Wednesday, March 13, 2019
“On the other hand, if we admit our sins - make
a clean breast of them - he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll
forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.” (1John 1:9, The Message Bible)
Someone once said or wrote that confession
is good for the soul.
It seems that every time we turn
on the TV, someone is admitting to some crime, felony, lie or misdemeanor or
dirty trick or bad judgment or sexual misconduct or inappropriate tweets on
Twitter or committing some indiscretion or doing something which he or she has
tried to hide and cover-up. Only when faced with the evidence and scrutiny that
now comes with social media, do some of these culprits come clean and confess their
sins of commission. Usually reluctantly. Often after denying it for some time. A
lot of them are men, sad to say.
They may be priests, pastors,
actors, celebrities, politicians, teachers, sport athletes, team owners – well,
the list of offenders seems never-ending. Institutions can also be included from banks
to churches to governments to armies to police forces to hospitals to just bout
any organization which rationalizes and defends its policies, procedures and
practices in the name of profit, benefit and power.
But let’s be honest here, nobody
of us really likes to confess our mistakes, our poor decisions, our self-serving
lies and exaggerations, our weaknesses, our bad habits, our character flaws and
sins of commission or omission. It seems easier to deflect the ugly little truths
about ourselves, to sweep under the rug our indiscretions and pretend that we have
never done a wrong thing ever in our lives. But we are reminded that this act
of denial is in itself a sin, “If we
claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
(1 John 1:9, New Living Translation)
Speaking about truth, we hear echoes
of Jesus’ words in our text as he talked about the grace and liberation of discipleship
and of accepting Jesus’ leadership of our lives: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
(John 8:32, NLT)
Yes, truth can be painful and
costly, especially at first. But it can also be even more painful to hold on to
a lie, to nurture falsehood, or to deny the real truth as these sorry
endeavours will eat away at our souls and dry up our spirits. We will live in fear and regret. We will
harbor resentment and hide under a false sense of security.
Truth-telling, i.e. confession,
may be difficult but it is also liberating and offers a new lease on life and grants
us shalom, a peace which surpasses all understanding, a peace which calms the conscience
and restores a fresh balance in our lives.
It is in truth-telling where we
find grace, forgiveness, mercy, closure, peace, rightness – from others and
from God.
Please note that I am referring to
the act of admitting our own faults and not pointing out the faults of others in a harsh
spirit of so-called truth-telling, I have seen far too much damage done by people
who think they are practicing the scripture verse that says we should “speak
the truth” to one another and forget the speaking the truth “in love” part of the verse. (Ephesians 4:15) Jesus has
it right, of course, “It's easy to see a
smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.”
(Matthew 7: 3, The Message Bible)
Confession is personal (although
there are occasions in which it should also be communal, a cooperate admission of
collaborative error and bad choices). Confession is about our personal relationships,
our lack of honest encounter with others and with God, our personal need for self-awareness,
correction, discipline, and therefore reconciliation and restoration, the hopeful
purging of the past and a fresh lean-into of the future, experiencing that which
we call redemption.
I have always found the season
of Lent to be a time for such personal self-reflection and candid self- discovery.
May the Lord have mercy on my soul!
Dale
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