Confession 11
July 14, 2009
Here is the presence of Almighty God, I kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient heart confess my sins, so that I may obtain forgiveness by your infinite goodness and mercy. The Book of Common Prayer.
The ever-ready-to-be vulnerable, Henri Nouwen, has this incidence to tell to help us reflect on confession:
This morning I had a pleasant discussion with David Molineau, the new director of Noticias Aliadas (Latin American Press). I mentioned to David how impressed I had been with the way the Peruvian people express their faith, their gratitude, their care, their hopes, and their love. I told him that it might be a special task for me to give words to much of the spiritual richness that I say, but of which the people themselves are hardly aware. David agreed, but added: “Living with the poor not only makes you see the good more clearly, but the evil as well.” He told me some stories from his own experience in a Peruvian parish, and illustrated the truth that in a world of poverty, the lines between darkness and light, good and evil, destructiveness and creativity, are much more distinct than in a world of wealth. [Do you agree with Nouwen's assessment?]
One of the temptations of the upper-middle-class [I might also add that this is true today for all classes of people] is to create large gray areas between good and evil. Wealth takes away the sharp edges of our moral sensitivities and allows a comfortable confusion about sin and virtue. The difference between rich and poor is not that the rich sin more than the poor, but that the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue [For example, destructive ambition to get to the top no matter who gets hurt in the process]. When the poor sin, they call it a sin; when they see holiness, they identify it as such. This intuitive clarity is often absent from the wealthy, and that absence easily leads to the atrophy of the moral sense [Note the connection between the lack of moral sense and wealth Nouwen makes].
David helped me see that living with the poor does not keep me away from evil, but it does allow me to see evil in the sharper, clearer ways. It does not lead me automatically to the good either, but will help me see good in a brighter light, less hidden and more convincing. Once I can see sin, and virtue with this clarity, I will also see sadness and joy, hatred and forgiveness, resentment and gratitude in less nebulous ways. From Gracias.
Could it be, just could it be, that the total absence of confession and moral sensitivity and sense) in our churches today is tied to our affluence? I have a suspicion that it is. What do you think?
Confession 10
July 7, 2009
Do you have a time of confession daily? Do you think it is necessary?
Acknowledging our weaknesses before God is helpful and instructive. It helps us in the humbling of ourselves before the Lord our God. It situates us in the right place as creatures before our creator, as sinners before the Holy One.
Confession works when we understand ourselves as God understands us. Deeply flawed persons who are deeply loved and graced. But beyond understanding there is agreement. In confessing my sins to God (or to others I offend) I am turning or changing my mind about my innocence before God and others. Love and grace flow to me to cover me and heal my brokenness.
Because confession takes courage and strength of character two implications follow:
1. The Holy Spirit initiates the need for it in our lives. He gives needed courage to face our weaknesses.
2. It is developed in the process of kingdom of God living. Confession can become a discipline of our lives that shapes our character in the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Holy Spirit of God, enable to confess freely and without excuses. Teach us to know what to confess and by doing so make us followers of Jesus who value integrity. Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Confession 9
June 30, 2009
Confession is an open profession of faith (Luke 12:8). It is also an acknowledgment of sins to God (Lev. 16:21; Ezra 9:5-15; Dan. 9:3-12), and to a neighbor whom we have wronged (James 5:16; Matt. 18:15) (source: dictionary.com).
There we have it.
In Exodus 19:6 Moses is given this revelation to tell the people of God: You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Peter is given a similar revelation to give to the new people of God who follow the King of kings in the new kingdom of God: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Israel failed to live as a set apart people in that they chose not to be different than people of other nations in the inward part. They looked different (circumcision), ate different foods, practiced their religion differently, monotheistically. But this differentness was not sufficient in itself to set them apart from the nations. Flesh circumcision is not heart circumcision.
In the church today, what applied to Israel of old applies to us. We too are citizens of a kingdom whose way of life ought to shape our daily living because it has taken deep roots in our hearts. The way our king lived the kingdom life is not evident among us. Alas! The record shows we are not that different from kingdoms that are dark. Our light is dim in many places. We do marvelous things to reflect the marvelous light of Jesus. Would to God that the day would come when all we say and do, everyone of us who claims Jesus’ lordship would reflect the Marvelous Light.
