Good for the Soul

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

April 24, 2016

Good for the Soul

Isaiah 1:16-18

Wash yourselves;

make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your doings

from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,

learn to do good;
seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,

 plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,

says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

*****************************************

You cannot say you were never warned.

How many times have you heard:

There will be a quiz.

And today is the day!

It is that time of year

when students of every age

are focused on exams:

older students on final exams,

younger students on SOLs.

So it seems to me that a quiz this morning

would be very appropriate,

not only as a test of our knowledge,

but also as a way for us to grow

in empathy and compassion

for those filled with the anxiety

that can strike even the best-prepared.

You have nothing to worry about here, though.

We are Protestants, after all,

which means grace abounds.

So our quiz this morning will be simple,

just one question.

And since we are people of the Book,

it is a Bible question.

Here it is:

In what book of the Bible

will we find the phrase,

“Confession is good for the soul”?

Now, I can hear the complaints already:

many saying that those who are participating

in our “Year of the Bible” class

have an unfair advantage.

Well, everyone was invited to participate,

and it isn’t too late join the group!

                                   

But, to allay your concerns,

I’ll remind you that even though our

Year of the Bible participants

are a third of the way through the Bible,

which is very impressive,

that still means that they have

not read two-thirds.

So their advantage may not be as great

as you think it is.  

Let’s think about this together:

“Confession is good for the soul.”

Sounds sort of like a proverb, doesn’t it?

So, is that where it is—

in the Book of Proverbs?

It could be part of a Psalm, though.

There are a number of Psalms

that have a powerful

confessional element to them:

Psalm 25, Psalm 32, Psalm 51

among others.

We use those and other psalms regularly

as prayers of confession in our worship services.

Then again,

it could be something that Moses said

to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy,

his final words to the Israelites

after their 40 years in the wilderness,

before Joshua led them across the Jordan

into the promised land.

It could have been Moses’ reminder

of their need to stay humble,

grounded,

eyes, minds and hearts

focused on the Lord God.

We should not overlook Jesus, of course.

There’s something about the phrase

that makes it sound like it

might have been part of

his Sermon on the Mount,

as we find it in the gospel of Matthew,

or perhaps in Luke’s version of the sermon,

the one we call the Sermon on the Plain.  

Some might be thinking

that it has a bit of a Pauline ring to it,

the kind of thing that Paul might have written

to the Corinthians or the Galatians,

followers of Jesus who exasperated Paul

with their waywardness.

Wherever the phrase is to be found,

it was a phrase I heard at a very young age –

a phrase I learned from my mother

who used it regularly,

especially when she suspected me of something.

I learned very quickly

that the moment the words were

out of her mouth

it was a trap;

that she already knew

whatever it was that I had done,

and that she was looking to me

to own up to my misbehavior,

for me to confess rather than hide behind

some concocted story,

or some absurd, obvious lie.

Truth be told,

I’m not sure I learned as a youngster

that confession was good for the soul.

What I did learn was that

confession at least mitigated

the inevitable punishment.

I learned that if I acknowledged

what I had done,

or what I had failed to do;

what I’d said,

or what I had failed to say,

my mother usually went easier on me.

There was still a price to pay,

punishment meted out,

but generally less if I confessed.

What my mother wanted, of course,

was not to punish me;

that wasn’t the point.

What she wanted me to do was learn,

learn from my misdeed,

my bad act,

my fib,

whatever it was I’d done—

my mother wanted me to learn

that it was wrong;

she wanted me to learn

so I wouldn’t do it again.

And isn’t that what every

loving and wise parent wants?

They want their child to learn.

How many times throughout history

do you suppose a parent has said to child,

after punishment has been dispensed,

“I hope you learned your lesson.”

That’s what God wants, as well

which is why God calls us to confess,

why God calls us to acknowledge readily

when we’ve substituted our own will,

our own way,

when we’ve said something

we know we should not have said,

done something we should not have done,

failed to speak or act.

God doesn’t want to stand over us

telling us we are bad, unworthy,

a disgrace;

God loves us

and God wants us to learn.

Punishment is not God’s goal;

learning is,

growing is,

transformation is.

Our stumbling block seems to be

taking that first step—

confessing,

acknowledging,

taking responsibility for our actions,

our words.

We read in the first letter of John:

“If we say that we have no sin,

we deceive ourselves,

and the truth is not in us.

(1 John 1:8ff)

but we deceive ourselves all the time.

rationalizing our acts and actions:

they’re not that bad;

we haven’t murdered or stolen;

and compared to others,

we look pretty good.

But we don’t fool God,

any more than I was ever able

to fool my mother.

Why is it that we have such a difficult time

acknowledging our own waywardness,

our own faults,

but find it so easy to point out

the faults of others,

how others are bad, weak, sinful?

                                   

How quick we are to judge.

And how indifferent we are,

how unresponsive we are

to the many times

Jesus teaches us not to judge others:

“Do not judge,

so that you may not be judged.

For with the judgment you make

you will be judged. …

Why do you see the speck

in your neighbor’s eye,

but not notice the log in your own eye?”

(Matthew 7:1-3)

Jesus conveys the point another way

with this parable from Luke:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray,

one a Pharisee and

the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee, standing by himself,

was praying thus,

‘God, I thank you that I am

not like other people:

thieves, rogues, adulterers,

or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week;

I give a tenth of all my income.’

But the tax collector, standing far off,

would not even look up to heaven,

but was beating his breast and saying,

‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

I tell you,

this man went down to his home justified

rather than the other;

for all who exalt themselves

will be humbled,

but all who humble themselves

will be exalted.”

(Luke 18:9)

Listen to God’s words to us from our lesson

as “The Message” paraphrases them:

“Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.

Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.

Go to bat for the defenseless.”

Could God be any clearer

as to what God wants from us?

How easy it should be, then

for us to acknowledge

when we’ve not done what God wants,

when we have not lived

as God calls us to live.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote

“I do not understand my own actions.

For I do not do what I want,

but I do the very thing I hate.”

(Romans 7:15)

Paul’s words are a reminder to all of us

that we all stray,

we all do wrong,

we all make bad choices

we all say the wrong thing,

we all judge, condemn,

act without compassion or kindness or

generosity of heart.

God’s promise is sure,

grounded in love,

that when we do confess

we will be put back in a

right relationship with God.

We heard that at the end of our lesson:

“If your sins are blood-red,

they’ll be snow-white.

If they’re red like crimson,

they’ll be like wool.”

(from The Message)

Or, as we hear it in the first letter of John

“If we confess our sins,

[God] who is faithful and just

will forgive us our sins

and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Confession is good for the soul.

because it strengthens

our relationship with God,

teaches us humbleness, modesty,

makes us more attentive to God’s word,

God’s will,

God’s way.

Confession leads us back to God.

We have nothing to fear

and everything to gain from confession.

Now, I need to make a confession.

In asking you which book of the Bible

we’d find the phrase

“confession is good for the soul”,

I asked you a trick question.

You won’t find the phrase in the Bible!

“Confession is good for the soul”

is an old aphorism, a saying

that is thought to have come from Scotland

in the 18^th century.

It may not be biblical,

but the thought behind it

is grounded in God’s word,

and our Lord’s teachings.

So make it one of your proverbs,

to guide you each day,

confession, good for mind, heart,

body and soul,

all, to help you grow closer to God.

AMEN