New Life

 A prayer of Confession inspired by Psalm 51:1-3, 8-12

O God, I am in need of you.

Your love and mercy are abundant

Unimaginable.

Miraculous.

Remove my sin, please, o God.

Make me clean as you created me to be

Wash me from my wrongdoings.

Only you can remove the stain.

All I can see if what I've done wrong.

It fills my vision, my heart, my life.

I have sinned against you,

I have done what is evil.

I cast down my eyes because

you are justified in not seeing me at all.

In ignoring my plea.

Open my eyes to hear your joy.

Open my heart to know your forgiveness.

Open my bones to be healed by your love.

Let me know gladness again.

Hide my sins from your sight.

Convince me that it is so.

Remove the stain of sin that has darkened my life.

Help me to start again.

Create in me a new heart,

a fresh start,

a new and right life.

Recreate me so that I am worthy

to be near you,

so that I am a righteous place

for your Holy Spirit to dwell,

so that I am not alone.

O, God,

Restore in my the assurance of salvation,

return to me the conviction of your action in my life,

so that I know you again.

Rebuild in my a willing spirit

to start new life with you.

A Prayer of Confession

A prayer of confession  from the words of Paul to the Church at Corinth

(words from 2 Corinthians 13-11-13 in bold)

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. 

Put things in order, 

Forgive us, creating God, for even though you created us out of chaos, and lifted us from the chaos of our sin, we still choose to turn from you instead of living into the world you have for us. We choose sin over love; we choose hate over love. Help us to put things in order.

listen to my appeal, 

Forgive us, listening God, for so often we do not open our minds enough to hear anyone else. We live in the selfishness of our own lives, and we fail to love others enough to ever listen to them; to ever understand them.  Open our hearts enough to listen.

agree with one another, 

Forgive us, ever-present God, for so often we hold on to our anger and divisions so tightly that we would never think to agree with others.  We argue without thought, we choose to believe the illogical rather than admit to error.  Open our minds enough to see our own errors.

live in peace; 

Forgive us, God of everlasting peace, when we define peace as the lack of conflict.  So often we don't want to be bothered by the idea that justice and peace have to walk hand in hand.  Open our lives enough so that we can stand up for justice at the price of calm.

and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Forgive us, sustaining God, for so often we turn away from you. You are here with us, but we close our eyes and our hearts to your Word.  Help us to open our lives to your will.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

Oh, God, our God, we fail to love. We fail to hear the love offered by the saints. And we fail to be your obedient church.  Forgive us, we pray, and may it be that 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of us.

Daniel 9: Part 3

Following are notes from a lesson I taught about Daniel 9:

Individual Sin -- Question: How do we feel about confessing our sin? 

Sin is not simple. On one hand, we sin because we are in rebellion – we are disobedient. We are stubborn.  But on the other hand, the Bible acknowledges that we live in a broken world – “creation itself influences us and pushes us in the direction of our sinfulness.” What is your reaction to that thought?

Question: What keep us from facing our sins honestly?

Question: What tactics do we use to avoid confession?

Question: What feelings do we experience from confession our sins, seeking forgiveness, and restoring a relationship? What role does God play in that?

Collective Guilt – In Daniels Prayer, the sin starts with kings, leaders and parents, but also includes all of Israel – verse  6 : We haven’t listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our leaders, our parents, and to all the land’s people.  This prayer underscores one understanding of exile which is that God sent Israel and Judah into exile as punishment, and it refutes the idea that the people were exiled because God was weaker than the gods of Babylon.  Question: What is your response to that understanding of the action of God?  (the whole message of the Bible helps us to understand that not all bad situations or suffering result from punishment for sin.)

Even though Daniel presents the stories of four young men of integrity who show faithfulness to God, this prayer is a balance – even Daniel (who, in this prayer, uses both personal and collective words for God) recognizes that they need God’s forgiveness for their sins.  The relationship between God and the people depends on God’s faithfulness.

Question: What examples of collective sin can you think of? How do we ask for forgiveness for these sins?

Psychological Guilt – a sense of guilt.  We restore the relationship with God through repentance; we restore the relationship with each other through communication.  “The last dimension of guilt involves dealing with our own feelings and the way guilt affects us.”

How do we deal with the sense of guilt? Do we have difficulties receiving and/or accepting forgiveness? If we do, how does that affect our relationships with others and with God?

