February 21, 2010 - Lent 1, Year C (RCL)
This week
we saw one of those media events
that has become almost commonplace
in the last few months.
A celebrity stood up at a press conference
and apologized, or to use religious terminology,
confessed
his sins.
In particular,
his infidelity.
You probably know who I’m talking about, Tiger Woods.
His apology on Friday
made news
around the world;
Google had aver 12000 news sources reporting it;
the BBC decided that it rated a headline;
major TV broadcast channels broke into their normal scheduling to show it.
Vanity Fair noted that it was compelling, but questioned whether
it was really news.
But people watched,
and heard the golfing star say
"I knew my actions were wrong but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting, instead I thought only about myself....I was wrong and I was foolish."
This week
is the first week of Lent,
and if you asked most people
what they think of in Lent
they would probably answer
giving up something - preferably chocolate,
though I’ve seen a bunch of people this year
giving up Facebook.
Dig a little deeper, especially if they went to church on Ash Wednesday,
and they might say something about confession or penitence or repentance.
Lent points us toward death, the death of Jesus Christ
which brings us forgiveness.
It’s a time
when as part of our preparation
for the annual remembrance
of Christ's death and resurrection
we prepare
by confessing our sins, known and unknown,
things that we have done
and have left undone.
We confess the mistakes we’ve made,
the commandments we’ve broken,
the actions we’ve deliberately taken
knowing they were wrong,
and the times we could have done something right
and didn’t.
“I was wrong and I was foolish.”
And the point of all this confessing isn’t a pity party,
or some sort of bizarre competition
to see who has the most or worst sins,
or even to publicly apologize,
though that may go along with it;
the point of our Lenten confession
is to lay out before God
those things for which we need forgiveness,
ready to receive the absolution
which God offers us
through the death of Christ.
That forgiveness
is a wonderful gift;
it’s like
we are scrubbed clean,
ready to face the life again
without being weighed down
by the mistakes we have made in the past,
it gives us a second chance,
and it allows us
to forgive ourselves.
Because, I suspect
that’s one of the hardest things we deal with.
Often, when we mess up our lives, we
get hooked into a cycle of “if only”.
If only I hadn’t said that.
If only I hadn’t been so stupid.
If only I’d made a better decision.
If only.
It’s one thing
to confess.
To say to God
“I messed up.”
That’s healthy.
It allows us to be honest with ourselves and with God
and sets us free to move on, confident in God’s forgiveness
and assured of God’s help
as we continue our lives.
It’s another
to get trapped
in the “if onlys”
You know how it goes.
You get bogged down.
You can’t forgive yourself.
It becomes
a self fulfilling prophecy for the future.
And so a huge part of confession
is letting go
of the “if only”s.
Because like it or not,
we’ve done what we’ve done.
We can confess,
we can make amends, but we can’t turn the clock back.
But, and it’s a huge but,
we can move forward.
We’re not doomed
to keep repeating the patterns of the past.
Confession - not to the media and public, or even to one another,
but to God, God
who is not only able to forgive us
but is able to change us.
That’s the trap, isn’t it?To be sucked into thinking
either that we can change
all on our own,
or that we can’t change and we are doomed.
It’s a nice idea,
that all we have to do,
is confess, and we’ll be fine.
We’ll have the willpower
to resist temptation,
somewhere within us
is the strength
to do things differently this time.
But you know how it is.
Doesn’t matter how good your intentions.
There’s every chance that, faced with the same temptations
we’ll make exactly the same response.
Anyone who’s ever smoked
knows how it is.
You get into a situation of stress;
you think, just one, and you’re hooked again.
Or, tell one lie,
and suddenly you’re having to add another, and another, all to keep the first one believable.
It’s just too hard.
We human beings, when we’re tempted, we tend to give in.
That’s why, in a way, Jesus isn’t a good model for us.
Because when he was tempted
he didn’t give in.
There he was, all alone in the desert,
with these amazing temptations
that were, really, good -
to be able to make bread from stones,
which would mean that hunger and famine
would be history.
To have power over the whole world,
which would mean that he could make justice a reality,
simply by ordering it.
To leap from the pinnacle of the temple, and have the angels catch him, so that everyone would know without a doubt
the power of God.
But Jesus resisted the temptations, sure in who he was in God,
and who he was called to be.
It’s a little harder for us.
As much as we might like to like Jesus, with that sort of strength of will and character, we know we’re not.
We can’t do it alone.
That’s why groups like AA function so well. Because they recognize
that as important as confession is, it’s just the first step.
It’s something we have to do, to acknowledge we’ve messed up,
but we can’t deal with it on our own.
We need help,
help from the community
and help from a higher power.
And here in the church,
we name that higher power
as God.
When we sin,
and when we confess,
if we don’t want to do it again, we need the community to support us
and we need
God’s help.
And that’s what we get.
When we confess our sins,
we ask God to help us to live a new life.
And God hears our prayer
and answers us,
giving us, through the Spirit,
strength to begin again,
to do things differently.
Of course the temptation isn’t removed,
nor is our responsibility,
but God makes it possible
for us to resist temptation,
to begin a new way of living
through the power of the Spirit.
But this season of Lent
and the tradition of confession
is not just
about the things we have done,
or even what God does
in response;
it’s about a relationship.
Because what we are doing
is putting our trust in God.
You have to really trust someone
to be willing
to be really honest with them.
Telling someone
that you’ve messed up
puts you at risk
of being rejected,
of having them decide
that they don’t want to associate
with someone like you
any more.
Confession
is putting ourselves
on the line.
It’s trusting
that God won’t say,
“Eeewww! You did that?”
But God doesn’t, God doesn’t say that.
Instead,
God says,
“Nothing you can do
will stop me loving you.
Don’t do it again,
but I love you.
Don’t do it again.
But nothing
will stop me loving you.”
Because the basis of all this,
what is behind
this season of Lent,
what matters
more than anything else in the world
is that God loves us
and wants to have a relationship with us,
a relationship free
of the barriers of sin
free of the things that we have done
that get in the way,
God wants us
to know and to trust in him,
and to give us the gift
of new life.
Thanks be to God.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2010