At Convention for The Diocese of Alabama, we were blessed with two great addresses, one by Bishop Wright of The Diocese of Atlanta and our very own Bishop Sloan.
Bishop Wright, in his address, focused on the offertory sentence in the Holy Eucharist service: "Walk in love, as Christ loved us". He ended with the words "Love the world because God does."
Bishop Sloan also centered his address on love and forgiveness. The theme of Bishop Sloan's address can be summed up in his words, "What if all those people we give ourselves permission to hate or look down on turn out to be God's children too?"
Love and forgiveness are vital to our faith. The only thing Jesus asks of us in the Lord's Prayer is to "forgive us our trespasses just as we have forgiven those who trespass against us." Jesus in the Gospels takes forgiveness seriously. In fact, as we see in the "Parable of the Unforgiving Servant", He demands it of us.
Forgiveness, however, is not always an easy thing for us. When we find it difficult to love or to forgive, we are called to pray to God for His help and guidance because there are times when we cannot do it alone.
We are also called to remember that forgiveness is a process. It may take us time to forgive, and we should take that time. After all, as Christians we are called to forgive, so we shouldn't let ourselves be weighed down by this task, but we should take the time to let Jesus in to help us to forgive others just as we have been forgiven by Christ Jesus.