Tabula Rase

Great news everybody. God offers every sinner a clean slate each time they repent.

It's great because we're all sinners, each and every one of us. Gathered in the room tonight we had examples of adultery, theft, bearing false witness, tempting others and potential animal abuse.

(Okay, so I might be exaggerating a little - but we were still a bunch of sinners).

What does the clean slate mean in real every day terms?

It means we can live without fearing death, because what comes after death is going to be brilliant. It means that we don't have to live our lives feeling guilty, because we are truly, totally forgiven. All good so far, but - it means that we're often still missing the point...

What is the point? The point is we're all forgiven, even the people who make us angry. So God has forgiven them, but we might still bear a grudge.

Do we have the right to be angry at someone that god has absolved (someone who may well have that clean slate, that polished, shiny, spotless soul)? There's a name for people like that, and it's not a nice one. Hypocrite.

Crumbs, we're washed clean by christ, and then we go and mucky ourselves up again with hypocrisy. What a mixed up world.

Here's something you might want to try though, it's a little prayer that you might have heard before. It's commonly called the Lord's Prayer. Actually it's one part of the prayer:

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.