The Love that Forgives

This was an exhortation at Holy Trinity, delivered by Pastor Brian Phillips on Sunday, September 15, 2019. The image above is part of a stained glass windows at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL.

On this day (September 15th) in 1963, approximately 15 sticks of dynamite had been placed under the back steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four members of the congregation perished when the church exploded, sending brick through cars, nearby businesses, and destroying the church building.

The blast was intended to not only destroy the building, but kill members of the black or African-American congregation. The racist hatred that motivated the bombing stood in stark contrast to the sermon delivered in the pulpit of 16th Street Baptist Church that very morning. The sermon was entitled “The Love that Forgives” and was rooted in Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…’”

In the face of such hatred, which not only still exists today, but exists in perhaps even more forms, against more people, and is expressed in wider formats, than it did in 1963, Jesus commands His people to love, not only their neighbor, but even those who hate us.

C.S. Lewis summarized it well: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”