Chapel Homily: March 7, 2023
I confess that at least 3 years beyond the time when I ever needed it, I carried a comb with me in my book bag. Like there would be new sprouts!
I confess that I have a competitive streak that can be unattractive, and something that is mocked in our household. Later today I will scrutinize the Wordle, Statle, Quordle, Numble, and Frame scores of our three children. I will be disappointed if I don't have better scores than each of them, on every single game. I confessed this to Janice, and she thought I was kidding. I wasn't. In fact, I told our kids that I was preaching today and that I was going to mention something about word games. They all responded with something along the lines of, "So, what's the title of your sermon: 'Winning is everything?'" That's a cheap shot.
In our home, that competitive intensity is offset in wonderful ways by Janice, who roots for everyone. At Whitworth basketball games, she's the kind of person who hopes both teams play their very best, and then after the game tells the referees, "You did a great job!"
I confess that I can be protective of Janice. Last summer I chased someone down who winged a Coke can at her through an open car window and nailed her in the shoulder. Thankfully, she was okay, because . . . it was a soft drink.
I confess that I like pun-y jokes a bit too much.
I confess that confession can be really hard. Because in that confession, I am revealing my failures, which are legion, where I have wounded someone, where I have fallen short in relationship or responsibility. And as a result, that brings about embarrassment and shame, concerns that God and others will rightly think less of me, that they will never forget this about me. Oh, man, confession pulls back the curtain on the ways I disappoint God, my friends, my family and my colleagues.
I have the privilege of speaking in Chapel once per term. My assigned day is not according to the topic but what my availability is. My day is about confession, which means I also drew the topic of sin, because that's what we confess about. However, I am greatly relieved that my day was not three weeks ago and Song of Songs. Thank you, Lauren Taylor, for preaching that day.
Spoiler Alert and Take-away of the Day—and it's a good news message about confession: Jesus loves you as you are, not as you should be. But he loves you enough so that He won't leave you as He found you.
We all have a sin problem, and Jesus calls us out of it. He does that to make us new. He does that to transform us. Confession is part of that process. Confession reveals in us who we are not yet, but who Jesus wants us to be. And what a gift, what a relief. Confession reveals our need for God. Confession gives voice to that need.
As far as I can tell, sin and confession messages aren't the most popular in a sermon series. I don't think I've ever heard a message on confession during Move-In Weekend, Homecoming, Parents Weekend, Convocation, or Commencement Weekend.
And yet, it is good, and I think very good, to be reminded about how confession is vital for us. Jesus made it an aspect of the Lord's Prayer, "When you pray, pray this way," . . . "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." His first words in the gospels were, "Repent and believe the gospel." Confession and repentance are mentioned dozens of times in the New Testament.
Confession is something we are called upon to do regularly. Confession is good for our relationship with God, good for our relationships with others, and through confession we experience the mercy and grace of Jesus. Gospel grace puts a safety net beneath us, one we can fall into. Nothing we could confess to God will surprise him. He knows us fully, our best and worst parts.
One writer said our relationship with God is like this: It's like taking a college class where you have to take a test every day. You know you are going to fail. Every day. You do fail every day. But each day you walk into class the professor says, "I've decided not to count yesterday's scores. It's a new day." Way more than, "Nice try, good hustle." "My grade sheet for you is wiped clean." And the professor does that every day!
Confession can sting. It may hurt. But it is a gift. It heals. It restores. It offers forgiveness. It creates a renewed walk with God and restores relationships. It is freeing.
Story of David and Bathsheba
The story of David and Bathsheba is a familiar one in the church. David commits adultery with Bathsheba, who will bear his son, and then to cover that sin he has Uriah, who is Bathsheba's husband, sent to the front lines of the army in battle, ensuring he will die and thus cover up the sin of the adultery. But months later, David's sin is uncovered. Nathan comes to him and says, "Let me tell you about a man, David. He had everything he could ever want, including large flocks and herds. There was also a man in town who had only one sheep, one that he deeply loved and cared for. When a traveler came through town, in order to provide him a meal, rather than taking one of his own sheep, he took the lone sheep of another man and fed it to the traveler." David is outraged about this injustice. The greedy man with the large flocks must be held accountable. And of course Nathan says, "You are that man, David."
This is King David. The Bible calls him a man after God's heart. And he's an adulterer and a murderer. This is not kingly behavior or "person after God" behavior.
Psalm 51 is David's prayer of Confession. This prayer tells us what repentance is and what it does.
