Sermon: “Repentance" - March 1, 2026

The Second Sunday in Lent, Topical Sermon

The Rev'd Ezgi Saribay Perkins, The Rector 

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This morning, I would like us to think about one of the Five Lenten Disciplines from the Book of Common Prayer, which is, quite arguably, the most controversial of all subjects: repentance. The idea of repentance itself is not that controversial, but it seems the practice of repentance – particularly the ritual of confession – always seems to get people’s hackles up – especially Protestants for whom going to confession is smacks of Roman Catholic guilt-mongering.

“Over my dead body!” These are the very words of a lady, who came to me a few years ago because she was struggling with feelings of guilt. This woman, who has been a Christian for longer than many of us have been alive, stopped coming to communion, because she felt that her sins rendered her wholly unworthy. I recommended that she make a sacramental confession to settle her troubled conscience, but she refused adamantly. “Over my dead body!” she said. Sadly, I fear, she was right: Only death will be able to free her from the feelings of guilt to which she holds so tenaciously.

Why do I say that? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people, haunted by their past and present sins, who simply couldn’t let go of the guilt they felt. Most of them believed heartily that Jesus “died to forgive the sins of the world.” They simply weren’t able to trust that Jesus’ forgiveness extended to them. Why?

Why do people such as this lady have such difficulty accepting the forgiveness of God? Why do they think their sins put them beyond the pale of God’s mercy? Well, the truth is they are dealing with a pernicious and diabolical sort of pride, that the Evil One uses to attack true believers. 

You see, folks, Satan knows full well that he probably can’t shake those who truly believe in God out of believing the “facts” of their faith. So, he doesn’t try! Instead, he takes a subtler but nonetheless effective approach. He doesn’t go after the facts, at all. He goes after the feelings. It’s as if he says, “I know St. John wrote that, ‘If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,’ but, in your particular case, I wouldn’t be so sure! The divine grace and mercy that is enough for others, likely won’t be enough for you!”[1]

What an utterly evil tactic that is! But, it appears to be quite effective.     

Few Christians, indeed, lack clarity about the facts of repentance. They know, more or less, that repentance involves a “changing of the mind” about Sin or sins. They know that God extends forgiveness to those who repent, and they understand that this forgiveness comes as a result of Christ’s gracious sacrifice on behalf of sinners. The facts here are, again, fairly easy to grasp. The feelings, on the other hand, are more difficult and come down to a matter of faith.

You see, friends, the facts of forgiveness are useless apart from faith that forgiveness works and that it works for me. When I look at a chair, the fact that it is a chair does me little good, unless I have enough faith to sit in it, to trust it. Faith in God’s forgiveness works the same way. This morning, I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about what to do, when our feelings of sinfulness overshadow the facts of God’s grace.

Most of the time, most people are able to ask God for forgiveness and are able to receive it by faith. This, by the way, is why we pray a General Confession every Sunday. A General Confession helps us repent of our general sins – those we know we commit and doubt little that God will forgive. When the Priest pronounces a general absolution, most of the time, we generally are able to “get up” from the kneeler with our sins staying down – that is, we feel able to receive forgiveness, in that moment.

What if, when we get up, our sins don’t stay down? What if we don’t feel forgiven when we repent, or, even worse, what if we feel so horrible about a sin that we find it difficult to repent at all? Well, here’s the Good News! The Church has a means for dealing with the feelings of guilt that just won’t let go, and we call that means “the reconciliation of a penitent” or, more commonly, “the ritual of confession.”

Now, I know what some of you are thinking – particularly those of you who grew up in the Roman Church. You see confession as a person feeling compelled to creep into a little box, so that they can rattle off a laundry list of superficial sins to a priest. The reason for this ritual embarrassment was, ostensibly, to be able to receive Holy Communion. Am I right?

In the Roman Church– there is an idea that big sins cut people off entirely from their relationship with God, and confession was the way to restore that relationship. A priest, acting on behalf of the Church, heard your confession, determines whether or not you were really penitent, and decides to grant or withhold God’s forgiveness and, thus, reconciliation with God and the Church. 

This sort of penitential system sets the priest in the place of a mediator between God and the sinner. It assumes that sin alienates a person from God so much, that he can’t even approach God directly. A priest, thus, is absolutely necessary to restore the relationship between God the sinner. This, of course, gives priests and “the Church” a great deal of power over people – power which, in the past, was abused in the most egregious of ways.

