Sermon for Sunday - August 17, 2014: Confession

Open confession is good for the soul.  

-- Scottish proverb

A confession is a statement of something a person would rather keep secret or not acknowledge.  Confession of a wrong is good for the soul to the extent that it mitigates the feeling of guilt one might have over a wrongdoing.  Is it necessary for salvation?  Probably not.  Jesus died for our salvation 2000 years ago.  But, is this the confession required of us by our faith?  

Confession is considered one of faith.  It is "a formal profession of belief and acceptance of doctrines."  We find this again and again in the Bible and it could be that this has been misunderstood throughout the ages as a need to confess sins, especially to the masses.  My belief of the Bible is based on man having written it, based on stories and beliefs of the activities of Jesus Christ.  How much of it is actually original writings of those that knew the prophet is in question.  How much of those writings that can be attributed to them and have not been altered to reflect differing agendas throughout history, or due to the inept abilities and lack of education of those monks transcribing and translating the documents is also in question.  It is already fairly clear that the King James Version of the Bible has many problems because of this.  If we accept that the Bible may not be all it is cracked up to be, then what we are left with is our own personal ability to separate that which makes no sense from that which Christ would more likely have meant.

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

-- Romans 10:9

 You know what is right.  You know how to act, treat other people, and live your life.  We are all born without sin and we carry this innate knowledge of righteousness within us.  Along with this is the knowledge that God already knows what we have done when we do it.  To confess to God what we have done is a tad ridiculous, bordering on self-serving if one does not understand it really isn't required of them.  What God does require is that you admit what you have done is wrong.  God already knows you know, God wants you to learn the lesson of it.  One can argue, as I have in the past, if God knows all then God already knows this.  And in the simple act of thinking this statement, I acknowledge my belief in God and my knowledge that everything I do God is aware of.  I have confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, and that I shall be saved.

"Confession is good for the soul only in the sense that a tweed coat is good for dandruff - it is a palliative rather than a remedy."

-- Peter De Vries

I think that, in developing our "personal" relationship with God, we develop our desire to talk with the almighty about those things in our life of great importance to our continued salvation.  I say "continued" because we are already saved at birth, then begin to back slide as we encounter life events that test our resolve.  Our admissions to Jesus and through Him to God, of things we do wrong in our lives and our desire to do better as we move forward is our confession, admission of wrongdoing, and our desire for absolution.  We will determine our own penance in order to mitigate the guilt we feel over the wrong we have done.  It is much more important to God that we understand the why of what we did to fall from grace, and decide what we will do to not fall again, than it is to admit we have fallen.  God knows we have fallen.  The simple determination of what we will do in the future is our confession of falling.

"To all my non believing, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends:  I feel like I should begin with a confession.  I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians."

-- Shane Clairborne

And, what of those that feel no guilt over something they have done?  What of those that choose to make excuses for their actions instead of owning them?  Even the atheist is given the innate knowledge of right and wrong.  What we do with that knowledge determine what kind of people we are.  Do we live and let live or do we take issue, as atheist organizations do, with how others live their faith or that they have faith at all?

In the end it will come down to self-judgment.  We will all have to stand, as we are confronted by reality, and come to grips with what we have believed in our lives.  Who will fall to their knees and weep, and who will look into the face of God and continue their disbelief?

"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Note:  As always this post is just opinion to encourage personal introspection.  We all have a opinion and should find a voice for it.  Are the opinions in this post correct?  Opinion is not fact.  One person's opinion is no more valid than another's.  What is more important is that you have one.