Sunday, January 7, 2007
Well, aside from this recent posting of mine, that's about as provocative as I'll get in titling a post.
But don't misunderstand it. This comes from Jollyblogger's New Years post, in which he quotes Dietrich Bonnhoffer from Life Together:
"Confess your faults one to another" (Jas. 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. This pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. so we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!I struggle with this, both with confessing my sins to others, and with the knowledge that I am a sinner. "Surely not!", I tell myself. And then sin rears it's ugly head.
But it is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that it confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone. "My son, give me thine heart" (Prov. 23:26). God has come to you to save the sinner. Be glad! This message is liberation through truth. You can hide nothing from God. The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him. He wants to see you as you are, He wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. Thank God for that; He loves the sinner but He hates sin.
And yet the church is there, to be a hospital for the sick, a place for healing and confession and restoration. May we work this year to make our churches such places.
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." - James 5:16
Excellent, excellent post.
There is something that shrinks back from confession. That something in my life is pride - itself a sin. A sin shrinking back from confessing sin. How the Devil does scheme to wind us up in a cocoon of misery spun of our own secrecy, and how simple is the truth that sets us free from that chrysalis. That truth that God knows us, and loves us in spite of all we do to be so unworthy. It is unusual to find people in the Body whom you can trust authentically with yourself, warts and all. I suppose it ought not to be so, if we were to focus on Bonhoeffers' teachings.
I'm going to share this with the small group I lead on Wednesday mornings (ladies). I think we all wish to "take off the mask".