Let us profess our faith openly in a way that is seasoned with the salt of healing not the pepper of acrimony (Colossians 4:1-6). Let us acknowledge our sin before God, and our neighbor readily before we are caught and have to. Let us show that our holiness is not skin deep but heart-love deep. We must not fail. We have a stewardship from King Jesus to not fail. This is our prayer of confession, O King of eternal glory. Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Confession 8
June 22, 2009
Today I reflect on gluttony. Obesity in our country is skyrocketing and is a significant killer and disease promoter. More is better. Enough is a foreign and dirty word. There is an insatiable desire to take all kinds of things in, to consume and then to consume some more. We attempt to satisfy deep desires through gorging. Some want to attribute this kind of behavior (taking in more than needed while we can so that when we can’t we balance things out) in us to some primordial remnant in our DNA. The truth is, there is a whole industry that survives on our gluttony (taking in more of everything than needed). They have mounted an all out offensive against temperance. And we by choice oblige.
Beebe and Foster, in Longing for God, suggest that such behavior reflects a loss of confidence in God’s provision. We overwork to compensate for the fear of losing our jobs. We overeat… We over-consume… We supersize… If a little is good more has got to be better.
It used to be said by our ancestors that moderation is best. Beebe and Foster say temperance recognizes that there will always be more to come and that God will provide. This antidote to gluttony, temperance, when cultivated and practiced, enables us to trust and to hope in what we cannot see today. Future needs are left to God to supply and hoarding now or building bigger barns shows a lack of willingness to follow God.
Recently, I have reawakened to simply eating only what I need not what I want. A colleague said to me a little while ago when my order from the menu came in at half the amount I was expecting: “Perhaps they gave you what you need and not what you want.” Ouch. This way of looking at abundance is actually freeing. I don’t need a second helping. I don’t need another gadget. I don’t need another whatever. I need to rest in enough.
Prayer: Dear Lord, many of us are guilty of intemperance or gluttony in many of our activities in life. I confess that in my circles we minimize gluttony and use a “euphemism” for it (He has a healthy appetite, He Ioves to eat!). Forgive us our blindness. Satisfy us with yourself that we may be content. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
On Pride
June 17, 2009
This is an unusually long blog post for me. It is the result of cogitations during the last couple of weeks.
Why am I at times like this?
I think much more about myself when I should be more mindful of others? I cause pain to those I love. I’m a chicken when it comes to standing up to those who hurt others. I act stupidly. I make a mess in my life by having unhealthy appetites. Why is speaking badly of others so at home on the tip of my tongue? Why is my soul so broken?
Dare I ask it? Why is yours? Neither you nor I are the first to struggle with answers to our experience of pride.
When asked what is wrong with world, G.K. Chesterton responded with this shortest essay ever written: “I am.” The reason he was so sure of his response is because of a realistic view of his own sin, which is first and foremost a power inhabiting our physical bodies. Long ago, one of the early Christians told us that sin “tends to make that which is cease to be.”
Jeff Cook sees sin as a parasite in need of a host, which we willingly supply. As a power sin cannot exist on its own. Just like the demons in Jesus’ parable, sin takes up residence in the house of a willing host.
Early in the life of the church all kinds of saints tried to understand the reality of sin and its manifestations. So they created lists of the most essential elements of sin. One author called these elements “wrong thoughts.” Others prefer to see them as challenges to our faith. Another named them deadly sins. History finally settled on naming seven of them: Pride, envy, sloth, greed, lust, wrath, and gluttony. In these all other sins known to humanity originate. Violence and murder come from anger or wrath. Cheating and hording come from greed. You get the idea.
Why do some call these seven sins the deadly sins? Well, cogitate with me for a moment. For example, a person who is totally possessed by pride, or his heart is strongly grasped by it, will be affected at the deepest levels of his being by his arrogance. Its tentacles extend to all aspects of his life. The way his perceives everything is affected by his high view of himself and low view of others.
Do you own shares in this sin? Are you a club member in the sin of pride? Is pride running and ruining your life? We all naturally love ourselves and self-love is mandated by our Lord “love your neighbor as yourself.” But when I exaggerate this love of myself or pervert it into contempt for others, I am full of pride. Pride or arrogance is a debilitating, death-thirsty disease, gone on a rampage in us. If pride is leprosy, I pronounce myself unclean. Well, thank God that he owns all the shares in the business of raising dead people like me from the grave of pride. He raises me up in order to be free of pride as he was free of it.
The proud think they contribute more than they do. They believe they are more important than they really are. Because their own self blinds them, they are unable to recognize the contributions of others. They believe that if they think highly of others somehow they are thinking less of themselves.
