Homily – Confession and the Great “I AM”

Introduction
Just to remind you: Confession is a time for you to renew your commitment to Christ and His Church, and first Confession is the time when begin to take responsibility for the vows your godparents, parents, and parish made for you when you were a baby. Every time you go to Confession, you are rejecting all things evil and willfully uniting yourself to God (through Christ and the Holy Spirit) through the faith and reality of the Holy Orthodox Church. But what is this faith? Who is this God? Today we will continue talking about these things.

Three weeks ago, you learned the most important thing: that God made this world out of love, He made you “in His Image”, and that He gave you something very important to do. Two weeks ago, you learned that love is not about feelings or about whether or not someone deserves it; love requires commitment. God is so committed to you that “He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever believeith in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (St. John 3:16). He is so committed that He never gives up on us, no matter what we do, but is always willing to give us a new start and to help us clean up the messes we make of our lives and the other things He put into our care.

This week, I want to talk a little more about who God is and about how that fits into Confession. [Go to the icon of Christ and talk about the words written in his halo: God as the great “I AM” (whatever you need me to be)]

There is a tendency to think of God as a Judge: coming to him in Repentance/Confession is like going to court. You’ve done something wrong, and you go to Him to plead guilty, tell Him you are sorry, and thank Jesus for taking horrible punishment that you yourself deserve. This is one way of understanding Confession, but I think that there are others that may be useful for you. Let me share three:

What does a good coach do? (encourages, trains, makes us practice at certain times and in certain ways). Why does the coach do this?

God is like the greatest coach. He has developed a really good practice schedule, designed especially for you. But as in sports or music, you have to follow through, go to practice, practice at home on your own, and work really hard. And when things get difficult, God is better than any coach: not only will he cheer you on – He will actually go into your heart and give you the strength you need to make it through those times when you couldn’t do it on your own.  Because as Saint Paul wrote: it’s not just about running the race, it’s not just about finishing the race, it’s about winning the race and receiving the crown.  This is only possible when you Confess Jesus as Lord and accept His mercy and power.

So God is like a Coach, and going to Confession is like checking in with Him to let Him talk about how the training is going, apologize for those times you broke his regimen, get encouragement, and to ask Him to give you the strength to do better.

 What does a good doctor do? Why does she do this?

We don’t just go to the doctor when we are sick, but also for regular check-ups. What does the doctor do?  She look at our bodies, asks us some questions, figures out what is wrong with us, then gives us some encouragement, advice, and medicine to help us get healthy. Doctors have studied the human body a long time and they have special instruments to help them diagnose you. God is like that, but even better. He knows every hair – and every cell – of your body. He made you and has been watching you every moment of every day! He knows what is wrong, he knows your bad habits and mistakes, he knows how this world has caused you to suffer, and He knows what you need to do to become well. He has designed a set of treatments especially for you.  These treatments won’t just heal you, but if you follow them, they will eventually make you immune from every disease and sadness so that you can live forever in paradise – a place where there is no more pain, sorrow, or sickness. No other doctor can do this.

So God is like a really good doctor, and Confession is like going to Him to get healed.

What do parents do?  Why do they do these things?

We pray “Our Father who art in heaven…”.  God is our loving Father, giving what us everything we need to become His perfect sons and daughters.  Trust Him.  Trust the love He has for you.  Trust Him enough to obey Him.  He had made you in His image and He is raising you to become like Him.

So next week, don’t just come to God as your judge: come to Him as your coach, come to Him as your spiritual doctor, and come to Him as the loving father who desires everything good for all His children.  He is your Savior: confess Him as Lord and give your life to Him.