Pay attention to David's words. He didn't assign blame elsewhere. David uses the pronoun, "my;" my sin, my transgression, my iniquity. Confession begins with the words "I" and "my." It is not fun to personalize our shortcomings. Yet that is what David does in Psalm 51. And then listen for the character of God in what David prays.
Psalm 51[a]
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. 18 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
The Reader's Abridged might read something like this:
"Forgive me, Lord. I have been wrong. This doesn't surprise you about me. But through you, through confession, there is healing. Restore me. Make me clean. Help me to grow in who you would have me be. Help me to acknowledge my sin, help me to be in relationship with you. Despite the ways I have wronged you, wronged my sisters and brothers, and myself, you bring joy. Through you is forgiveness and healing. All you want is me. You cover me. You are my hiding place."
What can we learn from King David and his Psalm of confession, and how might that be a model for our own confessions to God and to one another?
First, David accepted responsibility. He said, "I was wrong." No excuses. Full disclosure. I was wrong.
For you and for me, that means being really specific about the hurtful action or speech we are acknowledging. We are to name it, claim it, own it. "When I said . . .", "When I did . . .", "When I failed to . . ."
Second, David expressed regret. He said, "I am sorry for what I have done." We are to say what we are sorry for, specifically.
We know we've done something wrong, wronged someone. We can't reverse the rotation of the earth and unwind what we've done, and there's stuff that might be hard to live with. As much as we can, let's put ourselves in the shoes of the person we've wronged. And be specific about the harm done.
Next, David promised to change. We are to do our best to make sure that the offense doesn't happen again. "I will try my darndest to do better."
David then asked for forgiveness. He asked God to forgive him. Asking for forgiveness from the one we hurt marks the apology as genuine. Because we are sorry for what we did, admitted what we did, and promised change in our future behavior, relationship can be restored.
Lastly, David pled for, counted on, and accepted God's mercy upon him.
The Lord is not running up a tally. There is no scoreboard. We don't need to hide from God. We are forgiven permanently. We can't earn that mercy, and we are not more forgiven if we beat ourselves up over our sins.
David knew this was God's character, which allowed him to say what he did. "Have mercy on me according to your steadfast love and abundant mercy." These are God's promises to us—love and mercy—and David is claiming those promises and calling on God's character. David is asking God to be who he is. In this confession, we learn that God doesn't abandon us. He heals us. God washes us in his grace. He wipes the slate clean. He draws us back to himself. Hard as that may be to believe, "Are you sure, Lord? Me?" The scriptures are clear. "Yes."
So, what might this mean for each of us individually?
Confession changes us. We may think we are unlovable, and maybe we've done some things that we think confirm that thought. But hear this: God delights in you. Every sin that we need to confess about has been paid for by Jesus on the cross. I cannot get my head around that sometimes. If I tell God, and someone else, the things I have thought or done or thought, . . . really? Scriptures are clear: There is nothing we could confess that would surprise God. We can bring everything to him.
What might this mean for our community?
What would it be like to be an even more confessing and forgiving community? What might it look like to be a safe person to confess to? What would it look like to be a refuge for one another, where we don't have to hide the things that weigh on our hearts? What would it look like to acknowledge our hurts and wrongs to one another, to encourage one another in the mercy and grace that confession brings about? And what would it be like to remind one another about how God is steadfast and merciful, and that this amazing news applies to everyone?
Close:
The summer after third grade, I attended a YMCA Camp in Salinas, California. I remember a few things about that week—At our bus stop, I met a kid who was born 8 minutes before me but 3 time zones away. I learned the song, "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog." I made a pink and purple lanyard for my mother. And on our overnight camping trip on the final day of camp, my counselor was messing with a rattlesnake that bit him on the knuckle. So, he chased that snake and got him. And he also got pretty sick because his reaction pumped the venom through his bloodstream. It took some time and medication to make him well.
I wonder about the spiritual and relational toxins in our personal and community bloodstreams, those things that damage relationships between us and with God. Scripture tells us that our confessional lives release those poisons, bringing about personal, relational, and community healing.
Jesus loves you as you are, not as you should be. But, he loves you enough so that He won't leave you as He found you. Confession is part of that process. Confession reveals in us who we are not yet, but who Jesus wants us to be. And what a gift, what a relief, that God's love and mercy is assured.
Benediction:
Corrie Ten Boom, a famous Dutch author and survivor of the Holocaust, said that God throws our sins into the deepest sea, and then he puts up a sign that reads: "No fishing!"
Go, knowing that God has dealt with your sins. Don't wallow in them or despair in them. Go forward knowing that you are forgiven and you are loved.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.