One who knows wrote: “Pride is the cause of the most damaging fall for the soul. It induces the Christian to deny that God is his helper and to consider that he himself is the cause of his own virtues” (Evagrius of Ponticus). Another, who struggled with pride for a long time wrote: “pride made the soul desert God, to whom it should cling as the source of life, and to imagine itself instead as the source of its own life” (Augustine of Hippo).
Jeff Cooke adds: “the more I make my life, my well-being, my enlightenment, and my success primary, the farther I step from reality. Thus the hell-bound do not travel downward; they travel inward, cocooning themselves behind a mass of vanity, personal rights, religiosity, and defensiveness” (The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes, p. 34).
The elder son in the prodigal son story is the epitomy of this kind of pride. It destroyed his ability to connect with his father and his brother. Pride is the one sin that makes everyone ill and especially the one who has it.
When you find pride in yourself, or in others, you will also find much private thinking, much time spent alone because of disdain of others, and much lone ranger activity.
Christianity in North America suffers today because millions of individual Christians have decided to go it alone without the church. Believing they are right, they do their own thing without any accountability, any submission to authority, deeming themselves captains of their own souls, masters of their own ships, with the determination to seek their own destinies apart form others. Pride moved into their neighborhood, and became a virtue. Jesus and me and a few others and the h… with the rest of you…
If an implosion of Christianity were to take place in the West, we will find pride as the fuse that lit the movement.
The antidote of pride is humility, the subject of a future article. Meanwhile, think through with Jesus about the damage to your soul that pride is wreaking (read Luke 15:11-32; Luke 16. There are great lessons about pride here). Walk a little with the master. Look full into his wonderful face. The things of pride will grow strangely dim.
Confession 7
May 18, 2009
I have been reading Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe in Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion.
Beebe speaks of Evagrius of Ponticus (345-399) as the first to categorize the sins of humanity. They have come to be known as the seven deadly sins. He actually names 8. He also came up with the corresponding virtues that counter these sins. Here are his eight sins and the corresponding Greek: Gluttony (gastrimargia), Anger (orge), Greed or avarice (xenodixia), Pride (hyperphania), lust or imppurity (porneia), indifference or impatient discouragement (akedia or acedia–sloth), and melancholy or depression (lype).
Evagrius believed that every Christian is assailed by these eight deadly thoughts and the actions they result in. The question is how will we react to the gravitational pull of each deadly thought when it arrives? We know from experience they will arrive, all of them, sometimes with a vengeancce. Often simultaneously. None is independent of the others. At times one triggers others. All affect us in their individual and cumulative effects. The continuous effort of spiritual formation into the likeness of Christ often begins here.
The starting point in dealing with these deadly thoughts and the resultant actions is confession which is an attitudinal adjustment that makes us agree with God that we think and act out these sinful thoughts. We also humbly agree that we are not able to overcome them on our own. We need the grace of God, which enables us to do what we cannot do on our own. In the next posts in this series ( previous posts here) I will take each of the eight sin categories and the corresponding eight virtues of Evagrius and elaborate on them.
Prayer: Lord, I come to you without one plea and only under the spell of the power of your love. If the charge is laid against me for each of these deadly thoughts and the actions they cause in me, I plead guilty as charged. I am sorry that I am careless at times to create the distance that exists between us. May my confession yield the desire to love you more dearly and to obey you more readily. I seek more of your mercy and grace daily. May my confession break down any gulf between me and you. I confess so that I may receive grace upon grace, and mercy upon mercy. Receiving these I am able to withstand every attack that would take my mind captive. I set my mind on the things that are above where Christ is at the right hand of God. Lord, have mercy. Amen.
Confession 6
May 12, 2009
In Isaiah 30, God i
s chiding and promising Israel. Chiding them for seeking their protection in the shade of Egypt. Encouraging them to seek their refuge in Him. The composers of CDP offer a reflection in today’s reading upon Isaiah 30 (see below). This strophe caught my attention more than the others. I offer it by way of confession. Confession happens when a “confessee” (me) agrees with a confessor (God).
My Confession: I am reluctant, O Perfect and merciful Listener, to allow myself to be conquered by you. I would, in my flesh, much rather seek by protection with the “Egypts” of self-sufficiency, and will-power. Yet I know that rest for my soul could only come when I find my rest in you, as your servant Augustine also discovered and teaches me. Conquer me indeed, and bless me indeed with yourself.
But the Lord still waits for you
to show to you His love
as He has said.
And He, He will conquer you
so that He may bless you
with Himself.
Blessed are they
who wait upon the Lord
for they shall weep no more,
neither be afraid.
