Thursday, January 29, 2009

Confession

I got mad at Kay, my wife, not too long ago because she killed a little gecko that wandered into our bathroom. I just don’t like to kill things. I like to fish but I throw them all back. I’d rather shoo a bug outside than smash it. It always seems so unnecessary to kill.
So the images in Leviticus haunt me. I can’t imagine standing in the court of the tabernacle with the priest, looking into the big, brown, helpless eyes of a lamb, and explaining to the priest why I need to kill it. Not just that I’m going to kill it but that I need to kill it. It is my fault. Something I did or didn’t do transgressed the Law and meant that I needed to go grab this innocent creature and drag it down here and butcher it. I don’t know what would be worse, having to bring the poor lamb to the altar or having to explain why to the priest.
That’s not true. I do know what’s worse. Having to explain it is always worse. The bottom line is I would rather pay the penalty than admit to the crime. Most of the time confessing seems even more unnecessary than killing, so I don’t.
The vast majority of the time I whisper in my prayers about the sins I can recall, but I don’t tell anybody else. But when I consider the interaction between the lamb killer and the priest it confronts me with what I know is true – I would be much more aware of my sinfulness, much more convicted about its devastating effects on my home, my job, my friends, my kids, my faith, and I think much more inclined to transformation – if I submitted to a regular, structured time of publically confessing my sin to another human being.
I have all the excuses arrayed. Don’t know who I can trust; don’t know anyone who really wants to hear it; don’t need another appointment on my calendar; don’t really want to be some anal retentive church guy who goes around all puckered up because he’s afraid he’ll do something he’ll have to own up to later.
In his book “Your God is Too Safe” Mark Buchanan explains the grace God infused in the interaction between the lamb killer and the priest, “…in the simplest possible terms: Love can’t cover over the sins we cover up.” I would expand on his observation to include the sins we don’t notice and the sins we rationalize as trivial and the sins we openly enjoy. That is why confession always preceded sacrifice. Love can’t cover over the sins we cover up.
Killing the lamb makes possible atonement for the sin. Confession makes possible the killing of the sin.
I confess, I need to confess.

2 comments:

  1. I need to confess too. But what is hard for me is recognizing sin. Sure some sin is easy to spot, but others are not. Just this week, I've been stressing out about money (someone hacked my checking account, so I've had to deal with that). I was soooooo concerned about my money situation and I worried I wouldn't be able to "make it" this paycheck. I worried instead of trusting God. I think worry is normal, but in reality it took my trust away from God...I was serving money and God. So for the past two days, I've been asking God to forgive me for serving two gods. And today on the way to work, I got a call from my bank saying they would be able to fix some things and I'd get my money. That was truly God's working.

    Anyway, I need to be more deligent in my true understanding of the sins really is. I'm very private about my "bad side" because I want people to see the strong me, not the weak me. But I do know that when I confess my sins to someone, it really does help.

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  2. I hope that in confessing I constantly place myself among the sinners. I hope that I will hear from my own lips my desperate need for grace and so grow my heart for Jesus and for the other sinners I meet.

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