Breathing Under Water: Repairing What Was Broken
Matthew5:23–24; Luke 19:1–10 Let’s talk about apologies. Some apologies ask too much of the person who has already been hurt. You know the kind I mean – the apology that is really a request for reassurance: “Tell me we’re okay.” The apology that comes wrapped in explanation or excuse: “I’m sorry, but here is why I did it.” The apology that needs the other person to manage our guilt, soothe our anxiety, and thereby move faster than their own healing allows. Most of us have offered some version of this apology at one point or another. Not usually because we are trying to be cruel. Most often we make this kind of apology because discomfort makes us move quickly. We feel like we have told the truth. We have felt the sting of what we have done. We have seen, maybe more clearly than before, the way our actions have harmed someone else. And once we see it and feel it, we want relief for ourse...