Writings: Confession and Repentance

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

Where were you and what were you doing in the afternoon of January 6, 2021? I was in the middle of doing three different things: I was working on our Church’s year-end report, which has to be filed with the Conference this week; I was waiting on hold with the doctor’s office, inquiring about an appointment for my mother; and, I had the TV news on mute in the background. It had been a frustrating morning, and so the news alert that flashed across the screen and snatched away my attention in the early afternoon was startling.

A crowd of protestors had surrounded and broken into the Capitol Building in Washington DC! A scrolling report was saying that the joint-session of Congress, which had been in session to certify the Electoral College vote for President, had been suspended and the lawmakers were being evacuated! I turned to the TV and sat mesmerized for several hours as I watched what felt like a bad movie, but was actually real- life, take place before my eyes. In the pit of my stomach, I felt dread. Tears were welling up in my eyes, and I felt my heart breaking for our nation, for our leaders, and for our future as a society while violence raged on Capitol Hill. I know that passions are high and tensions are great; I know that a lot of people are angry and that fear and anxiety are swirling in our nation. None of this justifies a violent mob breaking into and vandalizing the Capitol building, killing a police officer, and placing our elected representatives and the future of our Republic in jeopardy.

Our society is a jumbled-up mess; in that sense, it’s not very different from the world and the society of Jesus’ day. Then, as now, the world was in a perpetual state of confusion. The religious and political leaders – one and the same, really – were constantly scrambling for a footing amidst the prolonged Roman occupation of Judea, the resulting cultural and religious disruptions, and the corresponding corruption of leaders in high places. It was a wild time, and things haven’t changed much since then, have they?

Notice what the scripture says:

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. (Mark 1:4-5)

Into the jumbled-up mess of the world came John the Baptizer and large crowds, starving and thirsting for spiritual and religious renewal, flocked to him. They came “confessing their sins” because they knew they were in trouble and that the solution to their problems could only be found through reconciliation with God. And, yes indeed, that’s where we are. As a nation, a society, and a people, that’s what we need: repentance, confession, and reconciliation. But are we really ready to do it?

When was the last time you actually confessed your sins to God? I hate to say this, but if we’re honest with ourselves most of us would have to admit that it’s been a rather long time since we laid our souls bare before our Maker. But we must! You see, like the people of Jerusalem, “we ... the people” of privilege have much to confess.

We have a Confession of Sin that we pray every time we go to the Table of the Lord. This confession has some very powerful words in it, but we often just rush through it, praying it by rote but not really listening to the words as we pray them. I want you to listen to those words, now, and really pay attention to what they’re saying:

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your name. Amen.

Where and how have we sinned against God and each other? Where have we sinned through what we have done and by what we have left undone? Sometimes it’s the doing that gets us in trouble; other times it’s what we haven’t done, but should have done, that’s the problem. What have we left undone – as individuals, as a church, as a community, as a nation, as a people? The poor, the needy, the lost, the forgotten, the rejected, the widows and orphans; those in prisons or in hospitals; the elderly, locked away and ignored in their crowded nursing homes; the children, left to fend for themselves day after day; all those marginalized to the edge of society, denied access to the table. We have left so much undone, while doing much of what we shouldn’t have done. How have we failed to “delight in God’s will and walk in God’s ways?” Yes ... we’ve left so much undone. We have not loved God “with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.” No wonder things are falling apart.

But are we truly sorry? And, more importantly, do we humbly repent? We say these words, again and again, like we say the Lord’s prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” But do we really mean them? Looking at what’s going on in our nation, in our culture and society, it doesn’t look like it. We divide ourselves up into groups; we point the finger of blame at each other, name call, back-bite, and yell at each other. We try to silence and control others, all the while ignoring their cries for justice and demanding our own way to the exclusion of God’s way. We are not sorry, and we are not humbly repenting.

But we must. That’s what our baptisms call us to: repentance. We must repent. We must confess our sin, turn away from what we have done and from the leaving of so much undone, and toward God and each other. Indeed, we’ve already promised God that this is what we will do! In our Baptisms we promised that we would: “resist evil, injustice, and oppression, in whatever forms they present themselves.” That resistance to injustice begins right here, within each of us and our failure to repent ... if only we’ll keep our word and do it. That’s what the incarnation of Jesus was all about: God came to us in Christ, making it possible for us to change.

What happened at the Capitol on Wednesday January 6, 2021 was a travesty: it was awful, wrong, and a sin. It was blatant disregard and disrespect for our national identity and our civil discourse; it was insurrection. Indeed, it illustr ated the deep rift, the radical injustice and self-centeredness, that has gripped our society for centuries. This division, polarization, and conflict that is tearing us asunder must stop. And to do that, we who are in the majority – who have the power, position, and privilege – must accept that we’re at the heart of the problem. If we are willing to pray that prayer of confession, and mean it, what would we do that’s different?

Do you realize that, among those people who came to John for baptism that day, there were probably some who welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday with cries of: “Hosannah! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Sadly, some of them were also in that mob which cried: “Crucify him!” Where are we? Are we part of the mob storming the capitol ... not the capitol of our nation, but God's spiritual capitol? Will we pray this prayer of confession, today, and mean it? And, by meaning it, will we make a change?

© 2020 Dr. Gregory S. Neal
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