I believe in the communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins.

The Gospel is that our King and Lord, moved with compassion for us, has loosed us from the chains and prison of our sin and guilt and forgiven us all our debt. And he has done this, not by pretending that we are better than we are, or that our faults are not that serious, but by himself paying our debt, by forgiving our faults in taking them on himself.

The Gospel, the good news, is the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name. And this may be ours, not through some complicated process, but rather, as they say, we have been preapproved for this forgiveness, we cannot earn it, it is simply and absolutely a gift, a gift of his compassion.

But those who receive this gift are expected to treasure it and to share it.

The wicked servant in the parable found himself in a world of his own choosing and making. He chose, finally, to live in a world without forgiveness, and Jesus warns us that those who so choose, shall find themselves in that world, a place full of the torment of the unchangeable past, and the shackles of guilt and the burden of regret. It is only in the deep and abiding acknowledgement of our need for and God’s compassionate supply of forgiveness that we may find and hold on to the perspective and power to forgive one another.

It is in this forgiveness of sins that Christian community is founded, restored and renewed, and in the failure and refusal to be forgiven and to forgive that it is destroyed.

I believe in the communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins.

The Very Rev. Michael Hawkins is the Dean of Saskatchewan