But, the perspective on confession I’ve just described isn’t the Anglican Way. First of all, Anglicans don’t believe that sins sever our relationship with God. In baptism, we are “sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own for ever.”[2] Sin may upset our fellowship with God – our enjoyment of feeling closeness to him – but it doesn’t destroy the relationship, itself. This point is important, because it means that, whatever confession is about, it isn’t about restoring a broken relationship.

Second, Anglicans don’t connect confession to Holy Communion in the same way. For Anglicans, the Eucharist is a medicine for sinners and not a reward for saints. We view communion as a means of grace that helps us fight the infection of sin. If that’s so, why would we keep it from those who are suffering from the infection? 

Our Anglican tradition approaches confession from an entirely different angle. We don’t see it as a way of placating an offended God. We see it, instead, as a way of soothing a troubled conscience. 

The fact of our sinfulness doesn’t keep us from receiving forgiveness, but our feelings about our sinfulness might. They may even make us apprehensive to come to communion. This isn’t good! So our Anglican tradition provides a special means of pastoral care for people burdened down by feelings of guilt. This means is described in a little-read portion of the Prayer Book known as “the Exhortation.” Among other things, the Exhortation urges people to prepare for communion with the sort of self-examination I described last week; however, it goes on to say that

         “If, in your preparation, you need help and counsel, then go and open your grief to a discreet and understanding priest, and confess your sins, that you may receive the benefit of absolution, and spiritual counsel and advice; to the removal of scruple and doubt, the assurance of pardon, and the strengthening of your faith.”[3] 

Here’s the point: If your feelings about your sin won’t allow you to accept the facts about God’s forgiveness, then seek out a good priest and confess your sins out loud. The reason for doing this is not so that the priest can forgive you; it is so the priest can assure you that God can. Think about it like this: In confession, the priest is functioning incarnationally. Just as God took to himself human flesh, so that humans could experience God as we are, we make confession to a human being, so that God’s words of forgiveness can come to us “with skin on.” 

Folks, confessing your sins to a priest may not be comfortable, but it serves a crucial purpose. When you confess out loud, you quickly get beyond your feelings about your sins to the facts concerning them. By getting them out into the open, you sideline your pride. It's pride – not your other sins – that gets in the way of your receiving forgiveness. When you confess to a good priest – whom I assure you will not find your sins at all original – he/she won’t groan in disgust. (Priests are sinners, too!) Instead, the priest will hear the sins that are troubling you and will be able to tell you out loud that God is able and willing to forgive you these and all other sins. To be clear: the priest isn’t the one forgiving you; he/she is merely declaring to you that the God, who promised forgiveness to all who ask, has forgiven you.

Allow me to end with a personal testimony. We have heard people confess everything from cheating on their taxes to adultery and murder. Sins don’t surprise us. The thing that always surprises us, however, is what confession does for people who use it. Fr. Patrick tells a story of hearing a confession of a woman who had agonized for three decades over an extramarital affair. Her husband had forgiven her long ago, but she just couldn’t forgive herself. What is more, she just couldn’t accept that a Holy God would forgive her. One evening, in tears and utter despair, she knelt before God and before her priest at an old-fashioned altar, and, when she got up, her sin stayed down. That is one of the most beautiful and most powerful things a minister can ever see! Satan had been blackmailing this poor woman for thirty years, stealing her joy, and undermining her faith, and, with one sign of the cross, “old things had passed away, and all things were new.” 

Let me close with a question: “What sin burdens are you bearing right now that you can’t seem to put down?” When you examine your soul, what are the debts you believe can never be repaid? What memories of failure are stealing your joy and shaking your faith, today? And, finally, what are the trespasses for which you cannot seem to forgive yourself? My friends, in the words of the old, Gospel song, “Take your burdens to the Lord, and leave them there!” If, however, you can’t seem to do so, give confession a try, so that the Devil doesn’t keep kicking it over your shoulder.

If you ever want to try this practice, simply shoot one of us an e-mail or a text. If you’d rather talk to a priest you don’t know, just let us know, and we’ll arrange someone for you. The only thing that matters is that you don’t let pride or fear keep you from availing yourself of a sacrament – the sacrament of reconciliation.

St. Irenaeus once said that “the glory of God is a human being who is fully alive.” Friends, no Christian can live life to the fullest, when his or her feelings of guilt obscure the facts of God’s forgiveness. Choose life, and, by doing so, tell that old accuser, the Devil, to go to Hell! AMEN.          

[1] 1 John 1:9.
[2] BCP, 308.
[3] BCP, 317.