Clergy and Educators

ICJS Scripture Forum, 2001
Session #8

Scripture Forum
Session #8
Chizuk Amuno Congregation
May 3, 2002

Before this session got underway attention was directed to an article appearing in that day's issue of The Sun. The article, "Vatican stresses need to confess sin," reads in part:

   With a sex abuse scandal convulsing the American Church, the Vatican stressed yesterday the need for Catholics to confess their sins to be forgiven -- but said some habitual sinners could never be absolved.
   In an apostolic letter, Pope John Paul II did not say who these habitual sinners were, only that they included those living in continued and serious states of sin "who do not intend to change their situations."
. . .
   For some people, he [the pope] said, "you cannot give absolution because the fundamental condition for absolution is that the person must separate from the sin, have the desire for change."
. . .
   The pope's apostolic letter was designed to counter what Ratzinger [Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, identified in the article as "the Vatican's top theological watchdog"] called a "crisis" in the sacrament of penance -- the process by which Catholics confess their sins to priests and receive forgiveness.
   Fewer Catholics celebrate the sacrament, and, as the document stressed, there has been a trend in some countries toward group rather than individual confession.
   The document said general absolutions are for use only in "grave necessity," when an individual confession is not possible.
   "Individual and integral confession and absolution are the sole ordinary means by which the faithful, conscious of grave sin, are reconciled with God and the Church," the letter said.

The session itself was devoted to an examination of Presbyterian views of sin and repentance, concentrating on a portion of the Westminster Confession (1647). There was an initial acknowledgment that the Presby-terian Confession(s), which were the product of the Reformation, were set over against Roman Catholic practices or caricatures of Roman Catholic practices, and in that regard perhaps evince an unhealthy over-reaction to what was judged to be corruption in the Church. The point was made that the various Christian denominations have a lot to teach each other about the dynamics of sin and repentance, that Christians might enliven one another by discovering what was lost in the process of their own self-definition and what gets lost when we remove ourselves from the critical judgment of another tradition.

It was explained that, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, for example, the liturgy in the Presbyterian tradition is not fixed in form and practice. In fact, the liturgy is not the place to begin an examination of the notions of sin and repentance in the Presbyterian tradition. Presbyter-ians stress the reading of the Word and rely on the interpretation of texts to shape lives. First and foremost in the tradition is the work that goes into the shaping of the Confession. It was suggested that a key question might be: What is the nature of the language in which the Confessions are rendered, and how does the language function in the shaping of the community?

Discussion:

• Question: How do people come to know the material in the Confession(s)?
• Response: Presbyterians are increasingly unaware of the older form(s) of the Confession. It used to be the case that the material was studied and had to be memorized. Those who are to be ordained must know all the materials thoroughly, but in general the scholasticism of the tradition has collapsed in the pervasive process of dumbing down that has affected all aspects of our society.
• The Confession is not static. The tradition is "reformed, always reforming," which means that new elucidations are required as times change. It is the community that determines through a demo-cratic process what principles will be binding on the community.

Discussion of section labeled Of Repentance Unto Life, point III:

• Point III: "Although repentance be not to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God's free grace in Christ; yet is it of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it."
• Question: Doesn't this put a limitation on God's grace?
• Response: The transformative work is said to belong to God. Salvation is only through the grace of God.
• Question: How does one know that one is in fact forgiven and that one's life has been turned around?
• Response: The repentant sinner must rely on faith. One trusts that the biblical narrative is true. There are words of assurance in the pardon spoken following the confession of sin. The community also plays a role in providing a basis of trust and confidence.
• It was suggested that the stress is on the idea that repentance of the sinner is not necessary for God but is necessary for the sinner.
• It was also pointed out that the juridical under-standing of atonement that was dominant at the time the Confession was written should be borne
  in mind when reading this form of the Confession.

Discussion of section labeled Of Repentance Unto Life, point IV:

• Point IV: "As there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent."
• Question: Doesn't this make God a crotchety old son of a bitch?
• Response: The "Presbyterians" of that time saw sin as a sign of a totally dysfunctional, fallen world. Point IV indicates that every sin speaks of the dysfunctional world order.
• Making no distinction between large and small sins is a reaction against the Roman Catholic distinc-tion between venial sins and mortal sins -- a reaction against a hierarchy of repentance. As such, this point is both a polemic and an important correction: The work of repentance belongs to God.
• Footnote: It is important to remember that "damnation" signifies eternal estrangement from God.
• This point underscores the total dependence of the individual and the community on God.
• Roman Catholic reaction: For someone who grew up with a notion of a hierarchy of sin, the notion that there is no distinction among sins makes no sense and is, in fact, frightening, an unnerving way to live. One would be forced to either pay no attention to sin at all or to be in a constant state of immobility.
• Question from a Jewish perspective: Would not the fragility of the moment be an impetus to positive action?
• In Judaism it is said that every mitzvah is of equal weight and every transgression is of equal weight, yet there is also a hierarchy of transgressions. Knowing which is the greater sin depends on the context of the choices the individual has to make about his behavior. One must live in the tension of making those choices. While this is not strictly "theology," in a sense it is a kind of "practical" theology.
• Another Jewish reaction to the material in the section Of Repentance Unto Life: If the speaker were a non-theologian, a person trying to be a religious Presbyterian, all of this would have to be much clearer for him to be able to lead his life on the basis of it.



• There is a common caricature of the Christian notion of repentance that implies that all a Christian has to do is confess and God will take it from there. That is, the individual does not have to do anything else to make restitution for his sin. Point VI reads, in part, as follows: ". . . by a private or public confession and sorrow for his sin, to declare his repentance to those that are offended." "Declare" as it is used in the Confession is a performative act.



• Question: Do you guys [Christians] have any sense of humor about sin? Sin isn't always just rebellion against God; people sin to have fun. Beyond a near collapse on the part of the Presbyterian, this question was never answered.



• Jews see the world as a mixture of holiness and brokenness. The Presbyterian view seems to be that of a world totally broken, so that redemption is impossible.
• Response: There is the hope for redemption.
• Roman Catholic response: The world is both broken and redeemed simultaneously (which is why there is a need for the Second Coming).



• Brief return to an issue discussed in an earlier session: From a Jewish perspective, is there a sin against God that is not a sin against another human being?
  Answer: No. Even ritual sins are sins against other people because, if nothing else, they hold off redemption.
• There are no private actions because every negative action is a tear in the fabric of the community.



• From a Jewish point of view it seems that so much of [Christian] liturgy focuses on sin rather than on a relationship with God. The daily service in Judaism begins with psalms that focus on that relationship. A discussion of sin is embedded in other parts of the service. Christians take sin more seriously than Jews.
• In the Presbyterian liturgy the confession is the starting point of the service. It is followed by a pardon and the Ten Commandments, which demonstrate how the individual and the commu-nity are to live their lives.

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