Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 13 July 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay
Last
week we spoke about forgiveness.[1] I shared many stories from
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. I cut the sermon short
in interest of time. There are many more stories to tell. Forgiveness and Mercy
I believe are central to all of Christianity and without it there is no future.
To experience the joys of the Kingdom of God we need to live in a world of
forgiveness. Jesus says, Luke 6:27-30: “But to you who are listening I say:
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to
them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt
from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to
you, do not demand it back;” Luke 6:35-36: “But love your enemies, do good to
them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward
will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to
the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
You
know that Susan and Heather have been away for a few weeks. As well as visiting
family in Victoria, we have been staying in various campgrounds: the previous
two weeks we were an hour or so west of Campbell River and before that
Raftrevor. I have been splitting my time between being with them and coming
into work here: it was much easier when they were in Raftrevor than an hour west of Campbell River – also there were outlets and internet in Raftrevor!
Next week they are 3 plus hours away – I will wind up spending more time here,
while they are there. There is much to do (this week: volunteer appreciation,
Summer Rain, Colour Fest, …) and it is challenging to be in two places at the
same time – but it is good to spend family time camping outside and in the
weather.
The
other week when we were in one campsite a family moved into the adjoining site
for the evening. They were a husband and wife, a seven-year-old and a
four-year-old from California. He is a carpenter, and she is a university
professor; the mother is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English and Dad is
bilingual Spanish and English. I laughed in joy as I said “your kids have got
it made! Carpenter, College professor, multi-lingual.” Maybe. The conversation
then shifted to what is happening in the USA right now and California
specifically. ICE agents are active on the college campuses. Her students are
afraid. Especially Spanish speaking people and people of colour: they are
carrying passports around with them. She said even university professor
colleagues are afraid if they aren’t from the USA. (My cousin is a Math
professor in Oregon. I know he is also really concerned.)
They
told me what things were like for them in California, speaking other languages,
and mom and children being Asian in appearance. One story they told me was
horrific and at first, I missed the punch line. They said that a year ago when
they were going home to the USA, they were stopped at the border. Mom was
driving. The border guards saw her and her children and moved them to a
particular line of vehicle traffic. They noticed that everyone in that line was
a person of colour. The customs official then saw dad, who is ‘white’ in
appearance and moved them to the other line. This struck me as horrible. I
immediately thought of the stars that the Nazis placed on people in the 1930s
and the radio shows in Rwanda in the 1990s, Apartheid in South Africa; post 9-11,
McCarthyism, or so many other examples from the USA. The kicker for me in what
they were telling me about crossing the boarder was this: that horrendous
event, that racial segregation at the border, that was from before Donald Trump
was re-elected. The USA has been walking down this road for a while now.
Also highlighted
in the news lately is ethnic cleansing / genocide that has been continuing in
Gaza and Palestine for decades. I have one horrific story from an Israeli attack
on a hospital that I will share with you another time – the theme of that story
is how Israel’s bombing of a hospital on live TV and the killing of a Palestinian
doctor’s daughters’ saved the lives of many; just as Rome and Israel’s killing of
our Heavenly Father’s Son made it possible for us all to be saved.
My
story today is as told by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I have been reading a lot of
his writings lately – I have been camping with no internet! - he tells us
Bassam Aramin’s story[2]:
At the
age of twelve, Bassam Aramin watched as another boy his age was shot and killed
by an Israeli soldier. In that moment, he felt a “deep need for revenge” and
joined a group of freedom fighters in Hebron. Some called him a terrorist, but
he felt he was fighting for his safety, his home, and his right to be free. At
seventeen, he was caught planning an attack on Israeli troops and sentenced to
seven years in prison. In prison, he only learned to hate more as he was
stripped naked and beaten by his prison guards. “They were beating us without
hatred, because for them this was just a training exercise and they saw us as
objects.”
While
in prison, Bassam engaged in a dialogue with his Israeli guard. Each thought
the other was the “terrorist” and each equally denied being the “settler” in
the land they shared. Through their conversations, they realized how much they
had in common with the other. For Bassam, it was the first time he recalls
feeling empathy in his life.
Seeing
the transformation that took place between him and his captor, as they
recognized their shared humanity, Bassam realized that violence could never
bring peace. This realization changed his life.
