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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Third Sunday of Lent |
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March 11, 2007 Confessing Our Sin Lent is simply a time of seeking God. It is simply a time of intentionally practicing godly living. This requires that we turn away from sin and turn to God. We generally call this process repentance. We cannot repent of sin unless we first find the sin in our lives, which we accomplish through an intense process of self examination. We simply put our lives under the searchlight of God’s word to discern where we are missing the mark, of the will of God. Once we find our sin, we have to admit it. The Bible term for this is confession, which simply and profoundly means to agree with God. In confession we agree with God about our sin. We agree that we are sinners. We agree that we have sin in our lives. We don’t cover it up. We don’t ignore it. We admit it is there, and we face it. Without this, repentance is impossible, and without repentance we have no part in Christ. We agree that our sin is evil. One of our great problems is our ability to look at ourselves and say, “I’m not so bad. My sins aren’t so bad. I’m really O.K.” You may be familiar with the parody of that great Gospel song, “Love Lifted Me.” You recall that the song begins with the words, “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore.” The parody says, “I was sinking deep in sin, yipeeee!” This makes sin something to be joked about, winked at. It carries the assumption that it really isn’t sin. Today people march and organize to protect their right to sin. Even clergy and denominations say sin isn’t sin. Sometimes it seems the only “sin” left is to call sin “sin.” We are experts at justifying our actions. If we are disrespectful to someone, we convince ourselves “he deserved it.” If we fail to seek God in prayer and Bible study we convince ourselves we just don’t have time. If we fail to worship God, we say Sunday is my only time to rest. If we fail to support the church with our talents and efforts and prayers we convince ourselves that we aren’t needed, or God doesn’t really expect us to put other things on hold just to support the church. When we do this we are convincing ourselves that our sin isn’t sin. In stark contrast, true confession admits that sin is sin. True confession agrees with God that my sin is disobedience to God. My sin causes hurt to others. My sin stunts my relationship to God and prevents me from experiencing the full joys of Christ. My sin embarrasses the cause of Christ on earth. My sin brings shame on the name of Christ’s Church. My sin is a stumbling block to others. My sin contributes to the general malaise of this sin-sick world, and because of my sin I am as much a cause of the problem as any other person, and apart from the grace of God in Christ, there is in me no good thing. We agree with God that our sin makes us worthy of the wrath of God. In other words, we admit that we deserve to be punished and God is righteous when He judges us. In the Bible, King David was told a story about a thief who stole the single lamb of a poor man. David became livid with righteous indignation. He wanted to execute justice on the thief. He saw that the sin of the thief deserved punishment, and he was willing to be the hand of God to deliver the thief unto death. All of us, when we are honest, agree that certain acts require restitution and retribution. Justice demands not only that wrongs be righted, but also that the guilty should suffer for their wrongs in some way that will prevent them from further crimes. If this is true in our sins against other people, should our crimes against the Righteous and Holy King of Heaven go unpunished? When the prophet said to David, “Thou art the man,” David remembered his own sin with Bathsheba, and confessed it to God in that great hymn of penance we know as Psalm 51. David had been able to see the sins of others, but unable to see his own. Confession admits that we are sinners, and that our sins alone have justly placed us under the wrath of God. In confession, we agree that God hates sin, I hate sin, and I hate my sin. If sin is as wicked as the Bible portrays it, we should not be surprised to learn that the One who is of purer eyes than to look upon it hates sin. He hates it for all the suffering and death it causes to people. He hates it for putting children to bed at night in fear and hunger. He hates it for making the streets of our cities crime-filled death traps. He hates it for the abuse it causes to other people, for the way it causes us to use and discard people like paper plates. He hates it for the wars and oppression, and crime, and hate, and grief and loss it has caused through the blood stained millennia of human history. Do we not hate this sin? And not just sin in general, but our own sins in particular? Can we not say with tears the General Confession of our Communion service, “the remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable?” Repentance is not complete, confession is not complete until we confess that we hate our sin as God hates it. God help us to confess our sin. In the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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