Confession and Absolution

Can we talk about sin?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." - John 3:16-21

In John's Gospel, Jesus comes right out and tells Nicodemus that he was sent by God's love, to save the world from sin and death.

So, here's the question.  Do we need confession and absolution?

If we take Jesus at His word, we don't need to confess our sins and seek forgiveness, since that is already done.  At least we don't need to do it for God's sake.

But we might need to do it for our own sake.

We know what sin is, or we think we do.  We can start with the Ten Commandments to get an idea of the big ones, but whether we acknowledge something as a sin or not, publicly, we may be tormented by something we have done or failed to do and not realize it as sin.

Jesus knows that we will carry this burden of sin with us all the days of our lives, unless we let it go.

And one way to let it go is to confess it to someone else.  In our Church, the Episcopal Church, that someone could be anyone.  It doesn't have to be a priest, but if you want absolution, only a priest or bishop can give that in God's name.

From the Latin, absolutus, meaning to be set free, the term has come to mean a formal setting free from the guilt of sin, administered by a priest.

If we go back to the words of Jesus, we can find examples of Him saying one's faith has set them free.  The act of coming to him in faith, believing He can and will heal them, frees them from whatever burden they were carrying.

And guilt is a heavy burden at times.

It may not be enough to confess in private with God through prayer, or in public with our general confession in Church on Sunday.  We may need to unburden our hearts and souls through one who can represent Christ, a priest or bishop.

We can hope that we are never so burdened, but it is good to know we can do something if we are.

More to come...