From the Pastor: Monday Morning, February 14, 2011
“A Confession and An Invitation”
I believe it was St. Augustine, the great 5th Century Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, who said: “O Lord, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and restless are our hearts until they come to rest in Thee.” With these words Augustine opens one of his most well-known works, his Confessions, which serve as an autobiography of his pilgrimage to God and Faith while spending much of his life headed in the opposite direction.
In many ways “confession” lies at the heart of our Presbyterian Heritage and Reformed Tradition. Over against its sacramental status in Roman Catholicism where private “confession” to a “priest” is encouraged, John Calvin argued for a more communal sense of “confession” and suggested we do not need a “priest” as an intermediary between the believer and God. Yet Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his famous Life Together found great value in “confession” when it was directed to another individual “face to face” in order simultaneously to hold each other accountable and to strengthen the bonds of community when the person hearing the “confession” was a part of a fellowship marked by mutual trust and shared commitment.
