Lisa Nichols Hickman: We are failing at confession
Confession, at its core, is about connection.
But often, in Protestant worship, confession is more about disconnection. We join in the unison prayers with all the mumbled enthusiasm of Charlie Brown’s teacher, letting our lips move while disengaged in heart and mind.
The act of confessing should include an examination of the mind, a probing of the heart, and a naming of wrongs with our lips. But often these remain separated from one another. Our hearts may long to tell the truth, but our minds can create new realities. Our minds may know the truth, but our hearts are unwilling to be honest.
Recently, Maureen Dowd explored the question of whether an iPhone app is an appropriate tool for an examination of conscience in the confessional. With a scroll through the ten commandments as well as ‘customized’ sins, the application asks questions appropriate to particular ages. The new app is currently number 42 on the best-seller list.
In Greek, the word for confession, homolego, literally means, “to say the same thing.” While we have internalized that in the mainline with literal unison prayers, its truth in scripture is deeper. Isaiah 29:13 attests, “these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote.” To “say the same thing” in confession is to unite heart, mind and voice in a way that conquers mindlessness.
The beauty of the confession app for Catholics is in its ability to create a new link, to make deeper connections despite all the ‘disconnects’ of contemporary life. Here, technology is not a distraction. The application provides a vital link to deepen our humanity.
In the movie "Changing Lanes," Gavin (played by Ben Affleck) walks into a confessional booth with a lot weighing on his heart and mind. When the Priest asks him if he would like to confess his sins, Gavin responds, “No, I came here looking for meaning.” When given that moment to confess, he balks at what seems to him an empty ritual.
If only he had the new app.
As a Protestant worship leader, I find that our confession constrains our worship. It feels ritualistic, empty, small. Unison prayers disintegrate into moments of mind-wandering monotony. Sometimes I ask myself if I can remember any word of the unison prayer or call to mind any heart-tending that turned up. I have asked people in countless workshops on worship to say together the same words of a prayer of confession and then to turn over the written paper to write down any word or image they remember from the confession. The majority come up blank.
We are failing in our prayers of confession. An opportunity to call hearts and minds into synchronicity with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is lost in our inability to link heart, mind, lips. We say the same thing over and over again, routine prayers in unison with one another, without saying the thing that matters most to our hearts and minds that day.
The director of “Changing Lanes”, Roger Michell, seems to understand that struggle. Not only does his understanding of the need for confession play out in the scene with Gavin in the confessional, but it is brilliantly interspliced with scenes of Doyle Gibson (played by Samuel Jackson) encountering a real confession with his former wife. As Gibson spins with explanations for his behavior, his wife nods, seemingly having heard him say this same thing before. It is not until he musters up an “I’m sorry” that we know there is a deep connection in his heart and mind in his confession.
In that moment, Michell cuts to a shot of an empty closet, where in the background an icon of Christ is taped to the back wall.
Ultimately, the unity of heart and voice in our confession of sin leads to a unity of heart, mind and voice in our confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Making that link is the goal of our confession. If the “Confession: A Roman Catholic App” makes that connection between heart, mind and voice that call us to an even deeper confession of Christ, then would the creators make an app for us Protestant worshipers as well?
Lisa Nichols Hickman is pastor of New Wilmington Presbyterian Church in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.
Share ideas...
Would love to hear ideas from others of ways confession has been shaped in worship for deeper connections...
I totally agree. Question is
I totally agree. Question is how do we have an authentic confession during worship? I would love to hear ideas or suggestions.
why a different app?
I'm catholic and would like to say that have enjoyed your comment very much and believe that your problems with the confession are also ours.
On the other hand, I don't understand the need of an app for protestants. I understand that the 10 commandments are the same for all of us. Therefore, useful for a protestant's concience exam too. God bless you.
I think this is very
I think this is very important. Thanks a lot.
Thank you Lisa. What a
Thank you Lisa. What a wonderful article. It truly made me listen to my inner voice of confession instead of the words the congregation stumbles through during service.
Authentic Confession
Bill, I would love to hear your ideas as well for an authentic confession.
Frank Warren, not a pastor but a writer, gleaned 'authentic confessions' when he asked people to write a post-card sized confession and send it to Copper Ridge Rd in Germantown, Maryland. He published the book called "PostSecret" (http://www.amazon.com/PostSecret-Extraordinary-Confessions-Ordinary-Live...)
Really, in worship we have just a 'postcard' sized moment - with boundaries just as clear as those four edges on a postcard. So, how do we work within those bounds and yet, trust God will meet us there?
I think as pastors we err on more words - either introducing the call to confession or in the unison prayer. I wonder if less words and more 'space' allows something deeper to go on? Space to sit in silence. Space to light candles. Space to receive a drop of blessed oil on the forehead. Space in the bulletin that is blank to write and pray.
Maybe the printed prayers in the bulletin need to come as 'postcard' sized inserts - that can be taken home, or to work, or to the car - and prayed through the week in those ordinary places of life. Recently I was at a friend's home and she had the prayer of confession taped on her fridge. It was a blessed moment to see how God used that prayer in her daily life.
To answer this question best, one really has to think personally. Where and how does your best confession happen? Why is that so?
The two voices of confession
Good going! The Confession of Sins is one voice, and the Confession of Faith is the other. They best go together, though they are separated in most liturgies. I found David Steere, Rediscovering Confession: The Practice of Forgiveness and Where It Leads (Routledge) particularly helpful in this regard. It's surely not trivila when we ourselves forgive and then ask forgivensss. Then say our faith in God's forgiveness and love.
Making the Links
Well said Louis, you name this better than I do.
Yes, confession 'saying the same thing' is about making the link between heart, mind and voice - so that all speak in unison.
And yes, confession is about making the link from our sin to the faith of Christ as expressed so beautifully in Philippians 2 - that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.
So how do we do this better in worship?
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