The lady approached the minister after church and with a frown on her face declared that she didn’t like the first prayer in the service (the prayer of repentance). She said it brought her down and that if he didn’t promise to cease from this practice she would not be coming back. I also have had people tell me they do not like to hear the invitation to repentance either in prayer or sermon form or even in the reading of scripture.
There is something that makes many feel terribly uncomfortable about facing the fact that we “leave undone the things we ought to do and do the things we ought not to do and there is no health in us” (Book of Common Prayer). I remember one bold moderator made the theme of his year Repentance and that was the topic of his moderatorial sermon. I overheard several ministers at assembly say he hadn’t been a popular moderator.
The incoming moderator, desiring to be more positive, made a point of saying what a wonderful church we were and how democratic and respectful, and how proud he was to belong. There is nothing wrong with being positive and recognizing the valuable things in our tradition but that should never be used so we can ignore the call to repent. Our church, it is clear, does need repentance. (Now I won’t be popular for saying that!)
We need radical change if we are to make the difference that is so desperately needed to bring wholesome life in church and culture. We do need to be relevant and in touch with our culture but we also need to enter the role of the prophet (they weren’t popular either!) who calls the people of God back to righteousness. What might some of this entail? I suggest places to begin to repent would be in the growing disregard of the authority of scripture, the lack of spiritual vitality in our congregations (as recently reported in the Record), the weak response to justice issues and lack of boldness in evangelism.
This failure to admit our faults prevents us from entering into the needed change (the Bible calls this repentance) and that prevents us from dealing with our weakness so we can be forgiven of past wrongs and empowered to make new beginnings. It also quenches the hope we have of experiencing an increase in the joy and love of abundant life in Christ and instead puts a barrier up between us and Christ. Christians rightfully believe that only in Christ is there fullness of life. Our earnest prayer, which we pray with Jesus, is that “God’s kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But this can’t even begin to happen until we acknowledge and confess our sin so he leads us to pray: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
As we enter the season of Lent, in which the church has recognized our need to repent, let us respond in faith and expectation of change to the bold invitation given in the 1978 Book of Common Order, which says: “Let us confess to God and to one another that we stand in need of forgiveness from Him and from our fellows, calling to mind our particular and our common faults. We name our self-indulgence, our prayerlessness, our enmities. We name our failures in the State, the dispeace of the world, the poverty and hunger of millions of people, and the constant strife of people with people. Let us together make our humble confession before Almighty God.”
My prayer is that in this season of Lent, God will work in each of us and we will begin to see the big conversion (turn around) and the new vigour that Lent is supposed to bring.
