Call To Confession Transcript

If there's one story in the Bible that if we looked up the word of confession and sin and guilt, this is one of those stories that would come to mind, the story of David and Uriah and Bathsheba. We're working through this series that's going to take us through the rest of the summer by looking at the different parts of our worship, looking at why we do them, incorporate them in as a part of worship, and how that can help us shape our individual spiritual time with God throughout the week. And this week, we're looking at that call to confession and that passing of the peace moments. Why is it that we pray a prayer of confession every week? Now, some churches, when they have a prayer of confession at all, they may do it when they have communion, to enter into the table, to dine at the table in a holy way. But we do it here every week. Why is confession so important? Why is it so important? One of the answers to that question would be to alleviate guilt. In fact, guilt has been one of the primary movements of confession and repentance in the Protestant church throughout most of its history. Guilt and the desire to flee the wrath to come, to avoid going to hell, to avoid God's punishment, were two primary means that preachers would get people to confess. It was the primary drivers of it. If you remember in the early American history, in the Great Awakening, that one of the most well-known and well-read sermons, even today, is sinners in the hands of an angry God, that at any point you are dangling by a thread, at any point God could let go, and you'll fall into the pit. And so it is far better to get yourselves right with God now, before God lets go of the threat. These were powerful messages that did move a lot of people to accept Christ, whether or not the motives were right. The problem with guilt, that being a primary motivation of confession, is that it ignores the fact that some of the things that we need to confess, some of the things that we need to recognize and repent from, are not things that we may feel personally guilty about. It may not be the driving force of why we are turning to God for help and forgiveness. The other problem with guilt from the David story is it makes a lot of sense to us to be wrong.

It is a lot of sense to be wrong. The reason that we should have done that is because of a lot of different reasons. David did what he did. It wasn't until Nathan came and had to use a parable of a man and his beloved sheep, who this man had killed, the king had the sheep killed, and Nathan saying, you are that man, before anything occurred to David, that he had something to confess. So when we mess up, when we hurt others, when we feel guilty, and the Holy Spirit is working in our hearts to cause us to sin, then we are not guilty. us to feel that and that leads us to confession that is a good thing not so that we remain in guilt but so that it can be alleviated and we are called not just to confess but to turn away from what we are doing and work towards restoration with those that we have hurt it's not just confessing our sins before God but also those we have wronged and then acting differently but like I said there are many things that we confess and pray for and forgiveness for and turning around we may not feel personally guilty about do those fields fit in if guilt is the main reason we confess you may be wondering what an example of that may be each year at annual conference before as we convene we have a member of the first nations who inhabited this land that so many Methodist churches in eastern Pennsylvania now own and now facilitate and we have a prayer of confession and repentance and a call to move forward and towards wholeness every year before annual conference and there are some that say why do we need to do this we didn't take their land we're not the ones who caused the pain the same thing for slavery why should we worry about what our ancestors did why should we call to have a called repentance and confession of God over that I don't feel guilty about this because I didn't do it so if guilt is the main primary reason of confession and repentance and we're not feeling guilty then why would we need to confess we see racial injustice in our country today that's still impacting people who are alive today even though many of the systems that were put in place though they are still maintained now in place long before we were born and there are so many out there that said why do I need to worry about this why are we talking about this now that is in the past and let us go I'm not feeling guilty if the Holy Spirit causes us to feel guilt the Holy Spirit can also open our eyes to see injustice in the world to see where the world is broken to see where the world is in balance to see where the world is not as God intended among people so that there is justice and equality for all people no matter of race religion gender sexuality or really anything else the work of the Holy Spirit within us we can open our eyes and see that and that should bother us maybe we didn't have a hand in setting it up but many of us have experienced benefits from it and if it's not about guilt it's a desire to say God if I have played a role in making the world as it is today if I have played a world and a role and in either through action or inaction through speech or or staying silent in making the world as it is today forgive me because I see that the world is not as you intend I see that the way that this group of people in our country are treated and it is not as you would would desire and I want to be a part of changing that is our call to a confession is not just saying sorry but turning away turning around and doing something different living in a different way participating in our world in a different way repentance is more than just saying I'm sorry but it is a whole being turning from one way of living to another is calling his church to be his people in a world that is broken too many times we participate or benefit from the brokenness or we just don't even see it and we go about our lives without having to think about it and so our words and our call prayer of confession that what are we doing in these moments we have two parts we have a communal confession father forgive us God forgive us for what we have done in this way and then a time of silent confession because if there's one thing Protestantism did in addition to focusing on guilt it made finding forgiveness an individual act it's between me and God and what I have done and God's forgiveness of me and so why would I need to talk to other people about my sin why would I need to make any kind of confession to someone other than God and this was a reaction