Confession Is Our Great Need If We Are to Know Forgiveness
"Confession's Power When You 'Blow It'"
(2nd in a sermon series on the "One Another Verses")
James 5:16 ("Confess your sins to one another") plus Mt. 5:23-26; I John 1:8, 9;
PBPC, Oakland, Cal
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Jan. 23, 2011
Dr. George Gilchrist, Interim/Transitional Pastor
“Pastor! Henderson here is not agreeing to disagree!”
Today is the 4th Sunday of the New Year and the second Sunday in a new sermon series about new beginnings based on the “One Another Verses” of the New Testament.
In last Sunday’s sermon, I gave you opportunity to guess whether there are 6, 26 or 60 “One Another Verses” in the New Testament. Some folks guessed correctly that there are 60 of them scattered throughout the Gospels and the Letters.
Jesus – the consummate “welcomer…”
Last Sunday’s sermon, the first in the series on the “One Another Verses,” called, "Can We Meet for Coffee?” Signed – Jesus” was built around Romans 15:7. It says… “Welcome one another as God in Christ has welcomed you.”
Via the worship screen during the sermon, we saw how Jesus “went over the edge” to welcome those whom others clearly rejected. We saw pictures of Him…
- Touching and healing a leper dressed in filthy rags,
- Asking a Samaritan woman of dubious reputation if she could give Him a drink – Jewish men NEVER spoke to Samaritan women.
- Inviting a “money-hungry” tax-collector to join His band of disciples.
An unexpected encounter at Seattle’s baggage claim
Jesus’ eagerness to welcome all kinds of people was illustrated several months ago as Margie and I were on a return flight from Anchorage to Seattle and noticed John and Marj across the aisle and several rows back. We knew them when I was pastor at Trinity Presbyterian in Anchorage before I came to the Bay Area in 2003.
When we finally arrived at Baggage Claim in Seattle, we were able to update each other on our respective lives. As we started to say good-bye, John pulled me aside and said,
"You probably don't remember the details, but I came to Trinity’s Saturday night worship service for the first time about 15 years ago. In your sermon, you said, 'I'm George and I'm a recovering sinner.' At that point, I decided that Trinity was the church for me."
Of course, I had no idea that my statement, "I'm George and I'm a recovering sinner" got John’s attention because he was and is a recovering alcoholic. John’s reflections in Baggage Claim pointed to the essence of the church. It is NOT a building or organization, but a place where folks, like you and me, are free to say, "I'm George and I'm a recovering sinner." The church was never intended to be “a museum for saints," but "a hospital for sinners!”
A “hospital for sinners” and conflict
Because the church is a “watering hole” for sinners, it’s not surprising that conflict and misunderstandings will occur. In fact, conflict comes from the Latin, confligere, meaning, “to strike together.” Conflict occurs…
"when two persons or groups have incompatible desires, hopes, and values and who because of circumstances, must move toward a closer engagement with each other."
The Bible does not avoid conflict. It appeared “in the beginning” when God created the first man and woman. He said, “You can eat of all the trees of the Garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:15-17). When they disobeyed and the Lord asked, “why,” Adam resorted to the “blame game,” by saying, “The woman You put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it” (Gen. 3:12).
Conflict existed between King Saul, his son, Jonathan and Jonathan’s friend, David.
I Samuel says, “Saul was very angry…from that time on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David…Saul was afraid of David…” (I Sam. 18:8, 9, 12).
Jesus threw a "curve-ball” about conflict (Mt. 5:23-26)
Jesus certainly did not ignore conflict. In today’s paraphrase, our Lord pulls us into a hypothetical situation by saying…“Let’s suppose you are entering your place of worship…"
If you had not read the whole passage before, how would you complete this sentence? You might say, “When you are entering your place of worship…put a smile on your face, wear nice clothes, don’t use a loud voice, above all don’t use swear words while in church.”
But, Jesus catches us by surprise and says, “Let’s suppose you are entering your place of worship to present your offering and…you remember again the grudge you have been nursing against your brother or sister in the Lord!”
We might think, “Jesus, why bring up such unspiritual matters? Why talk about conflict and the grudges I carry? I prefer to keep them in the closet.”
But, Jesus presses us hard on conflict as He says,
“I tell you, relationships are so important that you must immediately abandon your offering and go to your friend and take the initiative to be reconciled with him or her. Once that is done, return to your place of worship and make your offering to God.”
Jesus taught that right relationships with one another are even more important than presenting our offering in worship.
Conflict turns up in the "true Lord’s Prayer"
In John's Gospel, there's another sample of Jesus’ prayer life, which allows us to "listen in" while He prayed. The dominant theme of His prayer was conflict that erodes unity. In the Upper Room, He prayed with His disciples as follows…
“I am praying that they may be one. Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me" (17:21).
We discover the heart of Jesus as He prayed saying…
“My prayer is not only for those who are proclaiming the Good News about Me but I am praying for all those men and women, children and teenagers who will believe in Me in the future.”(vs. 20)
He is praying that we might resolve our conflict and be ONE as “Jesus believers.”
But, conflict as a "high stakes game," is illustrated in the Greek behind the Biblical word, "devil." It comes from diabolos, a compound Greek word composed of, dia meaning "between," and bolos for "ballistics " or "to throw." Thus, "devil" means "to throw something between two persons." Therefore, Scripture offers the following guidance when conflict threatens to divide us.
Practical Christianity from the book of James
From the epistle to James, the writer introduces the importance of confession in dealing with conflict. He writes, “Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for one another so that you can live together whole and healed" (James 5:16).
Confession means going to another person and taking responsibility for how we may have caused emotional pain in their life. Sometimes, it means simply saying to the other person, “I am sorry for what I said or what I have done. Will you forgive me?" The Greek word for “confess,” homologeo, means to “say the same thing” and to “agree, admit, acknowledge.”
Thus, conflict management refers to responsible action on the part of both parties. It includes a confession on the part of the offending one plus a willingness to forgive on the part of the offended one.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he wrote, “Forgive one another just as God in Christ has forgiven you…” The Greek word for “forgive” means to “carry grace to one another.” When we say to the offending person, “You are forgiven. Let’s start over,” we are delivering grace instead of law and judgment to that person.
Confession in Yukon Presbytery
I saw the power of confession and forgiveness when Yukon Presbytery offered, as part of a Presbytery meeting, offered a service of “Confession and Forgiveness.” Why? We, persons of Northern European descent in that Presbytery, realized that our ancestors were culpable for having traded alcohol for the furs and jewelry of Native Alaskans during the time of exploration in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. As a result, the terrible scourge of alcoholism was introduced to Alaskan natives.
On behalf of our ancestors, we confessed the sin and injustice of their actions. And the many Alaskan Natives present at the service of confession and forgiveness offered words of forgiveness to us relative to what our ancestors had done/
As you might imagine, there was not a dry eye in the room. What was said and done was long overdue. That was a powerful because the levels of trust between Caucasian and Native believers greatly increased.
For action today…Now it is your turn. What’s a relationship where you need to practice the humility of confession that healing might occur? Don’t wait! Do it now!
1 “Confession’s Power When You Have Blown It!”