Confession 5
May 4, 2009
I did a quick search on “I confess” on the NEXTBIBLE website http://net.bible.org/bible.php and discovered these verses:
John 1:20 He confessed – he did not deny but confessed – “I am not the Christ!”
Mat 3:6 and he was baptizing them 1 in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.
Psa 38:18 Yes, 1 I confess my wrongdoing, and I am concerned about my sins.
Lev 5:5 when an individual becomes guilty with regard to one of these things he must confess how he has sinned,
Neh 9:2 Those truly of Israelite descent separated from all the foreigners, standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.
Act 19:18 Many of those who had believed came forward, confessing and making their deeds known.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.
Phi 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
What I have noticed about these verses and confession in Scripture is that more often than not is that confession is specific. When the confession is a proclamation of the truth (Jesus is the Christ, or John saying I am not the Christ), or is an admission of sin (make their deeds known), it is specific, or named.
It is good for us and we are encouraged to be specific when we confess our sins to others, and to God, to know exactly what our sin is. Naming our sins is good for us and demonstrates our willingness to take ownership of them.
What is your habit in confessing your sins?
When I’m tired I seem to be more general. Because confession demands alertness of spirit, perhaps we should do it when we are most alert. Some are more alert in the morning while others at other times of the day.
Confession 4
April 28, 2009
No one is better than Nouwen on personal reflection.
Wendy Wilson Greer compiled and edited some of the writings of Henri Nouwen in a 1999 book called: The Only Necessary Thing. This book is twice blessed since it features many of Nouwen’s prayer writings, and the thoughtful, organizing skills of Greer. In the first section called Desire she quotes the following from “Prayer and the Jealous God by Nouwen” in The New Oxford Review 52, No. 5 (June 1985): 7-12.
God’s Desire for Us
I am deeply convinced that the necessity to pray, and to pray unceasingly, is not so much based on our desire for God as on God’s desire for us. It is God’s passionate pursuit of us that calls us to prayer. Prayer comes from God’s initiative not ours. It might sound shocking, but it is biblical to say: God wants us more that we want God! The English spiritual writer Anthony Bloom (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh) says it better than I when he writes:
We complain htat God does not make himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for him, but that about the twnety-three and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer, “I am busy. I am sorry.” Or when we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at htedoor of our heart, of our mind, of our conscience, of our life. So there is a situation in which we have no right to comoplain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent that he ever is.
Nouwen continues:
So, who is more in need of our prayer: We or God? God is. Who wants to be heard most: We or God? God does. And who “suffers” more from our lack of prayer: We or God? I say it in awe but without fear: God does. As long as we continue to reduce prayer to occasional piety we keep running away form the mystery of God’s jealous love, the love in which we are created, redeemed, and made holy.
My confession: Dear God, I confess that I don’t desire you as much as you desire me. Hear my confession and help me desire you more.
Confession 3
April 16, 2009
What do you think of this text? Have you experienced anything like this? Do you think the force of the passage is compelling enough for us to do it? Do you believe confession should be done publicly in and by the church? In some churches general confession is made of sin.
Nehemiah: 9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust. 9:2 Those truly of Israelite descent separated from all the foreigners, standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. 9:3 For one-fourth of the day they stood in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God, and for another fourth they were confessing their sins and worshiping the LORD their God.
One fourth of the day (assuming it’s 12 hours) is 3 hours. Has anyone tried a confession retreat? I would like to take a Saturday morning and spend the best of 3 hours confessing mine and others’ sins.
In our Good Friday service we focused on confession, mainly for lack of love. We then wrote our sins on 3×5 cards and literally nailed them to a 10′ wooden cross at the front of the church. As we did we sang It is Well with My Soul. About 70 of us filled the cross with cards of confessions of our sins.
I confess, Lord, that our predecessors in the faith have failed to apprentice us to Jesus. I confess that we are making the same mistake. Lord, help us to change and have mercy on us. Amen.
Confession 1
March 30, 2009
Admittedly: Confession is hard to do. Is it for you?
Richard Foster, of Celebration of Disciplines fame said:
“Confession is so difficult a Discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see is as a fellowship of sinners. We come to feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We could not bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy.
But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinner we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God’s love and to confess our need openly before our brothers and sisters together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied but transformed.”
How do you practice confession in your community? Is it practiced? Should it be? If so, what would it look like?
Confession
March 25, 2009
Do you believe James? Is there room in our lives to live such unique Christian experiences he describes? Powerful and effective, do they describe our prayers?
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Frederick Buechner said:
“To confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything he does not already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.”
What is your experience with confession as bridge?
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