On Liturgical Confession of Sin

The real reason why a worship liturgy should include a confession of sin is because it provides the opportunity for a liturgical assurance of pardon. It's hard to have one without the other: you cannot speak of the grace and forgiveness of Jesus without having first remembered why that is necessary. And reminding the church of that grace and forgiveness has to be done on a regular basis and as part of worship. Or, at least, I need to be reminded of that (e.g., after having mentally griped about a liturgy during the service).

Just a thought.

November 7, 2004 10:26 PM
3 Comments

Yo Maphet, looking forward to seeing you in December. "you cannot speak of the grace and forgiveness of Jesus without having first remembered why that is necessary".
Do you mean as an exercise of worship, or as a necessity for receiving grace, or something else?
Teach me, oh Maphet.

Pondered by Joe at November 9, 2004 09:30 PM

As a general rule, I think simply saying "Jesus forgives" necessitates that there is something for which you need forgiving. I don't think that perfect understanding of one's sin is a prerequisite for receiving grace. But an understanding of the ways in which one needs grace do seem to help make appreciation of forgiveness deeper, at least in my experience.

Specifically/practically, my post was more of an observation. In my experience, churches that have a liturgical confession of sin always have a liturgical assurance of pardon. Churches that do not have the liturgical confession of sin will, of course, speak of Jesus' grace, just not as explicitly as they would with the liturgical assurance of pardon. I think I've simple come to appreciate hearing clearly that Jesus has forgiven me, not only of my general sins, but also of the sins I've committed in the last week.

Does that help?

Pondered by maphet at November 10, 2004 09:38 AM

Yes, I think we're on the same page. I was hoping you'd say something inflammatory so that we could get riled up. But perhaps we are mellowing with age.
It caught me, though, because we've been having this Sunday School Class at church focusing on the "who sinned -this man or his parents?" passage. The teacher pointed out that while we are quick to accept the formula that sin->consequence, we often substitute another faulty formula; sin->grace. We expect, and therefore are not amazed.
So anyways, that got me thinking about confession again.

Pondered by Joe at November 10, 2004 05:21 PM