Across the Pastor’s Desk by Ken Jensen

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?” — Isaiah 43:18-19

“Watch out for the men in Columbus!” an elderly lady continually shouted as she lay seriously ill in the hospital. I was her chaplain, constantly being called upon by the nursing home staff to calm her negative outbursts. Something was always wrong. Her room was too hot or too cold. The food was not edible. A nurse’s aide failed to meet her standards of politeness.

“Watch out for the men in Columbus!”

The hospital social worker called me into her office.

“Do you have any idea what might be going on?”

“I can only speculate,” I answered. “I could never get beyond her complaints. But I wonder,” I continued, “Did something bad or regretful happen to her in Columbus as a young woman? Was her negative attitude the result of fear or resentments carried throughout her adult life?”

The Prophet Isaiah encourages us to forget former things and to no longer dwell on the past. I would prefer if the word translated to forget had been translated into, “Do not focus on former things.”

We cannot forget wrongs done to us. Memories linger. However, the past will haunt us unless we come to see it in a new light. Sins done to us or by us can only be forgiven. If not, we will be held captive by our regrets, grudges, resentments and an array of negative feelings — a fate which may have led an elderly woman to cry out, “Watch out for the men in Columbus!”

We are approaching the end of our Lenten journey to the cross. Suspended on that cross, Jesus looked down upon those who nailed him there. His response?

Said he, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

And to the thief at his side, who asked Jesus to remember him, Jesus promised, “Today you shall be with me in paradise.”

Native Americans have a philosophy: “Never judge a person until you have walked two days in his/her moccasins.”

Adopting such a philosophy, I believe, enables one to not be offended if snubbed, ignored or if something inappropriate is said or done. We do not know what might be at the forefront of another’s mind at that moment or the environment in which a person’s personality has been formed.

Neither you nor I are the center of the universe safe in the eyes of God. Recognizing this reality opens the door to forgiveness and hearts being healed.

Easter is dawning upon us. By its light, God is doing a new thing. Can we perceive it?

 

Ken Jensen is a retired ELCA pastor living in Blair, Wisconsin.