Sermon on Forgiveness

This morning as other mornings, I went out to pick up my local newspaper. While I viewed the front page, my eyes noted an article down on the right column “Coaches to join in sermon on forgiveness.” Longtime friends who coach rival high school football teams let their emotions get the better of themselves during a game. The coaches exchanged words and the officials came together after order was restored and decided to stop the game. Nearly 30 minutes after officials called the game the two coaches met on the field. They talked and hugged each other before calling their teams together at midfield. Each coach apologized to the opposing team and held a post game prayer. Really about two minutes after what happened, we looked over at each other and in that instant, it was apparent we had already forgiven each other the coaches admitted. The senior pastor at the First United Methodist Church where next Sunday’s sermon will include the two coaches, said, “The most important thing is what the coaches did by admitting they were wrong, communication to their teams and demonstrating the true, and sometime ‘hard-for-some-people,’ concept of forgiveness.” This morning as other mornings, I went out to pick up my local newspaper. While I viewed the front page, my eyes noted an article down on the right column “Coaches to join in sermon on forgiveness.” Longtime friends who coach rival high school football teams let their emotions get the better of themselves during a game. The coaches exchanged words and the officials came together after order was restored and decided to stop the game. Nearly 30 minutes after officials called the game the two coaches met on the field. They talked and hugged each other before calling their teams together at midfield. Each coach apologized to the opposing team and held a post game prayer. Really about two minutes after what happened, we looked over at each other and in that instant, it was apparent we had already forgiven each other the coaches admitted. The senior pastor at the First United Methodist Church where next Sunday’s sermon will include the two coaches, said, “The most important thing is what the coaches did by admitting they were wrong, communication to their teams and demonstrating the true, and sometime ‘hard-for-some-people,’ concept of forgiveness.”