Narrative Lectionary Summer Series – 2 Corinthians Series, “Forgiveness”
2 Cor 2:1-10
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Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Pastor Ron Valadez
Paul continues his work of bringing comfort and hope to this baby church in Corinth. Even when Paul is bring comfort though, he never misses an opportunity to teach and correct and guide them. In this passage, the topic is forgiveness. But Paul mentions something first that is extremely important for us to keep in mind as we learn how to forgive. This is an element of forgiveness that often goes overlooked because we personalize everything so quickly. We make everything about us as an individual. (Which is why there is so much Christian music about “Me and Jesus” on the radio but I digress.) Paul here tries to widen our lens a bit as we continue this work of reconciliation. For Paul, reconciliation was never just between two people—but there is always a communal element to it as well.
Maybe it’s all the racial turmoil in the world right now but when I read verse five, I immediately thought of Dr. Martin Luther King when he wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” For both Paul and King, when someone is wronged, it is never an isolated incident, but rather, it will have an impact on the community as a whole one way or another. And until we see that, until we feel that, we will never win the battle over racism/sexism/homophobia/xenophobia, etc. It’s a we’re in this together kind of mentality.
You see this in international relations as well. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” Heck, even children’s movies teach this (see The Fox and the Hound clip below)!
A huge part of the work of reconciliation, the work of bringing people, communities back together, is this recognition that they are us, that we are them, that we are all one community, that we are all one family. And like in our own personal families, when one of us is in need, is attacked, or is vulnerable, then the whole family is—and the whole family is called to action. Not just to save the one, but to save the family. But this can only occur, if we first see one another as family.
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The following links and resources are not produced or maintained by Clergy Stuff. However, at the time of this posting, the links were active and considered to be good source material for proclamation for the text for this week. Please scroll down or click on the quick jump menu you find below. For more free worship resources & planning materials, please visit our links for RCL Worship Resources.
Contemporary Resources
Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr.
Human Family, by Maya Angelou
Forgiveness vs. Reconciliation, by Ryan Howes
A Good Read
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
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Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Readers: Paul 1, Paul 2
Paul 1: So I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice; for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you. For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
Paul 2: But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but to some extent—not to exaggerate it—to all of you. This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person; so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.