against the Catholic Church in the Reformation but it became something more than that it became this driving force that the only sins that we need to worry about the only thing that I need to confess the only brokenness that I need to turn from is my individual brokenness my individual sin my individual actions and that is important we have to recognize with God and confess and turn away from those actions within us that we do personally but there's this whole other aspect that's found in the scripture in the Old Testament and new that what we do as a community how one person acts in the community can affect the whole community how the sins of the community as a whole bring everyone down cause pain everywhere we are one body made up of one many parts as I said each week as we move into that time of prayer and when one part hurts or hurts others every part of the body feels it so yes we have these personal sins in the silent time of confession but it is important to remember that we are a community we act as a community we live in this world as a group and sometimes we live in a world as a group working against God's will and so as a group as a communal body we confess we confess what we have done we have confessed what we have left undone what we have said where we have worked against God's will or just let the brokenness continue and so we pray we pray together as a body each week so that we are confronted with the things that perhaps we would rather not see the things that we're not aware of the things that we benefit from or the brokenness in the world that we can often ignore and we seek a new way the amazing thing about God's love for us and God's amazing grace is that he does not leave us in our brokenness he does not leave us in our guilt he does not leave us in shame and so if that's how you feel about confession if that's how you feel about sin and and you're living right now that you're caught in it if you're caught in guilt you feel like you've got to earn your way to forgiveness you've got to do something to alleviate the guilt on your own we follow a Christ who died for our sins so that we might have new life abundant life and be able to live as Jesus calls us he does not leave us in our brokenness he does not leave us in our guilt he does not leave us in our shame but confronts us with it and then calls us and moves us out of it into a new life in a new way of living that new way of living each week in worship begins that first act that we do after that confession of sin after the confession of the brokenness in the world and we've the ways we've participated in it our very next action is to both declare forgiveness but then greet one another in peace having confessed our sins together having confessed our individual sins having confessed the ways that we have worked against God's will in this world having had our sins declared forgiven and an invitation to new life we are able to greet one another in a new way and some of the people that we greet may very well be the people that we've harmed or who have harmed us and we greet one another hopefully free of the guilt free of the shame on a new path of restoration offering not words of encouragement or just words of hello how are you but words of I have been broken and then restored you have been broken and are restored you have hurt me or others and I still greet you peace us back together that begins the work of repair and restoration comes through Christ within us this is why our worship is shaped the way it is we gather as a community we sing praise to God and then we move into a time of confession forgiveness and peace but how does this shape your individual prayer life I once had a member of the church come up to me I don't know if the prayer of confession that we said that week was the same as the prayer of confession that we said was especially impactful or they felt it more internally than other weeks but there was one point where a man came up to me and said you know these prayers of confession are kind of harsh we confess our sins and if you read to the one in the hymnal around our communion liturgy it's we have not broken your law we have not done your will we have not heard the cry of the needy we have rebelled against your love I mean that's the one printed in your hymnal it's like we try to do things and we always never do it but we try and this confession is just too doesn't acknowledge what we try to do and in some ways I could understand where he was coming from but in others I recognize that yes we try and there are times we do exceedingly well at hearing in the cries of the needy of loving our neighbors and following God's will there are those glimpses in our life where we are doing exactly what God wants us to do keep remembering it whoそれ Jessica Evet Christ was do but there are times when we're not even close and confession reminds us of that to keep us in guilt not to weigh us down but as a truthful acknowledgement of where we are and who we are these moments in recognizing that we are not where God wants us to be yet but we can get there confess our sins not just to alleviate guilt and avoid the wrath to come but to recognize of where we are and how far it is from where we want to be as followers of Christ and so each day when we enter into a time devotion each time that we enter into God's presence in that personal growth moment do so with some time of confession to recognize God I know I have failed you I know those times that I've failed you I know those times that I've failed you I know those times that I've done your will are outweighed by those times that I have not and I want to be better I want to be more like you and here are the ways that I failed to do that and the last week in the last day last hour however often you enter into that time of confession help me to grow more in love with you help me to become more like you help me you you to be your. And so I hope that you will take this desire to be more like Christ, this calling to be more like Christ, enabled by his spirit, God's spirit, to be more like Christ and each day do better than you did the day before. And if you are feeling guilty about something, if you are feeling shame about something in those times, then that might be the spirit saying, this is something you need to fix. Contact the person you've hurt. Make amends. Rebuild as best as you can into a new beginning, a new way of living, a new way of being in relationship with God. After all, is that not why we are here on Sunday morning? Is that not why we enter into a time of reflection and communion with God in our daily life? This is the life to which we have been called. And the life that we are able to live, a new life and a new beginning.