Wednesday 23 April 2014
- Bible Book:
- Daniel
“I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, ‘Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances.’” (vv. 4-5)
Background
Here we see that for such a great hero of faith Daniel takes hisconfession very seriously. He is not alone, as in the Englishtradition so does
Daniel's confession stands in powerful contrast to the commonpractice today. Daniel's confession is entirely corporate, neverindividualistic. It is "we" (vv. 5, 6), rather like that somewhatoverused and rather corny saying "There is no I in team".
It seems that for Daniel people are interdependent - what we doaffects others and what they do affects us. When one person sinsthen there are consequences for others, and those consequencesinclude their relationship with God, hence confession isneeded.
So many of the issues, challenges, problems or sins in the worldtoday seem way beyond us as individuals and can be too daunting toface.
April started with pollution and smog over much of the UK, noneof us individually caused it, but nearly all of us were affected byit. The Internet often seems a breeding ground for intolerance andhatred (recent prosecutions for hate and threats over having womenrepresented on bank notes are just one example).
Can Daniel's example of confession that is corporate, social andinterdependent help us today? Could we include an understanding ofconfession as much bigger and much more relational than simplytaking our personal, individual sins to God? Can we reconnect asinterdependent people who each affect others and who in turn areaffected by others through confession that uses "we" and think inbigger terms?
To Ponder
- How do you find confession on your own and/or in services? Howis your experience individualistic or interdependent?
- Do we over emphasise an individual relationship with God inconfession? Why? And is it a problem?
- How could we experience a more interdependent form ofconfession? What might it look like? And how do you feel aboutit?