BLOG 7/31/16. CONFESSION: A HILARIOUSLY LIBERATING DISCIPLINE

BLOG 7/31/16. CONFESSION: A HILARIOUSLY LIBERATING DISCIPLINE

Hey, blog friends: Allow me to offer what might seem an utterly ridiculous proposition, i.e., that our confession of how imperfect we are, and how imperfectly we live our lives, and how dismally we often relate to our neighbors, or demonstrate love and caring, humility and courtesy … is really such a wonderfully liberating engagement with reality. C. S. Lewis wrote an essay, with a humorous note, on the Anglican prayer of confession in which the Christian worshipers confess that they have done those things which they ought not to have done, and left undone those things which they ought to have done, … and further that there was no health in them and that they were “most miserable offenders.”

Does that sound horribly lugubrious and negative? Or do all of us know deep down that we don’t even live up to our own aspirations and ostensibly commendable self image? The fact is that it is a ‘reality check.’ The apostle John taught us that if we say that we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. … But, if we confess our sins, that the very acknowledgement that we’ve fallen short of God’s glory is healthy and that God will, upon that confession, forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all of our self-deceiving attempts at righteousness. It creates in us a wholesome and freeing humility.

It is probably those who live more commendable lives (inside and outside of the church) that have to struggle a bit with this reality, as we seek to maintain our public image of being really on-top-of-it folk. But go to an AA meeting where alcoholics are up front in confessing to one another that they are drunks, and note how liberating that is to them. But … remember that in the New Testament there is a teaching about those of us in the church, who are also to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). Granted, it takes a colony of Christian folk, who have earned one another’s trust, to “come out” as real sinners. But, mercy! Is it ever liberating to have such a company (usually small) where we can engage in just such reality and get support—to confess to one another and receive absolution from one another. We sing “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me,” but to laugh and admit how very true that is, if others only knew all of the subliminal garbage and bondage most live with as we seek to hide even that reality.

Ah, but here is where the person and work of Jesus Christ become transformingly real. We can com out of hiding. “If the Son shall make you free, then are you free indeed.” That liberation of knowing that God really, really loves ragamuffins, loves real sinners, real hypocrites and screwed-up people, who in so many subtle and not-so-subtle ways mess up and fail, … that calls forth holy laughter from us.

But there is another liberating dimension to this. If we can admit that we are most miserable offenders, capable of messing up in almost every dimension of life, … then we are also set free to learn from our failures, to get up, to accept God’s forgiveness, and to seek to live out our calling as God’s New Humanity with new humility and sensitivity—to take risks as we seek the welfare of others, and to be the glory of God in the daily imperfect context of our lives. To embrace that we are “most miserable offenders” but at the same time are the sons and daughters of God, … gives us liberty to engage in risky and radical obedience to God’s calling to be the walking-talking bearers of the divine image. Confession, honesty, forgiveness, humility, laughter … and a hilarious new freedom: … to “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God …” (Romans 8:21).

So here’s to my fellow ‘miserable offenders’ and to the glorious liberty of the children of God. I’d love to hear back from you and hear your stories.

[If you find these Blogs provocative and helpful, recommend them to others. Thanks.]

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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