Sermon: Daniel, chapter 9 Confession Aug 18, 2019

Sunday I began worship by having the congregation create "God's Bucket List" (*) -- with the caveat that I do NOT mean to suggest that God is going to kick the bucket. Ever. But, what's on that list? What are God's hopes and dreams for the world? The list is referred to later in the sermon. 

In chapter 9, Daniel gets a vision about how long Jerusalem’s punishment (exile) will last.

Remembering the sinfulness of the people, 

the ways they turned from God and did not live according to God’s instruction in Torah, 

he prays, confessing and repenting.

Throughout the Bible, people sin, confess, repent, repeat.

Sometimes they are punished for their sin,

either the natural consequences of their actions,

or God intervenes and takes away God’s favor.

Remember it was very common in ancient times to give God

(or the gods) all the credit and blame for what happened in life:

if God was happy with you, you were blessed, profitable, fortunate;

if not, you were cursed, forsaken, despised, forgotten.

You probably know someone who still thinks that way about God.

So the way to get God’s attention, and hopefully favor, again,

was to confess your sin and repent of your evil ways,

which Daniel does here on behalf of all Israel,

both in Jerusalem and the diaspora.

Of course, confession is not restricted to people of faith:

Jews, Christians, Muslims, and other religions have confession

as a regular rite for the faithful,

but even secular people confess their wrongdoing to partners,

children, coworkers, police, a judge, and anonymously online. 

Confession, it seems, is indeed good for the soul.

So, what does it mean to confess?

*Daniel, specifically, wants God to pay attention to them again,

to turn from God’s anger and take notice of the suffering people.

He enumerates various sins of the people, laying it all out before God.

*Martin Luther was not keen on compulsory confession before a priest,

but held that confession before God and one another

is very important spiritually:

Line 10: We are to confess our guilt before one another and forgive one another before we come to God and ask for forgiveness.

Now, all of us are debtors to one another; therefore we should and we may confess publicly in everyone’s presence, no one being afraid of anyone else.(1)  

*Most of the 12 Steps of AA have to do with confession, repentance,

and reconciliation: taking a moral inventory, confessing to another person, asking God to remove these defects of character, realizing whom you have hurt and make amends to them; repeat. (2) 

Confession is good for the soul.

We tend to focus on individual confession,

even when we confess aloud together in worship.

But we are complicit in corporate sin as well.

Daniel doesn’t confess personal sins;

he confesses on behalf of the entire nation.

ELCA is going thru this process of confession and repentance

as a body, right now:

+for our participation in slavery, sinning against people of African descent;

+for our participation in racism, sinning against people of color and of different languages and for our failure to protect immigrants;

+for our participation in sexism and patriarchy, sinning against women and LGBTQ+;

+for how we have structured our buildings, our protocol, our liturgy, our symbols to reinforce our own power

as white, European, educated, middle-class people

who have always done things a certain way,

and by doing so, have always kept other people out. (3) 

Sometimes this sin is harder to distinguish, and harder to correct.

We want to deny our participation in it;

if *I* myself didn’t do it, how can I be guilty of it?

Part of belonging to this body that is church,

this community, this family, is taking on its hurts, fears, and sins. We are in this together.

And confession is good for our collective soul.

In Daniel’s long prayer, he lists so many things the Israelites have

done and left undone, recently and in their long history:

they have sinned, done wrong, not listened, committed treachery, transgressed, turned aside, refused to obey, rebelled, not entreated God’s favor, not turned from iniquity, not reflected God’s fidelity, disobeyed, done wickedly, become a disgrace.

We saw in the stories the first half of the book that none of these

describes Daniel individually; yet he owns that the Israelites

as a whole have not been faithful to God, and confesses that.  

So let’s look at our list again.

If this is what we believe is important to God,

what have WE done or left undone?

What can we confess? (silence)

Confession and repentance go together.

We confess our sin, naming our shortcomings and failings.

And repentance, remember, means to turn around, to turn one’s mind,

back toward God, to walk in God’s ways, to live as God’s people. How can we repent,

change our living to reflect the grace of God in the world? (silence)

Thankfully, confession and repentance do not stand alone.

It isn’t just about us, after all.

Luther explains:

Line 15: Confession consists of two parts. The first is our work and act, when I lament my sin and desire comfort and restoration for my soul. The second is a work that God does, when he absolves me of my sins through the Word placed on the lips of another person. This is the surpassingly grand and noble thing that makes confession so wonderful and comforting.

22 We urge you, however, to confess and express your needs, not for the purpose of performing a work but to hear what God wants to say to you. (4)

We can’t do this alone.

We can’t be good enough, whole enough, faithful enough.

When we are honest, we know this in our bones.

Thanks be to God we don’t have to!

We can grovel before God, as Daniel did, face to the ground,

but then we must be silent.

God comes near with a word to say:

You are forgiven. You are whole. You are mine. Full stop.

Being forgiven doesn’t take away our capacity to sin again.

It does mean that God is not holding it against us,

God is freeing us for another chance to live faithfully

according to God’s design,

so we can check some things off this bucket list.

We don’t have to worry what God thinks of us—

we are reminded moment after moment,

bite after bite and sip after sip at this holy table

that God’s love overcomes all our mistakes.

We are instead free to be that love for others,

in thought, word, and deed, 

that all creation will know the blessing of God.

Corporate Confession and Forgiveness (5)

Blessed be the holy Trinity, + one God, who forgives all our sin, whose mercy endures forever. Amen. 

God of all mercy and consolation, come to the help of your people, turning us from our sin to live for you alone. Give us the power of your Holy Spirit that we may confess our sin, receive your forgiveness, and grow into the fullness of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  

(silence for self-examination) 

Refrain: Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us. 

For self-centered living, and for failing to walk with humility and gentleness: R/ 

For longing to have what is not ours, and for hearts that are not at rest with ourselves: R/ 

For misuse of human relationships, and for unwillingness to see the image of God in others: R/ 

For jealousies that divide families and nations, and for rivalries that create strife and warfare: R/ 

For reluctance in sharing the gifts of God, and for carelessness with the fruits of creation: R/ 

For hurtful words that condemn, and for angry deeds that harm: R/ 

For idleness in witnessing to Jesus Christ, and for squandering the gifts of love and grace: R/

In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins. Through the Holy Spirit God cleanses us and gives us the power to proclaim the mighty acts of the one who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

*Thanks to Rev. Kelly Fryer for this idea, from A Renewal Enterprise workshop in Austin, Texas, 2007. 

1. Martin Luther, "Large Catechism", Book of Concord (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), 476-480.

2. Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (NY: A.A. World Services, 2001).

3. At its biennial Churchwide Assembly (Milwaukee, WI, Aug. 5-10, 2019, the ELCA considered and committed to several positions regarding our relationship with people of color and others on the margins. You may view the various resolutions on the website:  "Section IX: Report of the Reference and Counsel Committee"  https://www.elca.org/Resources/Churchwide-Assembly  

4. Large Catechism. 

5. Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 2006), 238-241.