Mike's Talk

...a good theme for the Thanksgiving month.....

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. When the phone rang and I saw that it was Brother Korth calling I thought, well, he is probably calling about prop eight because my wife just spoke in sacrament meeting a few months back. There is no way that it is my turn to speak already, so I answered the phone. Not a good move. I received my topic which is Luke 6:37. Specifically, “Forgive and ye shall be forgiven.” So, Brother Korth, I forgive you for asking me to speak today.

It has been interesting studying for this talk and seeing how much I needed to learn about this subject and I pray that the spirit will be here as I speak.In Luke, chapter six, Christ selects the 12 apostles. After he chooses them a great multitude is gathered to hear him and to be healed of him. Christ looks to his disciples and begins to pronounce blessings on the obedient and woes unto the wicked. In verse 37 Christ teaches, “Judge not and ye shall not be judged, condemn not and ye shall not be condemned, Forgive and ye shall be forgiven.”

To forgive is a divine attribute. It is to pardon or excuse someone from blame for an offense or misdeed. The scriptures refer to forgiveness in two ways. The Lord commands us to repent of our sins and seek His forgiveness. He also commands us to forgive those who offend or hurt us. In our quest to become a Christ-like people, it strikes me that perhaps the hardest attribute for us to learn and master is the ability to readily forgive those who have intentionally or unintentionally offended us. Many times when someone has sinned against us, we become bitter and angry. These feelings can make us miserable, even if we did not commit the sin. If we allow these feelings to stay in our souls, we will drive the Spirit of the Lord away. This is one reason the Lord has commanded us to forgive those who hurt us.

I have chosen three stories that illustrate the ability to forgive.President Spencer W. Kimball told the following story to illustrate the peace that comes from forgiving others:

In 1918, three officers of the law were murdered when they attempted to arrest several criminals. Glenn Kempton’s father was one of the officers killed. Sometime later the murderers were captured, tried, and sent to prison for life.Brother Kempton described his experience this way:

“As a young boy in my early teens, there grew in my heart a bitterness and a hatred toward the confessed slayer of my Father, for Tom Powers had admitted killing my Dad.“The years swept by, I grew up, but still that heavy feeling stayed inside me. High school ended, and then I received a call to go to the Eastern States Mission. There my knowledge and testimony of the gospel grew rapidly, as all of my time was spent studying and preaching it. One day while reading the New Testament, I came to Matthew, fifth chapter, verses 43 to 45,” which reads “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”Brother Kempton continued: “Here it was, the words of the Savior saying we should forgive. This applied to me. I read those verses again and again and it still meant forgiveness. Not very long after this, I found in the 64th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, verses 9 and 10, more of the Savior’s words. …”• which read, “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.”

“I didn’t know whether or not Tom Powers had repented but I did know now that I had an appointment to make after I returned home, and I resolved before I left the mission field to do just that.“After returning home, I met and married a fine Latter-day Saint girl, and the Lord blessed our home with five lovely children. The years were passing rapidly and the Lord had been good to us, yet guilt arose within me every time I thought of the appointment I had not kept.

“A few years ago, just shortly before Christmas, a season when the love of Christ abounds and the spirit of giving and forgiving gets inside of us, my wife and I were in Phoenix on a short trip. Having concluded our business in the middle of the second afternoon, we started home. As we rode along, I expressed the desire to detour and return home via Florence, for that is where the state prison is located. My wife readily assented.

“It was after visiting hours when we arrived but I went on inside and asked for the warden. I was directed to his office. After I had introduced myself and expressed a desire to meet and talk to Tom Powers, a puzzled expression came over the warden’s face, but after only a slight hesitation, he said, ‘I’m sure that can be arranged.’ Whereupon he dispatched a guard down into the compound who soon returned with Tom. We were introduced, and led into the parole room where we had a long talk. We went back to that cold, gray February morning thirty years before, re-enacting that whole terrible tragedy. We talked for perhaps an hour and a half. Finally, I said, ‘Tom, you made a mistake for which you owe a debt to society for which I feel you must continue to pay, just the same as I must continue to pay the price for having been reared without a father.’

“Then I stood and extended my hand. He stood and took it. I continued, ‘With all my heart, I forgive you for this awful thing that has come into our lives.’ He bowed his head and I left him there. I don’t know how he felt then, and I don’t know how he feels now, but my witness to you is that it is a glorious thing when bitterness and hatred go out of your heart and forgiveness comes in.

