Confess

Wow, I haven't done this in quite a while....

I'm watching General Conference (the UMC's quadrennial meeting to determine ministries, polity, etc.). Bishop Swanson preached this morning. It was not your typical UMC sermon. Here's my favorite quote - "Get on up in here, Holy Ghost! Get on up in here, Jesus!" The sermon was many things, but at least part of it was a call to confession and repentance. It was a call to renounce evil. There was more, but that is where God spoke to me. "Any Christian is susceptible to evil." "While you will 'Go' (the theme of GC), evil is going also."

Confession is an important, if overlooked, part of any worship experience. Sin & evil is that which separates us from God. Confession is a chance to "clean away the clutter" - to draw ever closer to God.

As I listened to Bishop Swanson, I thought about the "factions" present in that worship. People of opposing viewpoints who view one another as the "enemy." And I wondered...again... how many are thinking "I'm so glad he's preaching to those people. He's right 'THEY' are evil."

How often in times of confession - especially corporate confession - do we think, "I hope all these sinners are confessing." Or, "I'm glad we offer a chance for these sinners to confess." How often do we take that time to think about and "see" evil in others? All the while ignoring the evil/sin in us and, I think, the true evil around us.

Jesus told us how ridiculous it is to reach for a speck in someone's eye when we have a log in our own eye. How true. Here's the thing - evil blinds us to true evil.

When you have a log in your eye, you can't see. You have no idea what is around you. Let me rephrase - you have no idea what the things around you look like. You can hear things. You know they are there...but you have no idea what they look like...or exactly where they are.

Our sin blinds us. It blinds us to true evil in our world. Evil masks evil. Our sin distracts us. We can't identify evil, so we just reach for whatever sounds evil - because it sound different.

General Conference is bringing out the finger-pointing. Everyone wants to point out what or who is evil or wrong or sinful. "Progressives encourage evil!" "Conservatives are hateful!" "You're prideful!" "He's manipulative." All the while, logs are firmly planted. "I'm orthodox." "I'm loving." "I'm accepting." "I'm biblical."

Our logs don't just blind us from seeing true evil. My logs keep me from seeing the evil/sin in me.

There is evil in this world. True evil that we, as Christians, have to speak against. Hate and oppression of marginalized people. Violence against the helpless. Children (and adults) dying of starvation. Countless people with no access to clean water. Those in power exploiting those who are powerless. The list goes on...

But we don't talk much about those things. Our logs are too big.

Here's my hope. I hope for true confession and true repentance....  Not for "the world". Not for sinners. Not for society. Not for the church. I hope and pray for true, honest confession and true, honest repentance.... for ME.

God, forgive me, I pray.