During the penitential rite, people confess for “looking down on difficult people and thinking we are better,” did you never say to yourself, "Not me," or "Don't be so picky," or "Nobody's perfect!" We pray for deliverance from, "people you can’t rely on or going our easy way,” did you say to yourself, "Get real! I have my faults, but really!But then confessing can get into some serious stuff. “I confess to what I have done and what I have failed to do”…by being nasty and deceitful… by denying and lying ... by making excuses ... by gossiping and slandering.” Again, we might have to stretch our conscious to think when we have done these things. We may be a sinner, but the sinner whom these prayers are describing was not us. Being expected to confess things we have never done might seem unreasonable. We question the penitential prayers with their endless recital of all the ways we human beings mess up. We might turn to the person sitting next to us in church and say, "Here it is, barely 10:00 o'clock in the morning, and we're already apologizing for being bad."
Yet, I know this is a major problem for many folks who never felt welcomed at the table of the Lord. They feel that they have fallen “out of grace” or “never measured up to the standards.” Christian theology insists that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Blasting ourselves as damnable sinners somehow seems out of sync with modern psychology.
So why is it that we confess sins? Are we simply supposed to be down on ourselves? Is there something wrong with healthy self-esteem? And what does any of this have to do with God’s mercy?
Jesus ate with sinners. Jesus chose to sit at the bad table, never mind that the teachers of his day and age, the lawgivers complained about his lousy taste in dinner companions. Jesus answered, "Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." The righteous are too busy trying to keep the rules. But the sinners need Jesus, and know it, and cherish his company.
God prays for us as we reflect: “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.” (Psalm 6:9).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are invited to sit at the bad table. It is here that we can experience that being bad is not a curse but a blessing. Jesus eats with sinners and that's why, on Sunday mornings, we confess our sins. We are seated at the bad table. We are saying grace. Amen.