“I thanked the warden for his kindness, and as I walked out the door and down that long flight of steps I knew that forgiveness was better than revenge, for I had experienced it.

“As we drove toward home in the gathering twilight, a sweet and peaceful calm came over me. Out of pure gratitude I placed my arm around my wife, who understood, for I know that we had now found a broader, richer and more abundant life” (quoted in The Miracle of Forgiveness, 291–93).

The life of the Prophet Joseph Smith was one of personal triumph and also great personal suffering and tragedy. He was betrayed numerous times by those who were not only considered friends by the Prophet, but brothers, and who were with him during some of the most spiritual experiences ever experienced by man on the Earth. One of the closest was W. W. Phelps; Brother Phelps was chosen to publish the book of commandments, or the doctrine and covenants. He published church magazines, he also wrote 15 hymns in the current hymnal. During the trials of Missouri, he was reprimanded for misuse of Church funds and selling lands contrary to counsel. He took offense and apostatized from the church and the brethren whom he had called friends.

It was the testimony and betrayal of Brother Phelps that led to Joseph and his associates being jailed in Richmond under General Clark and Governor Boggs. They were charged with, among other things, murder. Mr. Phelps, along with Peter and David Whitmer, and Oliver Cowdery, were ex-communicated and told to leave the fellowship of the saints. In 1840, Brother Phelps realized the error of his ways and wished to return to the church.

He wrote the prophet, saying:“I have seen the folly of my way, and I tremble at the gulf I have passed. So it is, and why I know not. I prayed and God answered, but what could I do? Says I, ‘I will repent and live, and ask my old brethren to forgive me, and though they chasten me to death, yet I will die with them, for their God is my God. The least place with them is enough for me, yea, it is bigger and better than all Babylon.**** I know my situation, you know it, and God knows it, and I want to be saved if my friends will help me. Like the captain that was cast away on a desert island; when he got off he went to sea again, and made his fortune the next time, so let my lot be. I have done wrong and I am sorry. The beam is in my own eye. I have not walked along with my friends according to my holy anointing. I ask forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ of all the saints, for I will do right, God helping me. I want your fellowship; if you cannot grant that, grant me your peace and friendship, for we are brethren, and our communion used to be sweet, and whenever the Lord brings us together again, I will make all the satisfaction on every point that saints or God can require. Amen.”

President Smith’s Answer: “It is true, that we have suffered much in consequence of your behavior—the cup of gall, already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us—one with whom we had oft taken sweet counsel together, and enjoyed many refreshing seasons from the Lord—‘had it been an enemy, we could have borne it.’ ‘In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day when strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon (Far West) , even thou wast as one of them: but thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day that he become a stranger, neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.’“However, the cup has been drunk, the will of our Father has been done, and we are yet alive, for which we thank the Lord. And having been delivered from the hands of wicked men by the mercy of our God, we say it is your privilege to be delivered from the powers of the adversary, be brought into the liberty of God’s dear children, and again take your stand among the saints of the Most High, and by diligence, humility, and love unfeigned, commend yourself to our God, and your God, and to the church of Jesus Christ.“Believing your confession to be real, and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal.--*****“Come on, dear brother, since the war is past,For Friends at first, are friends again at last.’

Yours as ever.Joseph Smith, Jun.

When Brother Phelps learned that Joseph and Hyrum had been killed by a mob, he was devastated. With great power and inspiration, he expressed his own feelings, and those of the entire Church, as he penned the hymn, “Praise to the Man.” A reading of this magnificent hymn shows the love and admiration that this repentant brother had for the prophet. Had forgiveness not been freely given by the prophet how different could the remainder of Brother Phelps life have been? Would he have returned to full fellowship with the saints? Would we have the many hymns, publications, and testimony of this man? Spiritually how would this mans life have ended? I submit that with the forgiveness of the prophet and the ability to use the atonement this dear brother’s soul was saved.

The third and, without doubt, the most supreme illustration of an act of pure forgiveness comes, not surprisingly, from the life of the Savior. After all his teaching and his many works of kindness and the mighty miracles he wrought among his people he was rejected by the people and betrayed by one of those who was chosen by him as an apostle. In the time of his agony on the cross of Calvary, with vile and hateful accusers before him, those who had brought him to this terrible crucifixion, he cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.)President Hinckley has said none of us are called on to forgive so generously, but each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy.

The Lord has declared, “My disciples, in days of old, sought occasion against one another and forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were afflicted and sorely chastened.“Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.“I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.“And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.

