ConfessionJames 5:16 1 John 1:9

There is an old saying that goes “confession is good for the soul”, but what the adage leaves out is the fact that confession is hard. Its hard to confess your sins to God or other people or sometimes even yourself. Confession requires discipline. Confession is a discipline. 

In fact, confession, like so many of the disciplines that we have been looking at together over the past several weeks as part of this sermon series is both a personal and corporate practice. We need to confess before God our personal sins, but we also need to come together as a community to confess where we have sinned, either knowingly or unknowingly, as a group. How Methodist! Confession is something we learn to do as the body of Christ and practice both on our own and with others. 

Confession is good for our soul, not because we have some narcissistic need to examine ourself, or because it serves some therapeutic purpose, but because it reveals to us the heart of God - a heart that desires to give forgiveness. A heart that holds the love for each of us that lead to Christ’s redemptive sacrifice on the cross. The love that doesn’t desire for us to simply stay as we are, but to grow and be transformed by our relationship with the Holy One. 

When I was home a few weeks ago, my dad shared with me a profound statement that he recently used to close a sermon that he preached. It went something like this, “Too many Christians love what Jesus did for them instead of loving Jesus.” I think this applies to what we are talking about today. If we love what Jesus did for us, we may proclaim the message of the cross and talk about how it opens for us the gates of eternity - which is true. But if we love the one who hung on that cross, we will remember who we are as a Church - not a group of saints waiting to get to heaven someday, but a fellowship of sinners, needing to strip off the masks of perfection and confess our sins to one another in order to more authentically follow the one whom our heart loves. 

In fact, today’s scripture verse from James admonishes us to do just that - to confess our sins to one another. James is trying to remind those listening to the teaching that disciplines, like confession, are practiced within the bonds of community relationship. If we don’t confess our short comings to one another, then we can get by with pretending that we are more holy than we are. And it is only after we confess how we have sinned that we can receive forgiveness.

Now, I am not implying that you need to stand up in front of the Church and lay out all of your sins for the entire congregation. But who are the small group of people you trust with your soul and its care in this congregation? Who are the people you can go to and set aside your false self and your pride in order to find forgiveness and wholeness? Who are the people you know will pray for you to find freedom from the bondage of sin? And what does healing through confession look like when you are in the presence of these individuals?

For me this looks like accountability partners - four of them spread across the United States. Four people I tell everything too, the good, the bad, and the sinfully ugly, in order to find wholeness. When they speak words of absolution over me, I am gently reminder of the loving absolution that comes from God. Who are these people for you? What makes the words of forgiveness spoken by a brother or sister in Christ deep and meaningful for you?

1 John reminds us, though, that we are not only to confess to one another, but to chiefly confess to God. However, often those that are afraid to confess their sins to other people, are also afraid to confess to the almighty. Instead of confessing their sin to God, they come with a laundry list of excuses as to why it is not their fault, why it really wasn’t a sin, why God should excuse them. Or they generically pray for confession instead of concretely bringing specific sins before God. These folks don’t find absolution, my friends, because they don’t believe in their heart of hearts that they need to be absolved, so they continue to carry around the weight of unconfessed sin. 

1 John 1:9 reminds us that we need to confess to God, not for God’s benefit, God already knows how we have screwed up, but for our benefit - so we can find the cleansing that can only come from accepting the gift of God’s grace and forgiveness freely given. When we try to earn God’s absolution by explaining why something wasn’t a sin or wasn’t our fault, then we are missing out on the gift because of our own fear. 

Lastly, confession also involves confessing to ourselves. In fact, confession to God and others can only take place after we have done the hard work of examining ourselves and asking “how is it with my soul?” We don’t do this for selfish gain or to act like our own therapists - instead we do it to admit to ourselves the truth that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Including me. Especially me. When we examine our souls, we see the reality of broken relationships left in the wreckage of sin. And when we gently examine ourselves we can be opened to repentance - as we hand over the carnage of the sin of our lives into the healing hands of God. Self-examination is allowing the Holy Spirit to open up our hearts in order to experience the healing transformation of God. 

Confession to God, ourselves, and others in a very Biblical model - but that doesn’t make it easy. We can still be bound up in fears that block us from confession - fearing what people will think of us. If God will accept us. If we should risk setting aside our false selves and the pride that they create. But mostly I think we are afraid of giving up on the lie that the world is okay and that we are okay. Confession makes us come face to face with the fact that we live in a culture that is sick with lies and we can no longer live this way - lying to God, ourselves, and others. 

Brothers and sisters, I invite you to come forward now, to the alter, or with a friend, and confess. Confess before God. Confess to find healing. Confess, because it is good for your soul. Amen.