Jun 20 2019 The Confession

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Every morning in prayer, I pray the Confession. If I regularly prayed evening prayer, I’d pray the Confession. Every time I attend a communion service, I pray the Confession. Some days, it seems like too much. Sometimes it feels like I just confessed. Now I’m having to confess again.

And here’s what I realized this week. It’s actually really simple, and aligned with what I believe Christ calls us to do. Love God. Love your neighbor. That’s it. When we fail at these two simple (but not easy) commands, we confess. And of course I fail at that, dozens of times a day.

But I’m not confessing that I lost my temper. That I swore. That I ate an extra cookie. Those are the particulars of my day, and those are important to keep in mind, because otherwise a confession of sin purely theoretical. I had a priest who actually kept a slip of paper in his pocket and he’d write down the things he’d done in the day or week. Before the prayers, he’d review his list so that when he confessed, he knew exactly what he was confessing about.

And while I appreciate the level of precision, this week, I’m struck by the larger arc of the confession. It talks about how – through thought, word, and deed. By what we’ve done, and not done. But here’s what I find interesting. When you get down to exactly what we’re confessing, it’s only two things.

We have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

Or in other words, Love God. Love your Neighbor.

Maybe I’ve spent a lot of time in places and with people who focus on the particulars, and sometimes I feel the particulars are petty. Or punitive. Or hard to keep track of. Or too small for God to care about. But for me, I have a new-found appreciation for the confession, because it too, focuses back on these two commandments. Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. If we believe what Jesus said when commanded that this is all that’s required to be a Christ Follower, of course I need the confession. I’m not confessing unkind thoughts. Or that work pen I stole. Or that time I didn’t speak up against injustice. I’m confessing that in those actions and inactions, I demonstrated the truth that Jesus’ commands are simple to remember, but not easy to consistently execute.

This morning, I’m thinking about the forest and the trees. For me, now, I’ve been very good at focusing on the trees. This slight. That omission. Those unkind words. That bad action. Those are real, and I absolutely need to remain aware of them. But I also need to rise out of the trees to see the forest. In the context of the Confession, the forest is that I have not done the two simple things Christ commanded. Of course I haven’t all the time! But when I stay focused on that forest, I can come to the Confession with a newfound openness. Of course I need to confess, probably hourly. It’s all about those two commandments. If I remember those two, and recognize when I’ve fallen short, make my confession, I’m able to keep those two simple but not easy commandments front and center. Love God. Love my Neighbor. That’s it.