Pipe-Cleaner for the Soul

Call to Confession

God has drawn the church into covenant, calling us to be faithful people who walk in the ways of Christ. Yet how often do we explore what that means or examine our behavior against the example of Christ? A time of confession gives us the opportunity to reclaim and grow in our relationship with God.

A covenant is another name for a contract. Our worship service this Sunday will recall a covenant made between Abram and God (Genesis 15). Abram was promised a legacy in exchange for promising faithfulness to God. That is an ancient story and our distance from it is equally vast. The idea that we are all somehow heirs in God’s family and have specific rights and responsibilities seems remote. I have citizen’s rights as an American and thus I have responsibilities to the IRS; do I have similar rights and responsibilities to God?

Confession

God of all people, we confess that we claim you majesty and power for our exclusive benefit. We relish the good things of life and are reluctant to share with those who seem less deserving. We resist the prophets who point out our greed, even when we feel we are being generous. We resent persons in positions of authority over us who seem not to have our best interests at heart. We are angry about one whose evil deeds seem to go unpunished. O God, how can we receive your mercy when we are so reluctant to pass it on? Help us to center our lives in your love more than our own desires.

For weeks now I have driven past a “Vote for Scott Brown” sign that was written in sloppy black ink onto a white, 10-gallon, plastic container lid and bolted to a telephone pole. The sign was taken down not after Scott won the election but after Scott lost the good will that sent him to the Senate. Scott sided with the democrats. Now all that remains of the good will are two bolts with fragments of white plastic attached to a post. We are fickle and merciless. In yesterday’s Boston Herald a woman wrote condemning Tiger Woods insinuating that his hedonistic lifestyle was a direct result of his Buddhist practices and added “When he dies I pray God will have mercy on his pathetic soul”. Does she really pray for Tiger’s soul? Might she also pray for her own?

Assurance of Forgiveness

If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.

In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven. Amen.

At the end of this week’s sermon I tell a story about a man who experienced a divine conversion while visiting the Holy Land. He described the experience as if something had taken a giant pipe-cleaner to his soul. Clean. May it be so for you this Lent.

LENT ONE

I Have a Confession to Make

Each week in Lent we will share a corporate confession in both 8:15 and 10:45 worship. Before seeing these confessions in worship, I will write them in the “Front Porch” and post them on www.frontporchhudson.blogspot.com . The actual confession, written by Lavon Baylor, will appear in black. My responses will be in italicized purple (the color for the season of Lent).

Call to Confession
Come all who have inflicted or accepted oppression; we share in the world’s sin. Come all who make distinctions among people; we participate in the brokenness of God’s family. Come all who respond to false voices of the world; God is calling us away from our former limitations.
This Sunday we will hear the Bible story of Satan tempting Jesus. Jesus is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and forced, perhaps because he was fasting, to hear the empty promises offered him by Satan. Jesus had to learn to discern the truth. We are “called” to confession by the Holy Spirit because we too must learn to discern “false” voices from that which is true.

Confession
Holy God, we confess our desire to reshape your world to our own advantage. We are more concerned with what we eat than with who will get to eat today. Our own security is more important to us than the health and safety of all of your children. The first fruits of our labor grace the altars of our own desires instead of honoring you. We prefer that you keep your distance from us unless we need you. We like promises without commands, gifts without responsibilities. O God we confess that our ways don’t work. Turn us around for true worship and service, as forgiven and forgiving people.
This confession remembers Jesus’ encounter with Satan in the wilderness when Satan invited Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread. Jesus quoted Hebrew scripture to insist that we do not live by bread alone but rather by truth which comes from God. Perhaps this is a variation on the proverb “Give a man a fish and he will eat today; teach a man to fish and he will eat tomorrow”. This confession takes that a step further: I can ask God to satisfy my immediate hunger, but with that same breath, I in my great trust in God’s providence might as well ask for the end of all hunger, not just my own. Have I been too selfish to ask God for such a thing? And to work for it?

Assurance of Forgiveness
All who call on God will know salvation. Those who cling to God will be delivered. How great is the joy of people who are loved, forgiven and set free to become a new creation, through Christ Jesus. God’s gifts are for you. Receive them in trust, knowing that God’s presence and protection are yours to enjoy every day.
This Lent I have chosen to relate the Biblical stories of Lent to the daily opportunity to cook. Chef Matt Williams will join me on occasions as we explore the parallels between the art (and necessity) of cooking and the practice (and necessity) of spiritual devotion. If this sounds like we might be having entirely too much fun in worship and that perhaps Lent should be more morose, please re-read the assurance of forgiveness. The truth sets us free and that…feels…GOOD!