“True Confessions”
11 Pentecost B (Proper 16) –
John 6:56-69
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Grace and Peace to you from our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I called this sermon True Confessions before I remembered that there is actually a magazine called True Confessions (and its sister publications True Experience and Modern Romance). It was pretty popular when I was growing up – basically a women’s magazine. I wondered if it was still around today or whether feminism and changes in women’s tastes may have left these sorts of publications behind.
It’s still out there, most commonly now in the racks by the checkout lines. “Our reader-to-reader stories are heartbreaking, hilarious and inspiring. We look into the hearts and homes of women and reveal their greatest joys and disappointments. In short.” True Confessions magazine is about confessing the events of women’s lives, and sharing the meaning of people and relationships in the lives of the writer and the reader. The hope is that the author’s “confession” will touch or connect with readers.
At first glance this kind of true confession would seem to have little to do with the confession we made at the beginning of the service – our confession of sin. For one thing, our confession was a corporate confession. This is not the same thing as a CEO spilling the beans about his company’s financial skullduggery.
Corporate here is as in group or the latin “corpus” – body. Rather than a single author confessing her true story, we, together, as the body of Christ, confess as individuals gathered in the name of Christ.
This corporate confession is remarkable for a number of reasons. First, have you ever thought how astonishing it is that we confess in public – to God and to one another. Where else in your life does such a thing happen at all, let alone every week?
Second, we make this confession of sin freely – sometimes grudgingly, often nervously. Often we don’t even know everything we’ve done wrong, people we’ve hurt. Other times we’re too ashamed to name our sins. So our confession is to ask God to read what is in our hearts. We ask the Spirit to carry our sins before God because all we can do is groan or cry at the thought of our failings. But however we do it, WE DO IT, we freely acknowledge the sin and open ourselves to God’s judgment.
I like the Law and Order shows, especially Law and Order Criminal Intent. It’s great to watch Vincent d’Onofrio, who plays the brainiac-nerd odd-ball detective get confessions out of suspects. How he gets in their face with his head cocked sideways, challenging them, taunting them to continue their lies and fake alibis.
We come to church and confess voluntarily. No grilling required. Remarkable.
The third, and most remarkable thing of all about corporate confession is that we make this confession not with dread or a sense of doom, but with hope. That’s why we are able to confess at all – because in his mercy has given his Son to die for us, and for his sake forgives us ALL out sins.”
And God does this knowing full well that our very natures bind us to sin again. Unlike the legal system, the world of Law and Order, where all it takes is one confession to convict. We find ourselves week after week confession the same sad list of sins. And God forgives us day after day week after week.
Imagine how you would if God put conditions on his forgiveness. If he sounded like a parent at the end their tether with a rebellious child. “I’ll forgive you today. But I might not forgive you tomorrow.” Where is the hope for us then?
Our hope is not in a legal system. Our hope is not in our act of confession. Our hope, as the hymn puts it so well, is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ love and righteousness.
Our hope is in the one to whom we confess our sins. The one who is love and righteousness. The one who has the words of eternal life, as Peter says, in a very different confession in our gospel today. This confession is not a confession of sin but a confession of faith in the one to whom we can confess all our sin.
Likewise the confession of faith that follows these words of eternal life, we as the Body of Christ confess the truth of what God has done, who he reveals himself to be in his word and deeds. We acknowledge, admit and declare that this is so – that the triune God forgives, redeems, and sanctifies us through the Gospel.
And no where more so than in today’s gospel. You may recognize these words as part of our gospel alleluia, the music which introduces the reading of the gospel. Alelleuia Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Alleluia
The entire four weeks of bread, bread, bread in our gospel readings leads us to Peter’s joyous – and true – confession. Jesus is the one come down from heaven, Jesus is the bread of life, the Word of God made flesh made bread – embreaded, if you will – for us and for our salvation.
This is not a confession of sin. It is a confession of faith in the Savior who has frees us from our sin. The Savior who abides with us as a living being – in the bread, in the word, in the spirit. He is not an emotion, or and experience or an attitude. He is real.
And as you confess your sin and receive forgiveness. As we confess our faith, our true confession in this living Jesus becomes our true reality. For when we receive Christ, we receive, as sheer gift, our true selves, our authentic selves.
We hear about people searching for the “real me”, trying to find out who they are and how to discover meaning in their lives. Jesus question to Peter cuts through the clutter, the searching, the complaining, the offended sensibilities of the Jews and the followers in these bread texts. Jesus asks, “Do you also wish to go away?”
So simple. So direct. It cuts to the heart of the questions of faith in this time or any other. Do you wish to leave the one who is the bread of life and word of eternal life who dies so you will live? Do you wish to turn your back on this man? The language Jesus uses asks the question in way that expects (or hopes) we will say “NO! We don’t want to go away! We want to stay with you!”
Or as Peter says, Lord to whom shall we go? There is no one else! I believe you are the bread. I believe you are the living Word of God come down from heaven. There is no one else!
In this true confession, Peter proclaims the good news. He makes a living confession of the living God. And so do we – when we confess our sins (as we did), when we confess our faith (as we will) and when we eat and drink of the God to whom and in whom we confess.
So often we look to Jesus for moral teaching, religious truth – we have been taught to see him and his life as something to be taught when what he really asks is that we love him. True Love of Christ is the Truest Confession we can make.
Your confession will touch people. When they see and experience Christ in you, your life and your faith, you proclaim the gospel as surely as if you were standing in a pulpit.
May we receive faith to believe that Jesus is the Holy One of God. And the strength to confess the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
Amen.
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