What is the connection between dealing appropriately with sin, repentance and guilt with spiritual and emotional growth?  If there is a link, then how does ignoring sin, refusing to repent, or holding on to guilt prevent our growth and our acceptance of sanctifying grace?

Daniel 9: Part 2

The following is the second part of my notes from a Sunday school lesson I taught on the Daniel 9:

What do we know about the Book of Daniel?

• 12 chapters – first 6 are stories of Daniel and his three friends. Each of them is structured similarly. Daniel and his friends are exiled to the Babylonian court. They have changed outwardly to reflect where they are, but not inwardly and not in their faith, and this creates conflict.
• Second 6 chapters are Daniel’s visions – apocalyptic in nature.
• Chapter 9, that we will look at today, is different than the rest in that it includes an interpretation of a Biblical prophecy from Jeremiah (we won’t look at that today) and also Daniels’s prayer for the forgiveness of his people’s sins.
• Interestingly enough, the first chapter and the last 5 are written in Hebrew and chapters 2-7 are written in Aramaic.
• Daniel is set in the time of Nebuchadnezzer and the beginning of Cyrus’s reign in Babylon, but it was probably written around 164 BCE, which was a time of religious persecution in Palestine and Syria by Antiochus IV Epiphanies – so the text is meant to be encouragement to those who are undergoing persecution.
• One last trivia about the book of Daniel – in the Dead Sea Scrolls, there are 8 fragments of what will become the book of Daniel – and parts of all 12 chapters. This makes Daniel second among the prophets in the Dead Sea Scrolls – only after Isaiah – 21 copies.  The oldest manuscript of Daniel, dates to the late 2 century BCE, which is about 50 years after the book reached its final form. It is closer to the original edition of the biblical book than any other known biblical manuscript.  The text of these fragments, even though incomplete, is very close to the Hebrew text that forms the basis for modern editions of the OT, suggesting that the book of Daniel at Qumran was next to identical to the book as we know it.

What do we know about the sin of Israel and Judah?

Deuteronomy 29:25-26 à 25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them

Structure of a lament – What we are going to read uses a literary structure called a lament. A lament has a typical form (and not all of these elements are in every lament, but they all contain some of these):

• Address to God
• Complaint, sometimes with a protestation of innocence
• Confession of trust
• Petition
• Words of assurance
• Vow of praise

Read scripture - Daniel 9:4-8, 15-19

Just a few notes:

• The prayer starts with Daniel using personal word for God – in it he switches to a more collective word for God – he is praying from his relationship with God, but he is praying for all of Israel.
• The prayer uses four verbs to describe what the peole have done: sinned, done wrong, rebelled and turned away from God’s commandments.  Really wicked.
• He mentions leaders and he mentions the people – neither group can escape from the fault of sin.
• He reminds them of Egypt, and that their God had rescued them before.

Daniel 9: Part 1

The following few posts are from a Sunday school lesson I taught a few days ago, based on Daniel 9:

Does or did anyone ever watch NCIS? Do you remember Gibbs has rules? How many were there? Can you name any of them?

• Rule #1: Never let suspects stay together
• Always wear gloves at a crime scene
• Never be unreachable
• Best way to keep a secret – keep it to yourself.
• Don’t waste good
• #6 – Never say you are sorry
• #9 – never go anywhere without a knife
• When the job is done, walk away.
• Never, ever involve lawyers.
• Bend the line, don’t break it.
• #15 – Always work as a team
• #18 – it’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission.
• #35 – Always watch the watchers
• #42 – Don’t ever accept an apology from someone who just sucker punched you.
• #45 – Clean up the mess you make
• #51 – Sometimes you’re wrong

Focus on rule #6 – Never say you are sorry because it is a sign of weakness.  If you lived by that rule, what do you think the impact would be on your life? The author of the curriculum says that “even if apologies project a stance of strength, relationship require the ability to offer and to accept apologies.” Think about Gibbs? How is he in the relationship department?

Why are apologies difficult? Other than they are sometimes an admission of fault?  (honest and vulnerable?) How do you feel after you apologize? (is there a relief to it? Does it sometimes feel as if you have opened a door to repair of the relationship?)

Prsayer of Confession

Oh God, our God,

This morning we come as a church

that has not heard your word.

That has failed to be obedient.

The people around us are hungry.

There are people who are lost.

There are people who are alone.

And we do nothing.

Oh God, our God,

You became human

Left God,

And you came to save us.

