The Confession and Absolution

Way back when Prayer Book revision was a hot button issue, I recall that one of the points of objection was the changing of the 1928 Prayer Book words of the Nicene Creed from “I believe” to the original, ancient “We believe.” The criticism was “I don’t know what YOU believe, so why should I say ‘We’?” The answer, of course, is what was said earlier in this series of articles: The Nicene Creed is the Church’s formal statement of belief. It is what “the Church” believes, though any one of us may at any time be more or less firm in our belief in the Creed’s particular claims. The “we” is “We the Church.”

But that’s not my point. Those objectors didn’t seem to have any trouble with the language of the confession which, time out of mind, had said, “We confess.” WE confess. It is a corporate confession as much as it is a personal confession – maybe more so. It is not a breast-beating “I am not worthy. I am a worm and no man.” (sic). It is an acknowledgment that we, as a body, have fallen short of Christ’s vision of what a community founded on love can be. C. S. Lewis once said that he felt dishonest when he said the Prayer Book words “the burden (of our sins) is intolerable.” He said he didn’t feel any intolerable load as a result of his sins. Then, he says, he realized the confession was not about his feelings. It was simply making a statement of fact. We screw things up, individually and corporately, and we can acknowledge and be appropriately sorry for that.

And what is “sin”? There is a useful distinction between “Sin” and “sin.” Capital “S” sin is the human condition. The world is broken in some way, and we inevitably feel a separation from God, from our neighbors and our true selves. This is the human condition. It is the world we are born into. This separation from God, others and self – and the fear that this inevitable separation engenders in us – causes us to act in defensive and selfish ways. Those defensive and selfish ways are “sins.” Capital “S” Sin leads us to little “s” sin. It is healthy for heart, mind and soul (and body as we are now learning) to get honest about this, by acknowledging our fear and the bad choices it leads us to. Confession is not about “I am not worthy, I am not worthy” so much as it is about “We are worth so much more than we are giving ourselves credit for.” We are God’s beloved. Immediately following this confession of the way things are, the priest or bishop PRONOUNCES God’s forgiveness. The priest does not “forgive.” God forgives (even before we ask); the priest or bishop merely assures us all of the forgiveness that God’s unconditional love offers us.