September 4 - 2 Corinthians 7:8-16 - Sorry!

Do you have game night at your house? My family is a game-playing family. Word games, card games, board games – we love ‘em all. Gaming at the dining room table provided hours of fun and family memories, and some education to boot. How could you not learn some history from Trivial Pursuit? Calculating probabilities from Yahtzee? Or how to spell from Scrabble?

But I have my regrets about one of those games. The one I now call, ‘the Insidious Menace.’ The game of Sorry! So simple, a kindergartner can play it. So sensate, with its colorful pawns, chunky and wooden, snugly set into plastic receptacles, urged on by the crackle of Pop-o-matic dice! Yet, what did we learn from this most basic of board games? Alas, we learned to say “sorry” with a smirk. We couldn’t spell ‘facetious’ in Scrabble, but we sure could be it in Sorry! The game should really be called, “Sarcasm!” “Oh, gee, I landed on your pawn. Now I get to take your place and you have to go all the way back to the beginning. ------- SORRY!” (Hasbro later tipped its hand when it named its Sorry! Card game, Revenge.)

Paul reveals in today’s text that he had written a previous letter to the Corinthians where he was definitely not playing games. He called them to account. His communiqué had hurt them, and for a short while he was sorry he had written it. He had made them sorry regarding some issue in the church. But Paul’s regret turned to happiness. And the church’s sorrow came with conviction from Paul’s expressed concern and led to a change of mind and a healthier state. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret …”

Because we are familiar with theology and church jargon, we tend to hear words like ‘repentance’ and ‘salvation’ in one particular way. But these two words can have common, more literal and less technical usage. Metanoia, translated ‘repentance,’ can mean ‘to change one’s mind,’ or to ‘think differently’ about something. Soteria, translated ‘salvation,’ also carries simpler concepts of ‘healing’ or ‘soundness.’ Paul was saying, “God gave me some hard truth to confront you with, and I know that it hurt you to hear it, but it made you re-think your position and change your mind about the issue and you’re better for it. I don’t regret saying it and you don’t regret the changes you’ve made.”

Paul is quite something; a very healthy person. He is able to both love and confront. He can encourage and hold accountable. He retains a level of trust, even with those who have caused him trouble. Playing a game with your family is fine, if it comes out of a box on Friday nights and sprawls on the table between the M&Ms and the pretzel sticks. But otherwise, don’t play games with your relationships. Be honest, empathetic – and learn how to say, “I’m sorry.”

Pray: God of all wisdom, help me to learn how to love and confront. Help me to receive loving confrontation, and give me a humble mind; a mind willing to consider another point of view and to change at the prompting of your Spirit. Let healing and wholeness be the driving force behind the truths we share. Let confidence and encouragement be the results.