Forgiving & Reconciling
What is it?
Confessing our sin to one another, and forgiving and becoming reconciled to one another.
"When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it."
Lewis Smedes
"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ... For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."
Matthew 6:12,14
"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
Matthew 18:20-22
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Starting Questions
How can my academic discipline make us aware of things that need to be forgiven or reconciled? (Ex. Could a statistics course help confess - tell the truth - about the racial inequities in the American criminal justice system?)
How can my class practice forgiveness with one another? (What if, after a group project, students spoke their peer evaluations to one another and apologized - if necessary - for how they worked during the project?)
Are there certain students that I need to apologize to?
What does the practice of forgiving and reconciling mean for classroom/school discipline? How could I try to implement this in my classroom?
Additional Resources
The following is a list of teacher-generated ideas of ways that this practice could be implemented in the classroom or school culture.
