Many of you are familiar with the controversy surrounding Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker. Last December, in a profanity-laced Sports Illustrated interview, he denounced New York City for having so many minorities, homosexuals, and foreigners. He vowed that he would rather retire from baseball than live in a city where you could walk an entire block and not hear anyone speaking English. I will refrain from quoting his more pointed remarks. Suffice it to say they were unconscionable and tasteless and seemingly racist.
In the weeks following the publication of John Rocker's interview with Sport Illustrated, minority groups and gay activists began protesting. Newspapers and the airwaves began buzzing with criticism and condemnation. The media cast John Rocker as the very embodiment of racism, intolerance, and bigotry in America. He was politically incorrect. The National Baseball League quickly moved to suspend him and fine him. They even had him submit to a battery of psychological tests.
In the end, John Rocker stood before members of the press and issued a pseudo apology. In his first apology Rocker blamed members of the media for overestimating his significance and making the situation bigger than the game. He also apologized and said that he was sorry for those who took his comments personally and who perceived his comments to be malicious.
Rocker's apology had an explosive impact. Instead of taking responsibility for his careless words and saying, "I was wrong", Rocker seemed to shift the blame onto the Mets fans, reporters, and New Yorkers by implying that they were somehow delinquent in the incident. The result is that John Rocker continues to be a symbol for hatred and racism.
"I was wrong."
This morning, we come to look at the last of the six phrases that build Christian community. It is this last phrase that is the most difficult of all. Let's say it together. "I was wrong. Forgive me."
Friends, it is hard coming to terms with the reality of sin in our lives. It is hard facing ourselves and saying, "I am a _________." It is hard looking people in the eye and saying, "I was wrong. Will you forgive me?" It is hard going through the embarrassment and shame of telling others that we have disappointed them or fallen short of God's will. And it is hard taking responsibility for our actions, especially when the consequences are great and our actions have hurt a great number of people.
One day a man returned to his car in a parking lot and found a note under his windshield wiper. The note read as follows. "I just smashed into your car. The people who witnessed the collision are watching me. They probably think that I am writing down my name and address. I am not. They are wrong. Have a great day." There was nothing more written on the note.
Despite the difficulty we have in saying the words, "I was wrong", as Christians we need to rediscover the importance and power of confessing our sins to one another. James 5:16 (NIV) says, "Therefore confess your sins toeach another and pray for each other so that you may be healed." In order to appreciate the importance of confession, we must understand several truths.
God never intended for us to live the Christian life alone.
Of the hundreds of commands in scripture, few, if any, are given to individuals. The commands of scripture are always given to the Church at large. God's intention is that we do his will together as a community and not alone, by ourselves, as strangers to other Christians.
God never intended for us to conquer sin alone.
Sin thrives in the darkness and privacy of our minds. The more we keep it to ourselves, the more it deceives us and brings us under its power. God wants us to bring our sin out of the darkness and into the light. Bringing it into the light weakens sin's power over us. John 3:20 (NIV) says, "Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear his deeds will be exposed. In contrast John 3:21 (NIV) says, "But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
In our garage we have these enormous green slugs. They are the largest slugs I have ever seen. At night I have to walk through the garage to let our dogs outside. I used to walk through our garage barefoot to let the dogs out, until late one disgusting night. Those slugs make one sickening mess. Anyhow, there are two things that get rid of slugs, salt and light. If you leave the lights on, you will never see a slug.
The light dispels the darkness. The light drives out sin. Come into the light. God wants us to bring our patterns of sin out of hiding where they can be conquered through the support of a caring, confessing Christian community. It is in isolation that we are the most susceptible and vulnerable to sin. It is in isolation that we shut ourselves off from the resources that we need to conquer sin. With this in mind, let us talk about confessing our sins. James 5:16 (NIV) says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." Confession is a necessary part of our being healed and it involves several components.
Confession involves coming before God.
