Corporate Confession of Our Sin is Good for the Soul...

...of the entire congregation. When, in our corporate worship, we acknowledge that we haven't loved God with our whole hearts or our neighbors as we love ourselves, we humble ourselves together and ask for God's forgiveness together.

Together, we stand exposed before the throne of God and together, we receive the empowering assurance that in Christ, the sins of repentant sinners are freed to be our best selves and we can be God's ambassadors for good--God's good--in the world.

Corporate confession and forgiveness militates against the arrogance--spiritual and otherwise--to which our still very human wills are inclined. They remind us that no one is personally worthy of entrance into God's kingdom apart from the gracious act of Jesus Christ on our behalf and that nobody is more important in the eyes of God than anybody else.

Corporate confession reminds us that the person in the next row who we may be inclined to disdain is just as loved and just as forgiven by God as we are.

Corporate confession also reminds us to make confession of sin a regular part of our daily prayer lives. Martin Luther once observed that the problem with "born again Christians" is that they're not born again enough. Apparently, in Luther's days, there were Christians of this description who thought that if they confessed their sins just once, the battle was over.

But, Peter reminds us in the New Testament that our violation of love for God and love for neighbor--which in turn violates the Ten Commandments, which are all about love for God and love for neighbor, the central importance of relationships in which human beings are called to live--is a constant possibility for us as we live on earth. We need to remain diligent in our commitment to following the God we know through Jesus Christ at all times. As someone who has not always remained diligent, I know that temptation and sin--with sin's sorrowful disruption of our relationship with God, its crushing blow to our self-respect, and its blocking of blessings God wants to give to us--can't be resisted in our own power. We need to return to

God for forgiveness and help in resisting temptation all the time. That's why Peter writes:
Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith... (First Peter 5:8-9)

In public confession during our corporate worship, we're reminded that God forgives the repentant. But more than that, together we experience that reality and the inner peace and joy that goes with it:

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:1-5)

If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (First John 1:-9-10)

Please don't misunderstand: I'm not here advocating the public laundering of our particular sins for all the world to see. Corporate worship isn't Oprah or The Jerry Springer Show. Usually, confession of specific sins must happen in one's private confessions or in a counseling relationship. A parading of one's sins in public worship can easily degenerate into an egotistical bid for being noticed, whether in providing others with shock value or in wowing them with abject--and all to narcissistic--submission to humiliation. Public confession, as should be true of all public worship, is never about us; it's always about God.

[This discussion has been triggered by this and this.]