Several different things are happening in today's gospel story. The setting is a small seaside village named Capernaum in Galilee. Apparently, Jesus had taken up residence here. Though many Jews lived here, it was considered pagan territory.

Jesus uses any setting to speak of his experience of God. Here he's in a small home, and people have gathered to listen, including some Jewish church authorities. The evening is uneventful until a small group invents a way to have their friend be touched and healed by Jesus.

When reading such a story, I can't help becoming upset with the four men who tear up tiling in order to get their friend inside. This says more about me than about the gospel story. Yet, can you imagine someone tearing up your roof because they couldn't gain entrance through the door? Jesus and the other people present don't even seem surprised by their actions.

This leads us into the growing conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. Jesus is seen by the authorities as a maverick. He is saying and doing things that they perceive as dangerous. Jesus is making God too accessible. Speaking frankly, Jesus threatened their job security. This is serious. They had developed over thousands of years a system in which everyone knew their position in life. Everything is clear and safe. The teaching of Jesus subverts this accepted understanding causing life to be less clear and to feel less safe. God, unfiltered by the biases that the Jewish religion had developed through the years, is not recognizable to them. Jesus is blaspheming God - distorting the proper image of God.

This continues today. We get comfortable viewing God through the biases we have created over the years and have incorporated into our religion. This view of God is predictable. It appears that this predictability is threatened most by forgiveness. We seem to have dwelling within us an endless thirst for revenge, and the need to point out bad people. We usually call it justice. It is built into our God-bias. We tell people that forgiveness is available, though not for everyone, but that to get it people have to fulfill stated requirements. What we really mean is that if we can prove, or get other to agree with us, that you are bad, then I must be good. Evil is in the world, we hear people say, and it is anyone except the one making the declaration.

Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah, "It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more." I don't hear any conditions. Do you? All participate in sin, and all are forgiven. Or, Jesus in the gospel story who simply says to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are forgiven."

We begin our parish mission Sunday night. Let us take this opportunity to know forgiveness - to know love.

Here is a prayer that asks God to help us to know His forgiveness:

For the Whole Human Family

Loving God, You have made us in your own image
and have redeemed us through Jesus your Son.
As we stand in the shadow of violence and war,
Look with compassion on the whole human family.
Take away the narrowness and hatred which blind our hearts;
break down the walls that separate us;
teach us Your Forgiveness;
unite us in our common humanity;
work through our struggles and confusion
to accomplish Your purposes here on earth
so that all nations may serve You in peace and harmony
around Your heavenly throne.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen