A Reconciling Love

I pray that you are well. I am looking forward to entering into the holy season of Lent with you, beginning on Ash Wednesday next week. I say I am looking forward to entering this season with you, not because I particularly enjoy fasting or giving up habits I apparently love. I am looking forward to the season because it is a time when each of us can be a little more reflective about the quality of our lives and the health of our souls. And, even though this is not always the lightest work we can take on, it is the path that leads to light and joy and the power of God’s forgiveness.

For most of us, confession is a difficult moment. Most of us prefer not to face our failings or the ways we fall short. Better to keep a blind eye to our foibles and failures and just move along, trying to forget what we’ve done. The problem, of course, is that at some level we are not able to forget fully and we need to choose a different way of dealing with our sin.

Left to our own devices, we rarely ask another person to forgive us. And if you’re like me, you simply read along with the Confession of Sin without a whole lot of self-reflection or honesty, when said during Sunday worship. But if we confess, as St. John writes in his first letter, then we will be forgiven. We know this truth in our close relationships with others, as confession followed by forgiveness reconciles or reunites us to the other person. It may be a partially broken reconciliation because all our deeds have consequences, but in almost every case, the confession and forgiveness actually deepens the love and bond we have with the other person.

And so it is with God. When we confess, God forgives us and we are drawn closer to God’s heart, and God is drawn closer to ours. And when I say confess, I’m not talking about the comedian George Carlin’s caricature of his confessions. I’m speaking of being honest with God and speaking the truth about your life and, once spoken, receiving God’s forgiveness so that you may set your fears aside and know only God’s love for you. That’s the power of confession when we freely submit our lives to God.

This Lent, inspired by The Rev. Hillary Raining’s doctoral work on reconciliation and the class she will be teaching on Tuesdays in Lent, St. David’s will be offering the Rite of Reconciliation (personal confession) on Friday afternoons and Friday evenings. It is not a requirement for any of us. It will not be everyone’s “cup of tea.” But for those of us who would like to see whether this might be a gift for us from God to lead us closer to God, come and see. For when we confess and receive forgiveness from one another or from God, then our fears will grow small and our faith and confidence in the life before us can only grow.

Grace and Peace,
WFA