Book Discussion Potluck Dinner - March 27th

Thanks to all the parishioners who turned out for our book discussion potluck dinner tonight! We had a great time with fellowship, food and faith-filled discussion about "Left to Tell" and its powerful messages. If you would like to read some of the discussion questions, we have two sources for you:
(1) Questions with related scripture verses (prepared by Kristin Zika) and
(2) Questions discussed at the dinner (from Heavenwards Book Club)

Why Should We Fear What Can Set Us Free?

Last week, a lovely, thoughtful and sincere young woman asked me, "why are people so reluctant to go to confession?" I think it's because we really don't know what is happening when we walk into the confessional.

Father Henri Nouwen, in his beautiful book, Life of the Beloved, told us that the original Hebrew meaning of the word “to sin”, is “to forget”. When I read that, I was so moved. That is so deeply true. I think the reason so many people have so much trouble going to confession is that they have “forgotten”. They have forgotten how much Christ loves us. They are ashamed, and they are afraid that He will turn His eyes away from them in “disappointment” over their sin. But it is not so.

Christ tells us in Matthew’s Gospel (citing the beautiful 53rd chapter of Isaiah), “He took our sicknesses, and carried our diseases for us”. When He healed the leper, He did not simply wave His divine hand...He reached out and touched a man who probably hadn’t been touched in years. What must His loving touch have meant to the poor, disfigured man! Then, Jesus took the man’s leprosy into Himself. That is what Love does. Love does not stand away from us, but touches us, and takes our weakness, our sin, our wounds into Himself. Jesus became a leper, and He became “blind”, and “deaf”. “He who knew no sin, became sin that we might become the goodness of God” (2 Cor. 5:20) As He hung upon the Cross, He whispered our name to Himself. Across time, He saw our face, and bearing our wounds in Himself, He died, that we might live. Our “leprosy” died with Him, as did our blindness, our deafness, our addictions, our selfishness, our loneliness...all “passed away” so that we might rise with Him to new life.

Maybe, people wouldn’t be afraid to step into the confessional if they knew that it was not a tomb. It was not a place of shame, or of regret...but a place of liberation. It is the bridal chamber. We come with our sins, and our wounds, and He reaches out, and touching us, He takes them. He helps us to “remember” His love. United with Him, we are set free. He calls us to new life in Him. He “rolls away the stone” which has kept us entombed in the smallness of our dark, and grievous wounds.

In the confessional, the “bridal chamber”, He waits for us. He longs to take our wounds into Himself. He helps us not “to forget” His love. Why should we fear what can set us free?

-Sally Robb