I wonder why you are here today.\u00a0 I am here because I believe that the overcoming of sin in peoples\u2019 lives is one of the most encouraging and vigorous demonstrations of the power of the risen Christ, and I want to see more of it. \u00a0If we are to see more of this power, then I would like to suggest that there are three truths to understand and three things to do.<\/p>\n
The first truth underpins both the readings that we have heard.\u00a0 This truth is that we are all sinners.\u00a0\u00a0 In his prayer Daniel acknowledges that every member of the people of God has sinned, has disobeyed God, and broken the covenant commitments of their faith.\u00a0 Similarly, in the prayer Jesus taught his followers he teaches them to pray for forgiveness of their sins.\u00a0 Jesus knew that his followers would continue to sin, throughout their lives, otherwise he would not have taught them to ask for forgiveness every time they prayed.<\/p>\n
It seems to me that this is one of the most important truths about ourselves, and about each other, that we have to understand if we are to grow in faith.\u00a0 This truth is reinforced, explicitly, elsewhere in the Bible.\u00a0 In Romans, Paul writes, \u201cFor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In his first letter, John writes, \u201cIf we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our starting point is that we are all sinners.\u00a0 I have sinned.\u00a0 I am a sinner.\u00a0\u00a0 Every single one of us here has sinned.\u00a0\u00a0 We are all sinners.<\/p>\n
The second truth is revealed in the language of the readings that we have heard.\u00a0\u00a0 It is all about \u201cus\u201d.\u00a0 Daniel is an individual, praying on his own, and yet he continually says, \u201cwe\u201d.\u00a0 He stands with every other member of the people of God and in fellowship with them, confesses sin and prays for forgiveness.\u00a0\u00a0 All the way through Jesus\u2019 prayer he teaches us to pray \u201cus\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Give us, forgive us, lead us.\u00a0\u00a0 There is a community aspect to all Christian life, and it seems to me, especially to confession and forgiveness.\u00a0 This is shown in James\u2019 letter, \u201dTherefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.\u201d\u00a0 In our dealings with sin there is no getting away from the fact that we need each other.<\/p>\n
The third truth is that forgiveness is available.\u00a0\u00a0 Again this is clear in both the Biblical prayers that we are looking at.\u00a0 Daniel, centuries before Jesus came and demonstrated God\u2019s victory over sin and death, believed that God\u2019s character meant that forgiveness was available. That belief made him bold enough to pray, insistently, \u201cLord, listen!, Lord forgive!\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Jesus\u2019 prayer also assumes that forgiveness is available to those who ask for it and are willing to receive it.\u00a0\u00a0 This prayer was given to the disciples before Jesus proved it.\u00a0 How much more can we pray it with faith, now that we have witnessed the resurrection?\u00a0 The availability of forgiveness to us is also seen in the sentences that follow the ones that we heard earlier from Paul and John,<\/p>\n
\u201c and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness\u201d<\/p>\n
So, there are three truths, we have all sinned, we need each other, and forgiveness is available.\u00a0 So what?\u00a0 What are we meant to do with those truths?\u00a0 I would like to suggest that there are three things that we are called to do in response to them.<\/p>\n
The first is to prepare for confession.\u00a0 If we take seriously the reality that we are all sinners, then I believe that there are implications for the way in which we prepare to confess our sins.<\/p>\n
I remember going for an interview with Bishop Gordon just before my second ordination and we were talking about the challenges of having a young family to get to church and the necessity to change gear from getting the children to have breakfast, get dressed, get coats and shoes on and then get to church and suddenly be ready to lead the people of God in worship.\u00a0\u00a0 He shared with me that when he had been in that position he had taken time the evening before to pray for the service, and, in particular, to examine his conscience for things that he would confess during the prayers of penitence during the service.<\/p>\n
This idea of preparing for confession might seem a bit odd.\u00a0\u00a0 Why not just confess the sins as you think of them.\u00a0 But, it does occur again and again in the great Christian writers.\u00a0 It even seems to me to be evident in Daniel\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 He is specific about where the people of Israel have gone wrong.\u00a0 He has obviously thought about their history and the way in which things have been done in the past.<\/p>\n
The story is told of a young man who was going off to university.\u00a0 As he was packing his mum gave him a big laundry sack and told him to put his dirty washing in it through the week, and then take it to the laundrette to wash it.\u00a0\u00a0 So, he did as he was told and filled the bag through his first week.\u00a0 Saturday came, and he went to find the laundrette.\u00a0 He did as he had been told, put the laundry in the machine and switched it on, and sat and watched it.\u00a0 \u201cthump thump thump\u201d\u00a0 as he sat there, one of his fellow students came over and said, \u201cI think it might work better if you take the clothes out of the bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe our confession would also work better if we took the dirty laundry out of the bag.\u00a0 The point here is not unending, guilt ridden, introspection.\u00a0 It is about spirit-inspired self examination that allows us to come to confess our sins in a way that frees us to be thoroughly forgiven.<\/p>\n
In fact it is possible that in the process of preparing to confess our sins, we may find that we are not actually guilty.\u00a0 There are some streams of Christian tradition that seem to suggest that if something is going wrong, or if there is pain, then sin must be at the bottom of it.\u00a0 This seems to me to miss out the reality of the pruning actions of God.\u00a0 Just as every good gardener does, God prunes healthy plants to encourage fruitfulness.\u00a0 In our self examination as we prepare for confession we might discover that as we reflect on things causing us pain we are not given conviction by the Holy Spirit, but reassurance that this too will end, as we persevere in faithfulness.<\/p>\n