Why would the Lord command us to shed the old tradition and the measures in the Law of Moses which state and eye for an eye? There are two reasons that immediately strike me as significant. When we forgive someone who has trespassed against us and has come to us to ask our forgiveness we help them to heal and we heal ourselves.

One of the best stories of the two-fold nature of forgiveness is told by Corrie ten Boom, a Christian woman living in Holland. She was arrested by the Nazi Gestapo for hiding Dutch Jews during WWII. She was sent to a concentration camp. Her remarkable story is told in her book, THE HIDING PLACE.

Years after the war, she went to Germany to speak to congregations and testify of the loving and forgiving nature of God. It was at one of these meetings where her Christian character and professed belief in forgiveness were ultimately tested.In her words she recalls the following:

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him—a balding, heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland, to defeated Germany, with the message that God forgives.It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is not far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown. “When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, forever…”The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe.

There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.

And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights; the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor; the shame of walking naked past this man.

I could see my frail sister’s form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsy, how thin you were!

Betsy and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent.Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea.”

And I, who had just spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocket book rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course—how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt.I was face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.“You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard there.” No, he did not remember me.“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein,”—again the hand came out—“will you forgive me?”

And I stood there—I whose sins, had again and again to be forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsy had died in that place. Could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it—I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, ”neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your trespasses.”

I knew it was not only a commandment of God, but also a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what their physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.

And I still stood there with coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus help!” I prayed silently. “I can lift up my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, reached down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then the Savior's healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried, “With all my heart!” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.

Corrie ten Boom was able to experience the warmth of forgiveness only after she put her faith in Christ by putting forth her forgiving handshake. We also must be willing to perform certain volitional acts of forgiveness in order for God to “supply the feeling”.

As I see it, there are three things we can do so that God can endow us with the spirit of forgiveness, love, and peace.

1—“Leave it alone”The Chinese philosopher Confucius declared: “To be wronged or robbed is nothing unless you continue to remember it.”Leave alone the deeds that are done and cannot be undone. Leave alone the circumstances that are beyond our control. This is the first step in preparing our hearts for the healing that God alone can give us.

2—“Do good to them that hate you”. We all know that Jesus taught this celestial principle during his ministry. I think CS Lewis offers an interesting insight to this principle:“We must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves—to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.

3—“Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart”. Charity is the pure love of Christ. President Gordon B. Hinckley gives his personal testimony that prayers will not go unanswered. In a 1980 conference report he said: If there be any within the sound of my voice who nurture in their hearts the poisonous brew of enmity toward another, I plead with you to ask the Lord for strength to forgive. This expression of desire will be the very substance of your repentance. It may not be easy, and it may not come quickly. But if you will seek it with sincerity and cultivate it, it will come…There will come into your heart a peace otherwise unattainable.”

There is one last principle I would like to discuss. Aas was stated earlier, the Lord has promised that if we will forgive others who have caused us hurt or pain he will readily forgive us our sins and shortcomings. We can use the process of repentance and, through the atonement of our master, we can be made whole. Said the Savior,” he who has repented of his sins the same is forgiven and I, the Lord, remember them no more.” With all the talk of forgiving others and gaining forgiveness from God there is a principle that is often put on the so-called back burner.

Once we have forgiven those who have sinned against us and after we have repented and received a remission of our sins from the Lord, we must be willing to forgive ourselves. Forgetting is part of forgiving. But forgiving oneself involves a special kind of forgetting. We don’t forget the sin and its effects; rather, the memory ceases to be part of how we see ourselves.

For example, when Alma had been forgiven of his sins, he said, “I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more” (Alma 36:19). The fact that he could describe his repentance to his son Helaman showed that a memory was still there. But through Christ’s Atonement and forgiveness, that memory lost its edge of guilt and self-recrimination.

We must keep sin in its proper perspective. Satan would convince us that we are defined by our sins. He would have had the repentant W. W. Phelps see himself always as a traitor. He would convince someone who has stolen that he is and always will be a thief. The Savior, in contrast, would have us understand that we have sins that need to be cleansed, but we are much more than those stains. In order for the forgiveness process to be whole, or complete, it is imperative that we can forgive ourselves for the sins we have committed, and that we use the memory of them to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow path.

I leave you my testimony of the healing power of forgiveness. It is summed up by President John Taylor with this short sentence. Said he, “To have in your heart the spirit of forgiveness and to eliminate from your hearts the spirit of hatred and bitterness, brings peace and joy” (quoted by Heber J. Grant, in Conference Report, Oct. 1920, 7).

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.