You came to rescue the oppressed.

And in our gratitude,

we do nothing.

Forgive us, we pray,

and free us for joyful obedience.

Free us from other idols

those things that distract us from following you.

Free us from the past

that clouds of view of the future.

Free us from our sin

So that we can with joy and passion

Offer God to others.

Free us

Forgive us

Change us

Amen.

On Confession

On Confession: To confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything he doesn't already know. Until you confess the, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the Golden Gate Bridge. (Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner)

Have you ever done something (or not done something) that you kept to yourself? Have you ever stopped short of confessing a wrong to someone else? That's a rhetorical question; I think we all could answer yes. What happens when you run into that person? Do you feel the gulf between you? Maybe, if it's a "small" thing, that gulf doesn't last very long as the failure to confess fades into the background of your memory, but I think we feel it.

What if the person already knows? Have you ever known what your child did, but waited for the child to tell you? You both know the sin, and there is a division between you.

Do you think that division is caused by a lack of honesty?

Could it be that we need to confess our sins to God, who already knows what they are, to rid ourselves of that feeling of dishonesty with the divine? The God we hope to have a relationship with? 

I know that I can forgive people without their confessions of the wrong to me. I can forgive them, and they may not (probably won't) ever know that they have been forgiven. Because I know that, I believe that God forgives us, without our confession of sin. And yet, how do we know? How will we repair that gap between us? Confession brings us back together - and we need it, not to earn the forgiveness, but to become aware of it. Confession is not for the benefit of God; it is for our own well being, and to strengthen the relationship between the divine and us.

Self-examination

I've never sold a house, but I imagine, when the time comes, you inspect your house.  You discover where the flaws are - where you might need to do a repair or an improvement, and then you start working to fix the problems.

Do we sometimes need to do the same things for our spiritual life?  Do we need to step back and do an inventory?  List our problems and confess them to God, so that God can repair us?

What is the benefit of confession?

• Is it one way that we can be rid of the idea that there is nothing wrong with us?  Are we sometimes blind to our sins?  Can self examination and confession open our eyes to our own problems?
• Does confession make us more grace-filled toward others' issues, and less judgmental?
• Could it be that by discovering our issues that we open ourselves up for improvement?  Transformation that wouldn't happen otherwise?
• Does confession offer healing? I've seen people who are so convinced of their flaws that a sense of unworthiness stops them from opening themselves up to their capabilities.  Is confession to God incomplete without acceptance of forgiveness and openness to transformation?  I think we need to remember that God meets confession with grace and love - and with healing.

Already Forgiven

One of my roles at my church is to coordinate a devotional ministry.  Member of the church write devotionals.  Each week we email them out to over 200 people.  In Advent, the devotionals are written for daily distribution.  I also compile them into a printed devotional book.

As I was assembling the booklet today and proofreading the texts, I was struck by something.  One of the writers, who was writing a devotional for the last week of Advent, wrote a prayer that begins, "We ask once again for you to have patience with us.  We have been ignoring your messages this season.  We've tried, but we have allowed the busyness and worldly distractions to draw us away form the light."  (Hat-tip to Chyrl Budd).  She wrote this sometime in November as a prayer of confession for close to Christmas.  She knows that we will try, and that we will not fulling reach our potential in Advent, and that we will need forgiveness.

God knew we would need forgiveness, too.  Two thousand years before our birth, our sins were forgiven.  How wonderful is that?

Confession

It isn’t for God’s sake that we confess. When we hold on tight to things that are not good for us, we suffer.  (Martha Spong, Reflectionary)

I read that in Martha's post, and was struck by it.   Does it speak to you?

Do we ever think that God requires us to confess in order for God to grant forgiveness?  Is that really the way it works?  I don't think so.

I think the necessity of confession is that if we continue to hold on to our sins, we suffer -- we are not able to receive the grace of forgiveness that God offers to us.  God doesn't withhold the forgiveness, but we refuse to take it.  For grace to be freely given by God, then it must be freely given.  Freely given is freely given -- without requirement or hoop-jumping.  Who is their right mind would refuse a free gift?

We do.

Do we place strings on our own forgiveness of others?  Do we demand confession and apology?  Do we ever wish that someone would confess / apologize because we believe it would be a good choice for the other person?  That it would lead to healing?  Or are we just withholding the "grace" of forgiveness until the other person humbles him or herself?  Who would do that?

