August 24th, 2023
Every Sunday right after the sermon, we have a time of confession.
You hear these words:
“All who truly and earnestly repent of your sins, and seek to live in love and charity with your neighbors, and intend to lead the new life, following the commandments of God, and walking in his holy ways: draw near with faith and make your humble confession to Almighty God.”
A few years ago, I attended a service where the silence was deafening during the confession. It was new. Normally we went straight to the general confession, the time when we read a public prayer together, but during this silence he invited us to confess our sins to God, alone.
I felt comforted to be among other people aware of their imperfections, who either bowed their heads or kneeled in a posture of repentance.
I was also unsure of what to confess.
I started going over my week and confessed the times I was too busy or too short-tempered. I would land on something but even that felt…manufactured.
Often I look out on the congregation and some of you appear not to know what to say either, but value the time to ponder, and some of you are so deep in thought to the point that I’m obviously interrupting a conversation when I invite you to the general confession.
I pondered this week: What can I confess during confession? What is real?
Then it hit me: My anger.
Not the What, The Who
Confession isn’t about what comes out of my mouth during that moment, but about what lives within me. I confessed that inside me, I offer a bed and free rent to my anger, never confronting it, always confronting what brings it about.
It hit me that maybe confession is not about the what, but the who, or better yet, maybe confession is about how the what (anger) impacts the who (me)….it shines a light on who the what (anger) is creating and shaping. Confession prompts me to ask, “Who is Cameron without his anger?…Who is Cameron without control?”
Maybe confession is the time when we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit to allow God to search it and make known to us what is already known to Him.
Maybe confession is about knowing and being known, dropping the walls of protection and opening the crevices to the healing light of God through Christ.
When I confess, I release. I release the things out of my control, the things that send me down the road of anger. I am reconciled with God through my repentance and am reminded how much he cares about those …..special children of his that frustrate me… and I’m reminded that I too have probably caused this same thing in others.
When we confess, we extend an invitation, asking God to come into our heart and change it.
That leads to repentance, which makes way for forgiveness.
The Gift
That’s the gift of that small time of silence. As we confess the things about who we are and sometimes what we’ve done, we’re reminded of who we’re becoming through God’s Spirit.
We’re reminded that we’re never alone, and we’re reminded that reconciliation is why God sent Jesus in the first place.
The Father always wants us back home. It’s our job to hear His call. It’s easier to hear sometimes in the silence.
Happy confessing.
Cameron+
