Lost Sheep

Like Lost Sheep: Reflections on the General Confession

Posted on January 28, 2025
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We easily fall into two ditches during our times of confession: we think that we have to grovel long enough for God to accept our repentance, or we skim over our confession and ignore our sins. The General Confession at the opening of the Office provides us the boundaries we need.

Chasing After Earnest Confession

Posted on August 8, 2024
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Years ago, after an evening of moral failure, I attempted to reconcile with God while on a run, wrestling with whether I meant my recitation of the common confession. A Run with the Confession I woke up with a moral hangover. I tried to fall back asleep to avoid the guilt and shame swirling in my…

Self examination. Photo by Ben White.

How to Make a Self-Examination of Sin

Posted on August 7, 2024
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When a leech wants to snack on your leg, it secretes a local anesthetic so you do not become aware of its bite. This way, the leech can remain undetected and keep leeching. Leeches are horrible critters; I only bring them up as an analogyโ€”sin is the same way. When we commit a sin, we…

Hymn Guide: God Be Merciful To Me

Posted on February 29, 2024
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“God be merciful to me” is a setting of Psalm 51, David’s great hymn of repentance, forgiveness, and faith. More than most hymns and worship songs, it sets forth the stark reality of human sin and turns to God as our only hope for salvation and spiritual renewal. Composed anonymously for the 1912 Psalter, it…

You Miserable, Wretched Sinners!

Posted on March 2, 2017
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You miserable, wretched sinners! You will hear this during Lent. Some will be offended, as these words seem rude and unworthy of creatures created in God’s image. To retain these words would be to wrongly imply that human beings are supposed to grovel before God and debase themselves. Others will be pleased, as these traditional…

How to Lent and Why: Questions for an Anglican Priest

Posted on February 27, 2017
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Lent is about to kick us in the seats of our pants soon, when it darkens our foreheads, and then takes away our chocolates. Not to mention causing us to face our privilege by helping others and then making us read the Church Fathers in the original Latin or Greek. (I made that last part…

Confession of Sin: Things Left Undone

Posted on July 14, 2016
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There is something in the Anglican service that really makes me uncomfortable. It is not something I encountered often before I experienced the classic Christian liturgy. At the Confession of Sin, we pray: Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, But…

Do “Thoughts and Prayers” Really Matter Anyway?

Posted on December 3, 2015
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It is a sad time in the world. More terrorโ€ฆthis time in California. And now the phrase โ€˜thoughts and prayersโ€™ is falling victim to the violence too. Some politicians offered their condolences with the overused but heartfelt phrase: our thoughts and prayers are with them. Now that is being castigated. It is called โ€˜prayer shamingโ€™. It…