? He takes him to a hotel. He takes care of the mans wounds and pays someone to continue to care for him for two days. He gives him two days wages to take care of them and says, if it costs you more than that, I’ll even pay that. So he provides all the care.

Now let’s go back to today’s story.

Where was Martha’s attention? Martha’s attention was in the kitchen. There was stuff to be done. I do know what I would do if 13 people showed up. That used to happen when the kids were little, right? Suddenly my yard is full of kids and guess what? Somebody’s hungry, which if somebody’s hungry, everybody’s hungry and everybody needs snack. That’s just what you do. You just start pulling out snacks and you bought them at BJ’s in bulk and here they are. Today’s snack is cheese doodles.

What’s Mary doing? Where’s Mary’s focus? Jesus. Mary’s focus is on the guest, right? Mary is also doing hospitality, but she is doing hospitality for the person. She’s not involved in all of the other things. She’s involved in listening. She knows that there is something to be learned here. It’s not really clear whether Mary and Martha knew Jesus and the disciples before they walked in, except that the way Martha talks to him, I don’t think you would get involved in that kind of a conversation unless you already knew the person. Mary may even be taking care of her own spiritual needs.

But for me, it’s the issues are Where Is Their Attention?

In the good Samaritan the Levite and the priest, their attention is on themselves. I feel like that’s Martha. Martha knows there’s food to be made. She’s gotta be in the kitchen taking care of stuff.

Whereas I put the Samaritan and Mary together because the Samaritan wants to care for the person and Mary. Is giving her attention to the guest, specifically Jesus. The attention is to the guest to listening to the guests, to making sure the guest feels welcomed in that respect. Probably knowing that she’s going to learn something there.

What about perceptions? What about the perception of the Levite and the priest? The perception of Martha? Does anybody see any ties there? How those could be similar in my mind? I’ll give you my logic again. They’re tied up with what has to be done with the doing. Whereas the Samaritan and Mary are about being. The Samaritan does do also, right? The Samaritan, because he helps, he bandages the wounds and he takes the guys. So there’s some doing in there. But I think there’s a difference in perception.

I think that it reminds us that we’re to look at how we can be accepting and maybe even let go of some of the perceptions that we have of other people.

The Levite and the priest may have had a perception of the person at the side of the road. They were beyond help or maybe that’s something they see all the time. It’s almost like another dead guy to walk around. Isn’t that sad? We don’t want to get to that point. We don’t want to get to the point where we look at something and go, “there they go again. That’s just them acting out again.”

We want to be able to actually look at people and care about them, see their need, see them for who they are, not for our perception of who they are.

Because our perceptions are all based on the stories we write in our minds. Our stories always agree with the judgments we have made. That’s why there are rationalizations. We can rationalize anything. All we need is a good story and our brain, our ego will supply it. But here’s the thing to remember about perceptions. Perceptions are usually or often wrong.

Mic drop. Our perceptions are usually wrong. They may be based on old wisdom. They may be based on bad information, inaccurate information that we have gotten along the way. So we need to pay attention and we need to recognize that we can choose to let go of those perceptions. That is a choice. That is a choice that is ours.

I hope that you can take some wisdom today from Simon and Garfunkel. Slow down. You move too fast. You got to make the morning last.

We have to slow ourselves down to see what’s around us. We have to stop to listen to the stories of others. Because then we might even learn something. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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This is the first Sunday in this series called Linked By Love, where we are going to be focusing on some gospel passages of Jesus so we can hear what Jesus says and some other passages out of the epistles that remind us of who we are to be.

I went down a rabbit hole in Google and I ran into The Barn, a congregation near Allentown that’s led by a UCC pastor.

I read their About Us Story and I want to read you the short version of their story. They write The Barn began as a place where a diverse group of people could come together in a sacred space that encouraged and welcomed questioning, exploration, creativity, loving relationships, open communication, various opinions and mutual respect. It was a purposeful invitation for people who were open to God to come into an exploration of God into a safe space where people could disagree in love, where all people were valued as a child of God, where perspectives and worldviews were viewed with mutual respect. Where everyone was encouraged to be a teacher and a learner and a place where all were encouraged to be genuine, creative, expressive, and active participants.

When I read that, I said to myself, “I want to be in that church!” Then, I said, “WE can be that church!”. That’s what our mission and vision lead us to. We can be that. We’re not there yet. But we can go in that direction. That can be our aspiration.

Today, we’re to talk about bearing with one another.

When I took Colossians 3:12-17 to the worship commission, I remember when we read this one, they were said “Well, the whole thing is good.” The whole thing is this is one of these feel good scriptures, right? That’s who we need to be. But I said, “Yeah, but what is the one verse that we need to focus on the most?” That is the scripture that’s on the top of your bulletin, way back in the beginning, it’s verse 13. “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

We tend to talk about forgiveness a lot in the church. But here’s my concern. I’m not sure that we all know what that means or how that feels. I’m not sure that we really know what forgiveness is about. I question how many of us actually need to forgive ourselves because we can’t forgive others. If we have not forgiven ourselves, if we hold guilt and shame about something we have done, or use the old confessional language, something we have done or something we have left undone, then we have to clean up us first. We have to do our work.

