Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Carol Swanson.
I share here some of Marjorie Suchocki’s theological reflections from her chapter “Prayers of Personal Confession,” In God’s Presence:
Prayers of personal confession refer to naming ourselves before God as we truly are, owning to God and to ourselves the harm that we have done to others. The work of naming is at the same time the work of contrition and release toward the transformation that is yet possible for ourselves and others. Prayer of corporate confession deal with not so much the sin of each person, but the web of ill-being in which we together participate. Together we exploit the earth, …tend toward fear and hatred …or openly despise….engage in massive national egoisms….engage in wars. (pp 67-68)
What can even God do? Impulses toward confession are God’s way of leading one past the block of one’s sin toward a richer and deeper self lived within communal interdependence. Thus confession, which is the contrite naming of who we really are, unblocks us, opening us up for our good. Naming is important, because honesty before God brings us into greater conformity with God’s knowledge of us. (p 73)
In a world where God feels the world, all acts or intentions that work pain in the world work pain in God as well. …Confession of sin must recognize this through the double confession: we have sinned against others, and in so doing, have sinned also against God. (p 75)
Sin has a rippling effect, creating ill-being that spills over beyond what may have been its intended sphere. Though we confess our sin against another, we can never know the full effect of our sin, either in the person we have directly harmed, or in those who may have been harmed secondarily….and these others can, in their own turn, perpetuate the pain. Thus, when we confess our sins to God, we do so knowing that we do not have knowledge of the full extent of our sins. Confession therefore requires not only a naming of what we know, but acknowledgment that there is a wider sphere of injury known to God. (p 76)
Our sins block us from receiving our own good…. Sin is like the dam that holds back the waters of God’s grace; confession is like the breaking of the dam, releasing the divine waters for our thirsty souls. This divine will toward our well-being is itself God’s forgiveness. Our reception of this forgiveness is a at once our movement beyond our sin and into the transformation God makes possible for us. (76-77)
The ground of this forgiveness is not our own confession, or our own character, but God’s own character as revealed to us in Christ. Through Christ, we learn to trust this God who is for us, and to dare the confessions that open us to God’s well-being. God is ever open to our good, prompting us toward those prayers of confession that will open us, also to the good of God. This is the grace of God, working toward us and for us, in the forgiveness of sins. …
Confession is conversion. The call of God to confessional prayer is not like some means to another end, it is both means and end. Thus the process of confessing our sins is also the reality of experiencing the forgiveness of sins. We do not first confess, and then receive forgiveness—to the contrary, the confession is itself the appropriation of God’s generous love, already long since manifest for us, toward us, in Christ. (77-78)
I invite you to pray Psalm 51, paraphrased by Nan C. Merrill in Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness.
Have mercy on me O Gracious One,
according to your steadfast love;
According to your abundant kindness
forgive me where my thoughts and deeds have hurt others.
Lead me in the paths of justice,
guide my steps on paths of peace!
Teach me, that I may know my weaknesses,
the shortcomings that bind me,
The unloving ways that separate me,
that keep me from recognizing your Life in me;
For, I keep company with fear, and
dwell in the house of ignorance.
Yet, I was brought forth in love,
and love is my birthright. …
Create in me a clear heart, O Gracious One,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Enfold me in the arms of Love, and
fill me with your Holy Spirit.
Restore in me the joy of your saving grace,
and encourage me with a new spirit.
[These books are in our PoP library.]