Moving beyond our own little world…

The famed confessional booth.  If you haven’t experienced it as a Roman Catholic, you have certainly seen it in a myriad of movies, TV shows, or read about it in the print media.  In this tight little space designed to protect one’s privacy, the priest sits on one side and the confessor on the other, separated only by a screen.  This allows the particular confession and words of pardon to be shared back and forth without the awkward aspect of face to face dialogue or direct eye contact.  The liturgy of this interaction usually begins with the congregant saying, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned.” The first confession is generally an admission of how many days (weeks, months) it has been since one’s last confession.  This is then followed by a list of transgressions, including remembered sins of thought, word, and deed. 

I recently was reacquainted with songwriter Matthew West’s incredible sung confession articulated in the song “My Own Little World” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Yasgzjc0w.  I wondered how often priests hear admissions like this:

In my own little world it hardly ever rains

I've never gone hungry, always felt safe 

I got some money in my pocket, shoes on my feet

 In my own little world: population -- ME

I try to stay awake during Sunday morning church

I throw a twenty in the plate but I never give 'til it hurts

 And I turn off the news when I don't like what I see

 It's easy to do when its population -- ME

What if there's a bigger picture? What if I'm missing out?

What if there's a greater purpose I could be living right now

Outside my own little world?

Stopped at a red light, looked out my window I saw a cardboard sign said, 

 "Help this homeless widow"

 And just above that sign was the face of a human I thought to myself,

 "God, what have I been doing?"

So I rolled down the window and I looked her in the eye

Oh, how many times have I just passed her by? 

 I gave her some money then I drove on through

 And my own little world reached population TWO

What if there's a bigger picture? What if I'm missing out?

What if there's a greater purpose I could be living right now

Outside my own little world?

Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours

Give me open hands and open doors

 Put Your light in my eyes and let me see

That my own little world is not about me.

Speaking for myself, when my prayers include confession, I often lead with what the church calls sins of commission, that is, things I’ve done wrong—at least if memory serves.  Remembering what I have omitted or neglected to do is usually further down the list, if at all.  That’s why I think a lyric like West’s can be helpful.  It reminds me that while God wants me to be on the watch for sin in my life, He is equally if not more concerned, that people who don’t yet know Him are on my radar.  Perhaps God is trying to reorient our thinking.  If we are to allow God to “break our heart for what breaks His“, we have to know that as much as our doing bad things hurts Him (and us), so does ignoring or overlooking people He died to save.  And like Jesus himself, we must be willing to enter their world by embracing them where they are, as they are.

This is a clearly taught value throughout scripture, both for us individually and as local communities of faith.  The apostle Paul reminds us in his letter to the church at Corinth that “though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I become like a Jew, to win the Jews.  To those under the law, I become like one under the law, so as to win those under the law.”  (1 Cor. 9:19, 20)

Twenty years ago, your idea of how to introduce a lost person to Christ might have been to share the “four spiritual laws” with anyone and everyone who would give you the time.  Or maybe you were encouraged to ask a couple of probing questions, like “If you died tonight, where do you think you would go?” and “If God were to ask you, ’why should I let you into my heaven,’ what would you say?” With our post modern culture becoming more and more secularized and increasingly skeptical of authority, biblical or otherwise, we followers are being forced to look at different entry points to the discussion. 

Rather than the approach of “I know something you don’t” being the opening salvo to a total stranger, Paul suggests we start by identifying empathetically with the culture in which we find ourselves.  For some that could be your work culture, your neighborhood, your family, even your recreational buddies.  But the bottom line—start with something you share in common, NOT what separates you.  Jesus did it constantly in his ministry.  He hung out with sinners, told stories to which they could easily relate, asked lots of questions, and demonstrated that he understood their inner longings before trying to meet them. 

A perfect example was his conversation with the woman at the well in John 4.  He could have begun with, “What’s a (bad) girl like you doing in a place like this? Don’t you know that you’re talking to the holy Son of God?”  My guess is the temple scribes were not into publishing religious tracts back then, but even so I doubt that would have been Jesus’ method of choice in this encounter either.  Instead, He found the common ground.  Not of ethnicity, not of age, not even of religious pedigree. He started with what unites us all—we get thirsty.  “Will you give me a drink?”  He started by admitting He needed something from her!  Simple, but it provided Him entry into her world.  And he took time to listen.

When the word confession among Jesus followers refers as much to telling others of God’s goodness as it does us telling Him of our badness, we just may be getting somewhere.  Beyond our own little world. 

tad