One of the theological words that has all but disappeared from the Christian vocabulary is the word “penance”–or making restitution for one’s sins. In other words, once we have confessed the error of our ways, and received God’s forgiveness, the next step is to recommit ourselves to living differently. Otherwise, we are no different than a hamster spinning on a wheel. We sin and are forgiven … we sin and are forgiven … and round and round we go—expending a great deal of energy, but never really moving forward.
Penance was the church’s way of helping people to get off that hamster wheel. In fact, in the Roman Catholic tradition, it was eventually elevated to sacramental status, because it was usually a priest who was suggesting how you could start moving in this new direction. After you confessed your sins to the priest, he would then tell you what you needed to do—not so much in order to be forgiven, but in order to turn your life around.
Unfortunately, the practice was also ripe for abuse, and the Reformers of the Sixteenth Century were surely on target when they objected to how penance had basically been turned into an alternative revenue stream for the Church. However, in the process of correcting that practice, I sometimes wonder whether we inadvertently threw the baby out with the bath water!
Too often, I think Christians today view forgiveness as a giant eraser on the blackboard of our sinful lives. That is, we seek God’s pardon … we receive it … and then we go on our merry way. But as Bonheoffer has pointed out, that attitude cheapens the very gift of grace that makes forgiveness possible in the first place. Forgiveness is not a stopping point; it is a starting point. It is God’s gift to those of us who wish to begin life anew—this time in a different direction!
To put it bluntly, true repentance is more than just expressing remorse for what we have done or neglected to do. Feeling badly about the damage we have caused in the relationships around us is important, of course; but it cannot stop there. The next step is to start getting estimates on the cost of repairing that damage. And this is where the work of repentance really begins.
Penance was the church’s way of helping people to get off that hamster wheel. In fact, in the Roman Catholic tradition, it was eventually elevated to sacramental status, because it was usually a priest who was suggesting how you could start moving in this new direction. After you confessed your sins to the priest, he would then tell you what you needed to do—not so much in order to be forgiven, but in order to turn your life around.
Unfortunately, the practice was also ripe for abuse, and the Reformers of the Sixteenth Century were surely on target when they objected to how penance had basically been turned into an alternative revenue stream for the Church. However, in the process of correcting that practice, I sometimes wonder whether we inadvertently threw the baby out with the bath water!
Too often, I think Christians today view forgiveness as a giant eraser on the blackboard of our sinful lives. That is, we seek God’s pardon … we receive it … and then we go on our merry way. But as Bonheoffer has pointed out, that attitude cheapens the very gift of grace that makes forgiveness possible in the first place. Forgiveness is not a stopping point; it is a starting point. It is God’s gift to those of us who wish to begin life anew—this time in a different direction!
To put it bluntly, true repentance is more than just expressing remorse for what we have done or neglected to do. Feeling badly about the damage we have caused in the relationships around us is important, of course; but it cannot stop there. The next step is to start getting estimates on the cost of repairing that damage. And this is where the work of repentance really begins.
posted by Dr. Robert Crilley at
9:59 PM
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