Having prepared, I think that the second thing we need to do is to reclaim the power of confessing our sins to one another.\u00a0\u00a0 I am afraid that too often I allow my shame to cut me off from that power.\u00a0\u00a0 You see, when the fear of shame prevents me from sinning then it is good for me.\u00a0\u00a0 However, when shame stops me from telling others about the sin that I am struggling with then it is bad for me.<\/p>\n
Let me illustrate this by describing two different ways of thinking.<\/p>\n
Imagine that I believe that I am the only person in my church who sins.\u00a0\u00a0 I feel ashamed of that sin.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe that others will understand or forgive.\u00a0\u00a0 So, I don\u2019t tell anyone,\u00a0 I keep it a secret.\u00a0 I struggle along on my own, trying to overcome it.\u00a0 There are two possibilities.\u00a0 I might overcome that sin, but even then the temptation to pride in my ability to defeat sin is a real risk and even if I avoid that, nobody else knows what God has done for me in freeing me from that sin.\u00a0 On the other hand I might continue to fall to that sin.\u00a0 I become discouraged, my conscience becomes seared, it is too painful to think about, I give up, I might even bring scandal to the church.<\/p>\n
Now imagine that I believe that everybody in my church sins.\u00a0 I know that we are in this together, and that forgiveness is available.\u00a0\u00a0 I share the struggle that I am having with trusted friends.\u00a0 We work together to break the hold that sin has on me.\u00a0 My friend asks me awkward questions and prays for me.\u00a0 When I fall a friend is there to pick me up.\u00a0\u00a0 When I overcome we are both encouraged, and I know that there is no room for pride, but only rejoicing for us both in experiencing the power of God to free us from sin.<\/p>\n
Our Anglican pattern of general confession, especially when prepared for thoroughly, is an excellent discipline for keeping short accounts with God.\u00a0 However, it does not seem to me to have the potential for building up the body of Christ that can be found by telling it how it is, by confessing, to each other.<\/p>\n
Of course, I know that this has to be done appropriately, and there are characteristics that a church will need to have if it is to be a safe place to do this.\u00a0\u00a0 There does need to be trust, accountability, love, forgiveness, and discretion.\u00a0\u00a0 But, I believe that if we were to take what might seem like risky steps towards being more transparent with each other about our struggles with sin then we would see these things develop as God works in our fellowships.<\/p>\n
Having prepared, and confessed to each other, the third thing for us to do is to give and receive forgiveness.\u00a0 Jesus links these two very clearly in the prayer that he left for us.\u00a0 Our capacity to receive forgiveness is directly related to our capacity for giving it to others.<\/p>\n
I believe that we are more likely to be able to receive our forgiveness if we prepare for our confession thoroughly, and if we share our struggles with each other.\u00a0 With these things in place we can know that we have not hidden anything from God, and we don\u2019t have to depend on our own feeling of forgiveness, we can hear it from others who walk alongside us.<\/p>\n
However, even with these things in place, if we will not forgive others then that will prevent us from receiving our forgiveness in all its fullness.<\/p>\n
How to forgive others is a huge subject, about which much has been written and said.\u00a0 I cannot do justice to it all today, but I do want to make a couple of suggestions, based on what we have already thought about.<\/p>\n
The first is that in order to forgive someone else, preparation is useful.\u00a0\u00a0 As with our laundry bag in the washing machine, saying \u201csorry for everything\u201d doesn\u2019t tend to lead to a thorough confession, so trying to forgive everybody for everything doesn\u2019t tend to allow thorough forgiveness.\u00a0 How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.\u00a0\u00a0 How do you forgive massive injury, one sin at a time.\u00a0 Without becoming oppressive, an honest examination of what has happened or what was said may help us to do this.\u00a0 It might also allow us to see where forgiveness is needed, and where actually we need to ask for forgiveness.<\/p>\n
The second suggestion is that we don\u2019t have to forgive on our own.\u00a0\u00a0 God has put us in a family.\u00a0\u00a0 This is not permission to go and tell everybody else at church what that so and so said to me yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0 This is an encouragement not to walk alone.\u00a0 If we are struggling to forgive someone, or even to want to forgive them, or even to want to want to forgive them, then that is a struggle that we can share.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to share how we have been hurt, or who has sinned against us, but we can tell others that we are struggling, and that we need their support.<\/p>\n
I said earlier that I am here tonight because I believe that the overcoming of sin in the lives of the people of God is one of the most encouraging and vigorous demonstrations of the power of the risen Christ, and I want to see more of it.\u00a0 I believe that we will see more of this power as we realise that we are all sinners, that we are in this together, and that forgiveness is available.\u00a0 As those truths take root in our hearts we will prepare to confess our sins, we will confess our sins to each other and we will give and receive forgiveness.\u00a0 All to the glory of God. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wonder why you are here today.\u00a0 I am here because I believe that the overcoming of sin in peoples\u2019 lives is one of the most encouraging and vigorous demonstrations of the power of the risen Christ, and I want to see more of it. \u00a0If we are to see more of this power, then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[345,347,348,36,336,334,159,346,15,237],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shelton","tag-confession","tag-daniel-91-19","tag-deanery-service-of-penitence-and-reconcilation","tag-discipleship","tag-divine-grace","tag-forgiveness","tag-luke-111-4","tag-sacrament-of-confession","tag-salvation","tag-sin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}