They say it pays from time to time to count ones blessings. And that is undoubtedly true.

However, it sometimes also pays to take stock of our inabilities as well. For few can be like Compton Mackenzie who famously said - God has done a great deal for me - but there again - I have done a great deal for God. Certainly when it came to dishing out the language learning, mathematics doing and sport playing skills at birth I was sorely seen off. Which in the end I can live with - but maybe not so another inability. And that is the inability to rush to forgiveness. But the reason for my reluctance to offer forgiveness when it is unasked for and moreover not even valued may come down to two reasons. One, I am not really inspired by any particular reason to gratuitously offer it . And secondly, even if I was so prompted, I have no thought through strategy to implement uninvited forgiveness. So if you struggle with the same inability as I, what is to be done? How are we to meet the difficult if not near impossible strictures of Johns first letter? How indeed do we find that universal love of neighbour that does not devalue our own sense of self worth? Well, there are many reasons given in scripture for the need to exercise forgiveness. Most importantly, is the argument that Christ gave first so that we too may give in response. However, another reasons speaks to me specifically. It comes in the writings of the celebrated mediator Ken Cloke. This is what he says: Forgiveness is essentially a form of psychic cleansing. It is a radical act of letting go, it seeks to learn and through that - it aims to build character. Here then is an essential aspect of for-

giveness. It is to find love for others by honourably and valuably caring for self. Put another way it is retaining community with others by honouring and valuing community for ourselves. Or in Christian theological terms, it is offering release rather than another nailing. Well, if this sounds good or you feel urged to forgiveness by the other theological slants, how are going to put our good intentions into better practices? How through prayerful mediation do we let go to be cleansed? How in fact do we give flesh to our certainly that we must love because Christ loved us? Coke here is also not without wisdom. Since, he has found across a number of vexatious situations that mediation is possible through a six stage process. Firstly, he suggests that we recall frankly what happened and what we felt. For after all, if we cannot be honest with ourselves before God then where is even the tincture of love of self and of other. Next we need to suss out what the other person believed to be the situation and how they felt. Since too often the conflict looks quite different from the opposite perspective. Even if it doesnt, Johns advice in his letter surely deserves that invest of love of the other. Yet now we must do harder work. For we really need to think through our reasons for not forgiving them and what we had expected of them in the first place. This alone if done with application will get us to the nub of the issue. Then its decision time. Do we choose to release ourselves from the burden. Or are willing to play the price of its retention in terms of fear, anger and general negativity. Finally, if we decide to let go, we each need to design a ritual. This is no more or less than a mini-ceremony if you like - for the putting away, being released and the door closing. Here the cross is most helpful. For it signifies the worst of all possible personal wronging, yet it represents the pulling up of the roots of that wronging and

soaring above that wronging. Since the cross always offers resurrection from the wronging. In a nutshell, the cross display perfect love, perfecting love and perfection in love. In the Spill the beans material the Sunday school, youth group and ourselves use on a Sunday there is a suggestion of a game for the children. Its called Loving Smiles. This is how its played. All the children stand in a circle. One child stands in the middle and looks around the group. They then walk up to another child and say - smile if you love me. Where upon they have to make the other kid smile by any means possible including making faces and funny sounds. If the child smiles, she or he joins the centre of the circle. The process continues until all are in the central community and have shown they love each other with a smile. Well, I can hardly suggest the exactly same method on the streets of Broughty. Such behaviour I am sure would shock our fellow citizens even if it was a bit of a laugh. Yet let us not forget that sense of love which a smile indicates. Let us employ our forgiveness strategy in the coming week so that we and others might smile at each other. Let us be inspired again to love another as oneself. For that is very divine love that John exhorts us to show in the name of Christ Jesus. That is the love that requires release in forgiveness. The release to smile - the release to smile again the release to smile fearlessly and willingly and therapeutically - the release indeed to smile as an image the blessed laughter of God itself. Amen

Offering HYMN.......