Week Three (Accountability) - Sunday

Accountability

This session really consists of two distinct and individual habits: community and confession.  But in truth, each plays an integral part in the other’s effectiveness, so for the purpose of this spiritual formation experience they have been grouped together.  Yet, we would be remiss to talk of them only in relation to the other.  So let’s look at each of these disciplines separately and then we will be able to coalesce them in a fashion that will suit the purpose of this encounter.

Community

What do you think of when you hear the word “community?”   Do you become nostalgic for the days of yesteryear when people sat on their front porches and “visited” with one another?  Or are you drawn to the concept of when church seemed like your extended family and you knew everybody and everybody knew you?  Do you feel like community is something that has been lost in the church and will never be recovered?

Community is a very old institution and is very much biblical.  People were never intended to be alone.  God has intended since Creation for people to be in communion with one another.  We see this confirmed in Genesis 2:18, when God said, “…It is not good that the man [Adam] should be alone; I will make him a helper to be his partner.”  As we see in the following verses, God brought forth all the other creatures of the earth, but none was suitable for the man.  So God created woman to be his partner in life, to be in communion with him.

So, you may be asking, “If community is so important, why is the church changing so and not trying to keep the community that we are used to?”  The answer is  really a double-edge sword.  On the downside, community has to change as a church grows.  As new people come into its fellowship (a church word meaning “community”) the dynamics of the community changes to include them.  Otherwise, no one would ever feel a part and eventually, the community will die for lack of growth.   On the upside, while the church may be having to redefine the community on a continuous basis, we are now starting to rediscover the true meaning of community, as God had intended.

Would you believe that the church has really lost its true identity as a community of faith?  In the terms that God intend for a church to live, community is radically different from what we are accustomed to.  While the early church fathers and mothers shared all physical possessions in common, the aspects of community that needs to be revisited is the moral and spiritual realms.  Throughout the Bible, when the community of God is addressed, they shared all the joys, pains, triumphs, and punishment together.  No one was an island unto themselves.  If one person sinned, it became the sin of the community and the community had to pay the consequence.

How different the church would be if each person understood that their thoughts, words, and actions would be used to bless or smite the rest of the church?!  I would suggest that this, as far as God is concerned, has not changed.  Churches are still blessed and judged on the basis of the actions and inactions of the church as a whole and each individual.

Confession

Confession is a habit that has been all but lost in most Protestant churches.  It is still considered a sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church, but even there, it no longer holds the power that it once held.  Why is it becoming a thing of the past?  It may be because we don’t like for others to see that we are flawed.  We can blame this on at least a couple of places.  First, we can blame our culture, which only uses the absolute perfect persons to advertise or endorse their product or their way.  When those aren’t perfect enough, they are altered either physically or by computer-generated technology.  We could lay all the blame there, but if we do, we are only deceiving ourselves.  The real culprit is deeply imbedded in each of us – our ego.  We have this innate sense to be better than others, in actuality or at least in perception.  To confess our sins destroys that perception.  It makes us more…human, more flawed.

Confession has never been a staple in any Protestant church because at the time of the Protestant Reformation, the early reformers had such disdain for the Roman Catholic Church and saw so much corruption within it that they were repulsed at the idea carrying on the same practices.  Thus, the seven sacraments that the Roman Catholic Church espoused, of which confession was one, were trimmed to only two: Baptism and Holy Communion.  These two remained sacraments because they were specific edicts by Jesus for the church to continue.

Today, many in Protestant churches shirk off the notion of confession with the excuse that “no priest (human) has the authority to forgive my sins.”  That’s where the misconception lies.  The real purpose of confession is not to seek forgiveness from a person, but from God.  In confession, we are truly verbalizing our sins, our fallen state, and our need of forgiveness. Verbalizing brings it out; we say it and we hear it.  It is out there and there is no way to hide it any longer.

You may have heard the old adage, “Confession is good for the soul.”  Believe it or not, this is true not only for the soul, but for the body.  When we refuse to confess our sins, we carry around that sin within us.  Not only is a heavy load that continually wears us down, it is also destructive to our bodies.  Science confirms that persons, who worry less and have less stress in their life, live longer and healthier lives.  Even James knew this two thousand years ago!  In James 5:16, the writer says, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.”  Healing comes from getting rid of that which is making you sick!  So let’s think about this: nothing good comes from sin.  Sin eats at you, sin worries you, and sin separates you from God.  So why, in the name of Jesus, should we carry it with us?

Okay, you may say, “That makes sense, but why can’t we confess our sins in private?”  I’ll admit; I don’t like the idea of airing my dirty laundry in front of others.  But, that stems from my egotistical pride.  I want people to think that I am better than I am and basically, that my life doesn’t hold a lot of sin.  Chances are, if you are honest with yourself, you are the same.  Friends, that in itself is a sin.  When we try to minimize our sins, we are trying to be like God.

Another reason that confessing before one another is important is because it is scriptural.  If we look again at that same verse from James, 5:16, we’ll see that James is directing us to confess our sins to one another.  Why?  The reason immediately follows, so that you may “pray for one another.”  You see, we confess our sins to each other so that someone else will be praying for us.  If you are like me, when I confess my sins, I don’t feel worthy of asking God for forgiveness.  I can use someone to petition on my behalf.

Of course, we need to be frugal about who we choose to make confessions to.  The person that you choose to be your confidant needs to be one that you can feel completely open and honest with.  It must be one that you know will hold your confession in confidence and never speak of it again (unless you bring it up first).  I wish that I could say that you should be able to find that quality in any person in the church, but in reality, you can’t.  But rest assured, God has placed, or will place the right person in your midst.  This week, in your spiritual formation group, you will cover more about how to participate in confession, but for now, let us look these two practices can be joined together.

The Joining Together of Community and Confession

By now, maybe you are beginning to see the connection between community and confession.  Within the context of community is an indelible link to the need of confession and confession is of little value without community.

This week’s session is designed to heighten your awareness of the true community and how to begin to make it an aspect of value and importance in the church once again.  Once you and the others in your spiritual formation group begin to reconnect with the ancient and biblical understanding of community, you will begin to feel more at ease with confession.  Being able to find someone to be your confidant will become easier because each person realizes that breaking confidence is in itself a sin – a personal sin, a sin of the group, and ultimately a sin of the Body of Christ.  Likewise, confession within the group or to your confidant will help liberate you and the church from the restraints that the sin has held you and the church in for far too long.  It may seem awkward and even uncomfortable at first.  The confessions you make may start off as being relatively small or trivial.  But the more you confess, there will be less sin for you to carry with you and there will be more prayers lifted up to our loving and forgiving God on behalf of our sisters and brothers in the community of Christ.


JOURNAL QUESTIONS

1. Reflect on your sermon notes and journal reading from today.



GROUP EXERCISE

10 minutes - Community Building (informal time of gathering)
10 minutes - Sharing of Concerns and Praises
  5 minutes - Prayer for One Another
25 minutes - Discussion of Topic
                     - When do you think the church is at its best?
                     - Why do we feel uncomfortable with confession?
                     - Does confession have to be a "bad" thing?
                     - How can we become a confessing community?
10 minutes - Wrap Up/Closing Prayer 
                    (Maybe try a moment of confession/forgiveness in pairs)