There can be no awareness of sin apart from entering God's presence. In Job 42:5-6 (NIV) Job says, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." In Revelation 1:17 (NIV) John saw the resurrected Christ and he tells us, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead." Despite his closeness to Christ and his apostolic authority, Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15 declares himself to be the worst of sinners.
It is in God's presence, in the presence of light and truth, that we see ourselves as we truly are. We see ourselves in all our imperfections and human frailties. It is in the light that we are forced to wrestle with the infinite contrast between God's holiness and our utter sinfulness. In God's presence the motives of your heart, the noise of your thoughts, the images of your mind, the cravings of your body, and the commitments of your will are exposed for what they are.
In his book The Life You've Always Wanted John Ortberg tells the story of Charles Steinmetz, a genius electrical engineer for General Electric in the early 1900's. On one occasion after his retirement, when other engineers around GE were baffled by the breakdown of an entire complex of machines, they finally asked Steinmetz to come back to see if he could pinpoint the problem. Steinmetz spent several minutes walking around the machines before taking a piece of chalk out of his pocket and making a cross mark on one particular piece of one particular machine. To their amazement, when the engineers disassembled that part of the machine, it turned out to be the precise location of the breakdown.
A few days later the engineers received a bill from Steinmetz for ten thousand dollars, a staggering sum in those days. This seemed exorbitant, so they returned it to him with a request that he itemize it. After a few more days, they received a second itemized bill. It read, "Making one cross mark- $1.00; knowing where to put it- $9999.00." In confession, we come before God to discover his diagnosis for our lives. We approach him to become aware of the problem of sin in our lives. Confession involves coming before God.
Confession involves self-examination.
Lamentations 3:40 (NIV) says, "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord." Job 13:23 (NIV) says, "How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin."
In his book The Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster tells of a time when he longed for more power to do the work of God. He says, "I felt inadequate to deal with many of the desperate needs that confronted me. There had to be more spiritual resources than I was experiencing. 'Lord', I prayed, 'is there more you want to bring into my life? I want to be conquered and ruled by you. If there is anything blocking the flow of your power, reveal it to me.' "
Almost instantly Foster tells us that the Lord gave him the distinct impression that something in his past was impeding the flow of his life. So he divided his life into three periods which included childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. He tells us, "On the first day I came before God in prayer and meditation, pencil and paper in hand. Inviting him to reveal to me anything during my childhood that needed either forgiveness or healing or both. I waited in absolute silence for some ten minutes. Anything about my childhood that surfaced, I wrote down. The next day I went through the same exercise for my adolescence and the third day for my adult years." After three days Foster had a detailed list of specific sins he felt he needed to confess. Martin Luther King used the ten commandments to help examine his life. Others use various lists of sin that are mentioned throughout scripture.
The point is that through self-examination, we can discover what is impeding God's work in our lives and we can in turn take those things before God in prayer. Confession involves coming before God. Confession involves self-examination.
Confession involves taking personal responsibility.
A "Dennis the Menace" cartoon has Dennis kneeling at his bedside, hands folded, with his eyes looking toward heaven. With an imploring look on his face he prays, "I'm here to turn myself in!"
John Ortberg says, "At the heart of it, confession involves taking appropriate responsibility for what we have done. To confess means to own up to the fact that our behavior wasn't just the result of bad parenting, poor genes, jealous siblings, or a chemical imbalance from too many Twinkies. Any or all of those factors may be involved. Human behavior is a complex thing. But confession means saying that somewhere in the mix was a choice, and the choice was made by us and it does not need to be excused, explained, or even understood. The choice needs to be forgiven. The slate has to wiped clean."
Back in 1970 Katherine Power, a student at Brandeis University in Boston, was the leader of radical National Student Strike Force. She and several others planned to raise money to buy arms for the Black Panthers by robbing a bank. Kathy agreed to drive the getaway car. To make a long story short, the robbery got botched up and a patrolman was killed by one of Kathy's accomplices. Kathy was immediately listed as armed and dangerous on the FBI's most wanted list.