In
2005, Bassam Aramin cofounded a group called Combatants for Peace. He [had]
not picked up a weapon since, and for Bassam this [was] not a sign of weakness
but of true strength. [Then…] In 2007, Bassam’s ten-year-old daughter, Abir,
was shot by an Israeli soldier as she stood outside her school. Bassam says,
“Abir’s murder could have led me down the easy path of hatred and vengeance,
but for me there was no return from dialogue and nonviolence. After all, it was
one Israeli soldier who shot my daughter, but one hundred former Israeli
soldiers who built a garden in her name at the school where she was murdered.”6
Forgiveness
is not weakness. Bassam Aramin could have given into the same temptations that,
after decades of children and friends being murdered by Israeli soldiers and
politicians, Hamas did this past year. But how could that help? “Retaliation
gives, at best, only momentary respite from our pain. The only way to
experience healing and peace is to forgive. Until we can forgive, we remain
locked in our pain and locked out of the possibility of experiencing healing
and freedom, locked out of the possibility of being at peace.”[3]
Hamas
drank the poison of vengeance and are suffering because of it. Israel is actively
using their response as an excuse to continue and to intensify its holocaust, its
genocide. Since the day of vengeance, Israel has slaughtered more than 57 645
Palestinians – not including the Syrians, people from Yemen, Iranians and the others
they have murdered – all with the blessing and/or material assistance from
Canada, by the way.
Jesus
says, “… Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who
curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek,
turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your
shirt from them…love your enemies, do good to them… Then your reward will be
great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the
ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke
6:27-30).
Bassam
Aramin, who cofounded Combatants for Peace, has used his own powerful
story of recognizing the humanity of his enemies to create an organization
devoted to dialogue, reconciliation, and nonviolence. This organization is run
by former Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters who say, “After brandishing
weapons for so many years, and having seen one another only through weapon
sights, we have decided to put down our guns and to fight for peace.”[4]
If one
person can put down his weapon, so can 100; and if 100 people can, so can a
thousand; and if a thousand can, why not 10 thousand? And if 10 thousand can,
why not the whole world? Mercy and forgiveness can transform the world.
Forgiveness and mercy can transform our whole selves, our whole lives.
Pertaining to our own lives here, Quoting again from Archbishop Tutu[5]:
If you
are standing before me, beaten and bleeding, I cannot tell you to forgive. I
cannot tell you to do anything, since you are the one who was beaten. If you
have lost a loved one, I cannot tell you to forgive. You are the person who has
lost a loved one. If your spouse betrayed you, if you were abused as a child,
if you have endured any of the myriad injuries humans can inflict upon one
another, I cannot tell you what to do. But I can tell you that it all matters.
Whether we love or we hate, whether we help or we harm, it all matters. I can
tell you that I hope, if I am the one who is beaten and bloodied, I will be
able to forgive and pray for my abuser. I hope that I would be able to
recognize him as my brother and as a precious child of God. I hope I never give
up on the reality that every person has the capacity to change.
[Maybe]
We can’t create a world without pain or loss or conflict or hurt feelings, but
we can create a world of forgiveness. We can create a world of forgiveness that
allows us to heal from those losses and pain and repair our relationships
That is what Jesus invites us to: He
invites us to His Kingdom of Forgiveness where we forgive others as our
Heavenly Father forgives us. He invites us to His Kingdom where we live out a
life of forgiveness, offering hope to those who seemingly have no hope; love to
those some consider unloveable, and the peace of Christ, to all we meet.
So to us today I say this: if you are
hurting from the pain of unforgiveness – it is a terrible pain; it is a terrible
pain and Christ can heal you and He will heal us as we ask Him, He promises. If
you would like to be freed from the burden of hate, unforgiveness, and sin; if
you would like to be free to from the power of your oppressor and if you would
like to be free to love your neighbour as yourself, please pray with me:
Dear Lord, please help me to forgive all
those who have done big, small, horrible and other things to myself, those I
love, and others. Please help me to be free of the chains of hate and
unforgiveness. Please help to love my brother and sister and fellow human being
dearly as You love me, so that indeed I may finally be free.
In Jesus’ Name.
Amen
[1] Ramsay,
Major Michael. Luke 23: 32-46: Forgiveness. Presented to TSA AV Ministries, 06
July 2025 https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2025/07/luke-23-32-46-forgiveness.html
[2] Tutu,
Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 34-35
[3] Tutu,
Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 32
[4] Tutu,
Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 35
[5] Tutu,
Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014),224