Category: Confession

Caught Up In Stuff

From the cross, Jesus prayed, ”Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

In other words, they are caught up in stuff and do not know it. They are captive to ways of being, thinking, and feeling from which they make decisions, from which they lash out. They are captive to fears, resentments, prejudices, anger, divisiveness, various attitudes, misplaced desires and feelings.

Over years of ministry to people in a church and a neighborhood, I reached out to people who were caught up in stuff. And in order to do ministry, I had to increasingly recognize the stuff I was caught up in and experience the grace that liberates me from captivity. I was a “wounded healer” ministering to other wounded people.

Among the people I ministered to were people struggling with drug addictions, past hurts and trauma, broken relationships, domestic violence, poverty, injustice. What they were struggling with were experiences that often held them in captivity from which they made bad decisions—until they came to see and acknowledge their bondage and experienced God’s liberating work in their lives.

What people are caught up in generally determines their actions. They find themselves acting in ways that hurt themselves and others. So we pray, ”Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” They are caught up in stuff.

I reached out to young people caught up in gangs. I could see that they were caught up in stuff. When a young man came into my church one Sunday morning who had a newborn son and expressed his desire to get free from a gang he belonged to, he was acknowledging that he was caught up in stuff, and it was not going to help him raise his son.

The stuff we are caught up in determines much of what we decide and do. When we operate unaware of the stuff we are caught up in, it can be said of us that we do not know what we are doing.

Crowds welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with great jubilation. Days later crowds were calling for his crucifixion. The only way to describe this occurrence is that they did not know what they were doing.

How much of our lives can be explained in this way? How much of what goes on in the lives of the people of our nation and the leaders they choose can it be said, “They do not know what they are doing.”

When we make decisions from hidden impulses, hidden because we operate unaware of them, it can be said, “We do not know what we are doing.” When we are held captive to fear, anger, grievances, resentments, prejudices, selfishness, greed, arrogance, self-righteousness, judgmemtalism (add your own to the list), and do not recognize or acknowledge these things, we will act out of them. They will also be hooks for con artists including political con artists. The crowd that called for Jesus’ crucifixion was egged on by religious leaders.

Gracious God, wake us up to what is going on inside us, when we are making decisions and taking action. Spirit of Truth, enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we discern the source of our actions. Turn our hearts to you. Free us from bondage to sin; cleanse us from “strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy” (Galatians 5:18-21); free us from resentment, fear, prejudice, greed, and from the hidden false gods we serve. Make us aware of and free us from our self-righteousness which keeps us from seeing the needs of others and welcoming them as you welcome them. Help us to return to you, gracious God. Bring truth to our inward being. Amen.

Filed under: Confession, Discernment, Liberation, PrayerTagged with: , , ,

Breaking the Vicious Cycle of White Backlash

Critical Race Theory has been around since the 1970s in higher education. While its fundamental tenets may help teachers with their understanding of the subtleties of racism in America, it is not taught as a discipline in elementary schools and high schools. Nevertheless, across the country, in order to leverage the White vote, it has been depicted, by politicians, as being taught at the elementary level.

Republican Glenn Youngkin, in the Virginia governor’s race, was substantially behind in the polls until he started talking about banning critical race theory in schools. Independents, in particular, started to swing in his direction. The affect of his message was not hindered by the fact that critical race theory was not taught in Virginia schools and that most parents did not know what the theory was. For a backlash, it was enough for White parents to know that it was about race. Youngkin’s message hooked into White parents’ fears that the issue of race would be treated in a way that did not conform to their (unacknowledged) White-centric view of America.

White parents expressed fear that their children would be made to feel bad about themselves if race and racism is made a subject of discussion in schools. So, what is the source of their fear? Is it White guilt? Is it the preservation of Whiteness? After all, race is a social construct of White supremacy. Historically, people of European descent divided up the one human race into different races with the “White” race at the top. Having distinguished ourselves from others—we who are White—do we feel that we need to protect our view of Whiteness—and our children’s view? How much do we, who are White, continue to be invested in our Whiteness as something distinct from the rest of the one human race? How much do we make Whiteness the norm by which others are measured? Isn’t it time to let go of our Whiteness, let go of distinguishing ourselves from others, raising ourselves up over others? (Of course, we cannot begin to let go without acknowledging that that is what we are doing.)

There is this further historical reality: Having distinguished ourselves from others, told ourselves that we were superior, we then acted badly, very badly, brutally badly. That has been the history of racism—a history of enslavement and genocide and its continued legacy. If being White (as distinctively different from others) continues to be important to us, then it is also critically important that we face what we as a White race have done.

There is help for this: It is called “confession of sin.” In the church that I served as pastor, as with many churches, we began our worship service with confession of sin. Sometimes a member would lead us in a prayer of confession, naming some of the sins we were prone to. Sometimes we used a general confession from our tradition:

We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart: we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.

Confession of sin means acknowledging our broken condition, our self-absorption, our mistreatment of others. With confession comes the experience of forgiveness and God’s mercy. When the confession of sin is a weekly exercise for a community of faith and a daily exercise for individuals, it takes away the avoidance of the darkness in our lives. Without confession, we must find another way to “not feel bad” and keep our children from not feeling bad about themselves. We have to stay in denial. There is no healing and freedom in denial.

There is healing and freedom in entering the darkness, including the darkness of history and the darkness of our own racism. There is healing and freedom in confessing our racism and repenting—turning from a false humanity to what is true. As Jesus said, “The truth will set you free!”

Filed under: Confession, RacismTagged with: ,