In the late 1970's Kathy moved to Oregon, changed her name, settled down, started a business, bought a home, got married, started a family, and became active in her community. She had every reason to be at peace, but at age forty-four she was desperately tired, tormented by guilt, and chronically depressed. So finally she did the only thing she felt she could to end her agony. In September 1993 she turned herself into the Boston police and confessed. She explained, "I am now learning to live with openness and truth rather than shame and hiddenness."
True freedom comes in facing up to the truth and taking responsibility. Friends, we alone are responsible for our sinful choices, and God expects us to take responsibility and say, "I was wrong." Psalm 41:4 (NIV) says, "O Lord, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you." In Psalm 51:3-4 (NIV) David says, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight."
When you come before God, try working some of these phrases into your prayers. "I have sinned. My transgressions. I have done what is evil. I was wrong. I have no one to blame but myself. I turn myself in. I take responsibility for my behavior. Please forgive me." Confession involves coming before God. Confession involves self-examination. Confession involves taking personal responsibility.
Confession involves making a promise.
What good is confession if we have no intention of changing our ways? Richard Foster says, "A determination to avoid sin is essential for a good confession. We must desire to be conquered and ruled by God." We must not come before God in confession with further sin in mind. In Luke 19:8 (NIV) Zaccaheus said, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. "
Confession involves telling a person.
James 5:16 (NIV) says, "confess your sins to each other...." It takes great courage for us to confess our sins to one another.
Four preachers met for their monthly ministerial meeting. During their conversation one preacher said, "Our people come to us pouring out their hearts, confessing their sins. Let's do the same. Confession is good for the soul." In due time, they all agreed. One preacher confessed that he liked to go to movies and would sneak off when away from his church. The second confessed that he liked smoking cigars. The third confessed that he liked playing cards. When it came to the fourth preacher, he wouldn't confess! The others pressed him saying, "Come now, we confessed ours. What is your secret or vice?" Finally he answered, "It is gossiping, and I can hardly wait to get out of here!"
Richard Foster touches on something very important in his book. He says, "Confession is a difficult discipline for us because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We cannot bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy."
We need to support each other, and be open and honest about our sins.
As a church, we need to change our tone. All of us are sinners. We need to support each other. We need to be open and honest with one another. We need to give each other permission to come out of hiding where we can confess our needs openly and experience God's forgiveness. We need to be a place where people can come and get things off their chests and experience freedom from the burden of their guilt and shame. We need to be a place where people find accountability and a caring community that will lift them up in prayer.
No one should come to this place feeling like they have to deny their humanity and put on a mask and cover up their sins. This should be a place for honest confession and complete healing. Confession involves coming before God. Confession involves self-examination. Confession involves taking personal responsibility. Confession involves making a promise to change. Confession involves telling a person about your sins. The right kind of person, mind you!
Earlier, I told you how Richard Foster divided his life into three epochs and how he worked up a list of sins he felt he needed to confess before God. With his list in hand, he tells us he went to a dear brother in Christ. He says, "Slowly, sometimes painfully, I read my sheet, adding only those comments necessary to make the sin clear. When I had finished, I began to return the paper to my briefcase. Wisely, my counselor/confessor gently stopped my hand and took the sheet of paper. Without a word he took a wastebasket, and as I watched he tore the paper into hundreds of tiny pieces and dropped them into it. That powerful, nonverbal expression of forgiveness was follow by a simple absolution. My sins, I knew, were as far away as the east is from the west."
"Next, my friend, with the laying on of hands, prayed a prayer of healing for all the sorrows and hurts of the past. The power of that prayer lives with me today. There was one interesting sidelight. The exposure of my humanity evidently sparked a freedom in my counselor and friend, for directly following his prayer for me, he was able to express a deep and troubling sin that he had been unable to confess until then. Freedom begets freedom.
Friend, don't struggle with your sins alone. Come before God, examine your life, take responsibility, and promise to change. But please, reach out to a brother or sister in Christ. And be healed. James 5:16 (NIV) says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."