Confession eases burden of sin
How a "Prayer of Unburdening" releases a congregation to grow
Michelle Slater
Special to ChristianWeek
When a member of our congregation was diagnosed with leukemia last year, he began to write a creed of his own—a reflection on his faith at this point in his journey. He asked himself why he belonged to a religious community, a Christian community of faith. And he found three answers in himself: to belong to a community where he is loved, respected and valued; to give thanks; and to confess guilt.
As his pastor, I was deeply interested in his reflections and surprised by his identification of his need for confession. For the last 30 years, the trend in my denomination, the United Church of Canada, has been to downplay any consideration of sin and often to avoid the topic altogether.
For many members of my congregation, the words “sin,” “confession,” and “repentance” trigger feelings of guilt, shame and self-loathing. Many of them have found a home in the United Church precisely because of our reluctance to talk about sin, or encourage our members to practice confession and repentance of sin.
These brothers and sisters say that they feel welcomed in the United Church as they are, and deeply appreciate the reminders that they are beloved children of God. Yet, I am convinced that though we are made in God’s image, we are also far from living the free, whole, loving lives that our Creator longs for us to live.
I serve a congregation of the United Church on Vancouver’s wealthy West Side. Within months of arriving as this congregation’s pastor three years ago, I found that these educated, professional, high-functioning, upper middle-class people, who seem to “have it all together” in every way, are living deeply broken lives.
Just under the veneer of competence and success, hide alcoholism, troubled marriages, deep anxiety about teenaged children, “workaholism,” depression and grief.
Many of our members who are parents of school-aged children find themselves trapped in an endless and exhausting cycle of sports practices and games, music lessons, tutoring sessions, ski trips, all in an attempt to help their children be “successful,” that trains their children to live the same unmanageable and frantic lives of their parents. I don’t know a single member of our congregation who isn’t carrying a burden of some kind around inside them every day.
Reluctance to speak of sin
My church’s reluctance to speak of sin, confession and repentance grieves me, as I believe that all these signs of brokenness and distress are rooted in sin. It distresses me that so many associate the word “sin” with “crime,” in ways that leave us unable to admit the reality of our captivity to sin in the world.
Many of us, myself included, find it hard to admit that we are “bad people,” or “wicked,” or “sinful.” Associating “sin” with “crime” leads directly to the implication that when we sin, we deserve to be punished.
Yet when I turn to the biblical words for “sin,” another picture emerges. In Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, the word for “sin” comes from the same root as the word that means an arrow that missed its target, while the word for “repentance” is the word meaning to literally “turn,” or “turn around.”
In the Greek New Testament, the word translated as “sin” also literally means “miss-ing the target,” while the word for “repentance” means “a change of mind.”
Considering the first story of “sinful” behaviour in Scripture, of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, it seems clear to me that the sin Adam and Eve engaged in was the failure to trust in the God who created them, and the grasping of human power that is not rightfully ours. The consequences of their sin were a state of estrangement between humanity and God, between men and women, and between humanity and creation.
This state of estrangement, of alienation, is the sin to which we are all to some degree held captive, and in which we are all complicit, as human beings who are not God. When I consider sin to be any state of broken relationship, whether with God, with other human beings, or with creation, I can much more easily confess my own captivity to sin.
In this view, the solution to the problem of sin is not punishment, but healing, freedom and forgiveness.
Considering the brokenness that exists in the lives of many members of my congregation, I wondered how best to point to the goodness, to proclaim the gospel of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. A focus on sin seemed to get people’s defenses up, and paradoxically meant that they could not receive God’s love and forgiveness, since they were paralyzed in feelings of resentment, shame and guilt.
For this reason, some United Church pastors I know simply omit our traditional “Prayer of Confession” entirely. Yet I was not willing to overlook the need in our public worship service, for personal and corporate confession.
In talking with a colleague, I learned that she was offering a “Prayer of Unburdening” in their weekly worship service. I leapt at the idea. If there was one word that many members of my congregation would use to describe the craziness of their lives, it would be the word “burdened.” It called to mind Jesus’ call to, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
I wondered if I used the language of “burden,” rather than “sin,” whether our members could find ways to confess the brokenness of their lives, and receive the grace God longs to give them.
It has been an interesting experiment. I have not wanted to sidestep the very real issue of sin and brokenness in the lives of the members of our congregation, and indeed in the world. I am not willing to let myself, or any of us, “off the hook,” because I believe the acts of confession and receiving forgiveness to be essential to spiritual growth as a disciple of Christ.
Yet I know I have had to proceed carefully, so as to keep people’s defenses low enough to be able to engage in this spiritual practice.
Over the last three years, many members of the congregation have commented positively on the “Prayer of Unburdening” that I offer, on their behalf, each Sunday. Occasionally, someone will say to me after the service that the prayer really spoke for them and their state of being in a powerful and truthful way that day.
In addition, I have noticed an increased level of engagement in groups that lead to spiritual growth and deepening: an over-full DISCIPLE Bible study group this fall, a new Centring Prayer group, and a Healing Touch workshop offered to the community.
Our church council has committed to spend one extra evening per month together, not to conduct church “business,” but to share a meal, pray together, and learn through Bible study and discussion. I have also noticed an increased health and maturity in our communications with each other, and our decision-making.
I am convinced that this increased spiritual health and desire for deepening our relationships with God is partly a result of our turning to God, Sunday after Sunday, telling the truth of our lives in a “Prayer of Unburdening.”
To be clear, I don’t completely avoid the word “sin,” as I hope to help our congregation reclaim the word in all its biblical meanings, as any state of broken relationship. When we hear the word “sin” or “sinful” and think immediately of the opportunity to receive God’s grace and begin again, rather than feeling immediate shame and guilt, I will rejoice.
The truth of the gospel is that God does, indeed, love us as we are; yet loves us so much that he is unwilling to leave us as we are. In offering our burdens to the One who longs to transform us through forgiveness, we open ourselves to his grace. Thanks be to God!
Michelle Slater is minister of Dunbar Heights United Church in Vancouver.
A Prayer of Unburdening
Gracious God,
You are the maker of galaxies, the creator of the cosmos,
and yet closer to us than our very next breath.
We come to you, all too aware of our human frailties,
of how far we are from the people you created us to be.
In our anxiety, we grasp at things that promise security:
money, power, influence; help us surrender to you, our true source of wellbeing.
In the hurts we bear from others, we cling to grudges and resentments;
help us offer our wounds to you for freedom and release.
In our shame at what we have done wrong, how we have hurt others and ourselves,
we remain captive to our guilt; help us turn to you for forgiveness and peace.
In our fear of those who are different, we turn away from the needs of the world;
help us welcome each person we meet as a fellow child of God.
In the frantic pace of our lives, we do not turn to you for guidance, for care, for rest;
help us make space in our lives for you, as you always remain faithful to us.
Holy One, in Jesus Christ, we see you revealed: love, life, compassion and forgiveness that frees us to begin again, healed and whole.
Forgive us, free us, heal us, we pray, in His name. Amen.