The church, we just talk about needing to forgive others. It’s lofty and it sounds wonderful. It is wonderful because when we really experienced forgiveness, we will find a peace within ourselves that is like nothing else in the world. But we can’t have that or share that with anyone else until we find it ourselves. So the first thing we have to do is work on ourselves.

I’m going to use the words ‘Protestant Oppression’. What that means is that the Protestant church has taught to try to shut down emotions. Growing up, emotions were not allowed in my house unless it was joy. For you younger ones think of Inside Out. Think of the first Inside Out movie where joy has to be in charge. It has to be joy or nothing. That’s problematic because we do get angry, but we feel anger, we feel hurt, we feel pain, we feel shame and guilt and all of those things. But if we don’t do something with it, then it stays in us. If we don’t direct it correctly, it’ll come out sideways and embarrass us or hurt someone that we don’t want to hurt.

I’m also going to tell you today, that I want you, when you feel something hard, when you get hurt or when you realize you’ve hurt someone else or done something you wish you hadn’t done, I want you to go through that emotion.

What I mean, I want you to really feel it in your body. I was never taught, nor did I teach my children. They’re learning through their therapists as I am learning through mine, how to go through these emotions. But you know what? There is nothing that has ever been hurt by stomping your feet as hard as you can or laying on your bed and kicking your legs, or punching the pillow, or punching the mattress. You can even, for those of you that feel like that’s a bit too much, too much feeling too quick, if you clench every muscle in your body and then let go, you will get an immediate release.

That’s about letting go of these hard emotions. Letting go, because we have to, we have to get rid of those before we can start to feel the peace within ourselves. Here’s the next big thing. This is the key to everything.

Hurt People, Hurt Others.

We need to remember that about us. When we’re hurt, we have the potential to do damage to others. When we are hurt by someone, we need to remember this, because that’s where we’ll find our compassion. I believe that very much. I think that’s at the heart of this. Jesus was about compassion and love. Which again, is like forgiveness. It sounds lovely, and it’s high ideals. But to help us get there, this is the key. I’d like you to write it down, because I want you to remember it. I actually heard it as, “Hurt People, Hurt People.” But I’m going to say “Hurt People, Hurt Others” because I’ve seen dogs hurt and I’ve seen other things hurt.

We have to be healthy and we have to remember that those who do damage are hurt. I thought about this this morning as I was getting ready. I thought, what am I missing? Am I missing anything that was in the news that I should be addressing?

Two shootings, school shootings.

I need a moment of compassion before I speak. A hurting person in Kentucky firing at the interstate randomly. We have to remember “Hurting People, Hurt Others.” That’s where we’ll find our compassion.

All that being said, now I’m going to say, forgiveness is not forgetting. That is a bad cliche that is done more hurt than anything. Forgiveness is not about forgetting. People have to be held accountable for what they have done. For the hurt they have caused. But we have to remember as we hold them accountable that there is a reason that we may not know yet. We may never know. They may not know if they’re not self aware of what’s going on inside of them.

Not the sermon you expected to find today, was it? But I need to remember, when I encounter people that are hurt, or people that are hurting others, I need to remember this. Because that’s where I’m gonna find the love. Because this bearing with one another, means “When you hurt me, I have to still love you because we’re together.”

This is the work of the gospel, and it needs to not just be in our heads. It needs to be lived.

We need to do this in our lives, with our lives, with the people in our lives. I looked up this scripture in the message. Cause I love the way Eugene Peterson kind of cuts to the chase on something. The one verse that I loved is Colossians 3:15. He made none of this going off and doing your own thing. It’s not about I’m mad, so I’m going to take my toys and go home. That’s not the work of the gospel. The work of the gospel is, “Wow, you hurt me and we need to figure out how we’re going to go forward together in a relationship.”

That kind of stuff I think happens in marriages a lot. We’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to live together. Through it all, the other important verse is Colossians 3:14. So once you’ve dealt with the emotions, close yourself with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

That’s who Christ wants us to be. We know, and God knows. God knows that we are not perfect. This Bible, sometimes we just look at this and we talk about all the wonderful things God tells us in it, but it also is full of people, not just Peter, because I do like to pick on Peter, but it is full of people who hurt others. Who made mistakes, big ones. Jonah jumped in the sea to get away from God. God laughed, had him swallowed and spit him out on the shore where he needed to be. It’s full of those. We got to remember that this is the good news.

God doesn’t get mad at us when we make mistakes. God doesn’t get mad at us when we fail, because all of our mistakes and failures are meant to help us grow. What God hopes for us is that we will grow into mature disciples. We can’t just stick with what we heard in Sunday School and Kindergarten. We got to take this and take it seriously and go deeper with it.

So the question is, is there something that you need to forgive yourself for?

Because if there is, you need to find someone you can trust and tell them you need to confess it. Has to be somebody you trust. It has to be somebody you know isn’t going to use it against you. Isn’t going to tell the rest of the community. Isn’t going to make a show of it. But you need to tell them. Because you need someone who’s going to hold you accountable. So you don’t do it again.

To redeem mistakes, we have to name it. We have to learn from it. And we have to protect it. Not do it again. That’s redemption. That’s forgiveness. That is love. May it be so

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