We would.

Think for a moment of a time when you offered an apology to someone else, freely given.  Or a time when you confessed to God.  Did you feel that lightening of burden?  Do you remember the freedom that was received?  When we hold on, we suffer.

Also from that same post -- A sin is a sin is a sin. The truism is actually a truth. For God, any sin we confess is a sin forgiven. They are all alike.  We often say that a sin is a sin is a sin, but I think we are telling ourselves that they are all bad.  Martha is pointing out that are sins is sin is sin -- and all can be forgiven.

Repent

Repent.  What does it mean?  We've been talking about it in church lately.  Repent does not necessarily mean sackcloth and ashes or a deep pit of dispair.  But what does it mean to "turn" to God?

• To repent is to turn to God.  To center on God.  I think turning to God means that we open ourselves to listen to God.  Where is he leading us? 
• To repent might mean that we confess our sins.  We apologize.  Perhaps to God.  Perhaps to someone else.  It might mean that we restore a relationship so that God can be seen through us. 
• It might mean that we turn toward God instead of sticking to our stubbornness.
• It might mean that we set aside our schedules and our distractions to look toward God.

What does it mean to you?

Burden

We were talking today in Sunday about a burdens we carry. Jan, who taught the class, said that it was a tradition (of the Romans? I'm missing that part in my brain) was that when a person caused the death of someone else, part of the punishment was that the corpse would be strapped to the person's back and that he would have to walk around with it.

I'm glad that when I hurt someone, I don't physically have to carry him or her around, but I do think we strap on burdens with the chains of guilt.

We talk in the grace class about forgiveness, and how we have already been forgiven for the sins we have committed. Forgiveness, I have said in class, is separate from confession. I tell the class that so that they will realize that they can (with God's help) forgive someone without their confession or contrition.

Even so, confession and repentance has a role in our healing. Confession is acknowledging the sin. Asking forgiveness (and receiving forgiveness) can be the key to unlocking the chains that bind the burden to our backs.

There is no time limit -- confession is timeless, and can lighten our load.

Repentence

Repentance. What associations does that word have for you?

Confession? Sorrow? Guilt? The need for forgiveness? Does the thought of it make you feel bad? Push you away?

It's a word we hear all the time at Lent -- a call to repentance. We hear it echo through the words of John the Baptist. Repent.

It sounds worse that giving up chocolate. A whole lot worse.

But read this quote -- I found it in my email this week from Sound Bites:

True repentance begins with the felt knowledge that we are loved by God… Repentance consists not so much in flagellating ourselves over our "failures" as in courageously and painstakingly reorienting our priorities, unlearning old patterns, turning our faces, like the sunflower, toward the dawning of the light of God. Wendy M. Wright in The Vigil: Keeping Watch in the Season of Christ's Coming

Perhaps we would be better if we left behind our pre-conceived notions of repentance and just considered it a turning toward the light, out of the darkness.

The Reality of Grace

In his book The Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortberg says, "Confession is not primarily something God has us to do because he needs it...We need to confess in order to heal and change." He talks about how we often think of confession as being legalistic -- make a confession and have a sin erased -- transactional. Instead, confessional should be transformational.

It reminds me of a description of prayer from the class JtM and I taught on Yancey's Prayer book. Prayer should develop a relationship with God, and yet so often we use it because we see it as a transaction with God.

I was looking for something else this evening on Ye Ole Blog, and I found this quote sent to me in an email from JtM, back in 2006:

There is no union with God without transformation. Paradoxically, the person who has struggled with personal transformation and become psychologically stronger is the person who can be empty and receptive before God. This vulnerability is an act of strength, since we no longer need to hold tightly to a false self that protects us from our inner pain and fears. We are free at last.

Confession. Is there anything that makes us more vulnerable than confession? To admit before God that we are wrong is to become vulnerable before God (and ourselves). Confession empties us -- our hearts and hands and spirits -- so that we can be open before God and accept the freedom of forgiveness and grace.

Ortberg also says that confession is not just the idea of grace, but is the reality of grace. God doesn't ask us to do it our of his own self-interest, or out of a need to hear our admissions. Better than we know, he knows how it can be grace.

In a post by Songbird, she states:

And I sobbed, too, because this is what God wants from us, not rules and rituals and lines of exclusion. God wants the I'm sorry written on our hearts, sobbed and sung and wrung out of us,...