Confession Is Good For The Soul
BY REV. CHRISTIAN BARONย -March 6, 2016- Lent 4, Year C:ย Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.
โFor this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.โ
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
I spent 26 hours this weekend in Three Rivers with College Students and folks in their 20s and 30s. Eight of us went on a Lenten Retreat and stayed in a guest house owned by one of the Deacons of our Diocese. It was a wonderful time of deep conversation, juvenile laughter and sacred silence.
Some of our conversations revolved around deep theological questions such as sin, human nature, suffering, and the joys and pains of community.
We talked about the future and the past.
Jobs, College, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
We also talked about life and death, justice and our own personal meat eating ethic.
We spent time eating home cooked meals, playing games and sitting in the hot tub.
We went to St Gregoryโs, the Episcopal Monastery in Three Rivers, and prayed with the monks.
We spent Saturday morning in silence as we meditated and read and prayed with mandalas and walked the trails on the property. On the trails we encountered deer and all of creation and a personal God.
Iโll remember all of these things fondly as I think back on the relationships that have been formed in our post high school group through our partnership with Hope College and Hope Church.
But what I will remember most from this retreat is that for the first time in my life, I was a penitent in the Rite of reconciliation.
I confessed my sins to a priest and heard the words of absolution in a new and fresh way. Others also made their first confession though Iโm certain they noticed that mine took the longest.
You should know, that as one of the priests of this parish, I have sinned. I have done some bad things in my life and even recently. Iโm not talking scandalous hereโฆ you need not worryโฆ Iโm not going to jail or being defrockedโฆ But my sin has affected others. ย And it has affected how I see the world and how I treat others. It affects how I am connected to the creator of the Universe. And though my sin wonโt make the news and wonโt land me in the bishopโs officeโฆ in my connections to everything around me, I guess it is pretty scandalous.
And you have your own scandalsโฆ your own sinโฆ your own broken and bruised relationships.
Some of us think more about our sin than is helpful and some of us spend less time thinking about our sin than is helpful. Either way, I donโt think that either approach is intentionalโฆ but this expresses the need to live an examined life. We have blind spots. We have sinned. We have hurt people we loveโฆ
Sins in which you have been the perpetrator, sins in which you have been the victim and everything in betweenโฆ Sin is a big dealโฆ And, Iโll say, I think that each of youโฆ each of usโฆ is doing the best we canโฆ each of us is working with a different deck of cards and trying to make the best hand. Trying to live fully into our humannessโฆ For those of us in this building, we are trying to become more like Jesus Christ and to live into our baptismal covenantโฆ To work against selfishness and to offer the love of God to all those around us. Part of that is living an examined life.
In the parable today, we get to see some good examples of the consequences of sin.
We see the strained relationships.
The lack of dignity and respect for family.
We see the exploitation by those with money and power against those who have very little.
We see the bitterness of a son who feels trapped and unappreciatedโฆ The bitterness of the daily grind of trying to live a disciplined life.
Talk about scandalous, this parable is filled with heartache and scandal. In fact the parable is written to shock and to offendโฆ the account of the sins of the prodigal is Lukeโs account of The Wolf of Wall Street. In fact, the way that the younger brother is described is almost exactly like Leonardo Dicaprio in the Wolf of Wall Street. The partiesโฆ the squanderingโฆ the sexual immoralityโฆ the backstabbingโฆ the short term and false relationships.
There is so much here in this story. ย So much that we can gloss over because this story is so well known. But if you saw that movieโฆ I think the writer of the gospelโฆ this parable of Jesusโฆ was going for the same emotions we felt watching the film. The character is repulsive.. The reader is meant to be made illโฆ to ask, โwhat kind of person would do these things?โ
The fact is, the youngest son did not care for anybody but himself. His request for his inheritance is to wish for his Fatherโs death. He cares not for the family nor for the estate. He abandons his culture for immediate gratificationโฆ
Whether you identify more with the younger son or the older son, it is important to realize how obscene and egregious the younger sonโs actions are.
Though his father wasnโt actually dead, it must have brought him to a place right next to death. This action would have been humiliatingโฆ embarrassingโฆ and the opposite of justice.
It wasโฆ sinful.
It cut off relationship with the father and the fatherโs other son. With the rest of the family estate. The younger son became dead to the older sonโฆ to the servantsโฆ to the family estateโฆ he became dead to allโฆ except for the Father.
For meโฆ todayโฆ this is the brilliance and beauty of this parable.
The Father chooses to die for the benefit of his son. He chooses to submit because of his wisdom. He knows his son is in trouble. He knows that his son is on a path to death and destruction. He knows that death is coming for this young man. He knows that pain is inevitableโฆ for all parties involvedโฆ
But he hopes for reconciliationโฆ He hopes for life. He hopes for a new creation. He hopes for for resurrection. He hopes.
But the Father knows he needs to create an environment where resurrection can happen. He knows that his son is on a path that will not lead to life. He knows that this path can only lead to deathโฆ and that he cannot stop it.
He knows he can only create space for resurrectionโฆ and so so he puts his pride aside. He endures the humiliation of giving up half of his estate and watches his son walk away.
And what if he hadnโt? What if the father had refused to give up the inheritance? What if he instead made it known that โno son of his would be shaming the family name. Shaming the family, stealing any chance of legacy and spitting in the face of the man who sacrificed so much for his well being.โ
What if instead of waiting for his son to return with his arms wide openโฆ instead of hoping that someday he would returnโฆ ย what if he had crossed those arms and refused to submit to his sonโs request?
It certainly was a gamble, but instead of gambling on cut-off, he gambled on love.
He placed all of his chips, almost literally, on love.
And he lost everything… and… still hit the jackpot. He lost half of the what the family had worked so hard forโฆ potentially generations of hard work and disciplineโฆ
At some point, the son was sitting in pig fecesโฆ eating pig food, closer to death than he ever thought possibleโฆ and he remembered the Fatherโs goodness.
He remembered the Fatherโs love.
And… The love, this goodness… drew him back.
The Fatherโs love drew him back.
Not because he wanted another portion of the inheritance, but because he finally was able to internally confess his sin and the pain he must have caused the family and specifically his Father.
He turns aroundโฆ he turns around and starts walking back to goodness.
And the Good Father was watching for himโฆ was waiting for himโฆ was hoping for him.
But without the spiritual death of the youngest sonโฆ and the sacrificial death of the good fatherโฆ the reconciliation would not have been possible. The son seems to have needed to go through thisโฆ to go through this painful and messy deathโฆ so that he could experience resurrection.
And so we come back to our sin.
Your sin and mineโฆ
Our sins that have separated us from one another and from those that have been placed in our lives and therefore from our God.
These sinsโฆ these actions and systems that have divided us, need to be addressed.
They need to be addressed if we want to be restored in a healthy way to those around us.
The good news is that we say the general confession each week before Eucharist.
But the other news is, we all have relationships that have suffered and that are broken or bruised because of our actions.
And, the truth is, we cannot be reconciled unless we confess those sins and to clear the air. That is the point of Lentโฆ We want to put ourselves and the Church in a place that is poised for resurrection. We want to create an environment that cultivates resurrection. Without that workโฆ possibilities are limited. Resurrection is stunted. Reconciliation is unlikely. Make space in these next 3 weeks of Lent. Do the hard work composting your scraps so that God can turn our waste into good soilโฆ Cultivate an environment that hopes for resurrection. Have an open postureโฆ with arms wide openโฆ so that when resurrection comes calling, you are readyโฆ
โHappy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away.โ
Amen