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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion January 25, 2008 One Deep River… |
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Frontline Devotion for Friday, January 25, 2008 by Mike Martine
1 John 1:8-9
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves…
This phrase is often used in the “Confession” portion of church services. My family has another way of saying it: “Da Nile is one deep river…”
Get it? “Da Nile”? “The Nile”? Denial?
We’re good at deception, and, often, if we can think of a reason for why we’ve done something sinful, we tend to dismiss the sin. But sin is still there, it is a part of us, and we need to be honest about it in our walk with Christ.
I’m not big on dwelling on our sinfulness. I feel that, spiritually, we’ve become too wrapped up in our sinfulness. Often to the point of forgetting that we are also created in God’s image and that we are created “good.”
But pretending we are not sinful doesn’t work either. We do sin, and sin has to be faced if we are to be healed of it and move past it.
In terms of thinking about sin, I choose to look at it in a way described by Matthew Fox, Rob Bell (Velvet Elvis), and others. Sinfulness springs from a failure on our part to recognize God in ourselves, in others, and in creation.
When we sin against someone, we fail to recognize that they are a creature, a child, of God. We sin, in reality, against God himself, deny God’s presence in that person, and make them something “other” than human.
The same goes with creation; the same is true when we sin against ourselves.
If we want to confront our sinfulness, a good way to do it is to start seeing things differently. To start looking at others, at creation, and even at ourselves as vessels of the creator. And then, treating all of those things appropriately.
In Italy, Epiphany is celebrated with the story of La Befana. The story goes that the magi, on their way to find the Christ child, stayed at her home to rest a while. When they left, they invited her to come along to see the baby Jesus.
For whatever reason, La Befana declined, but, after the wise men left, she thought better of it and went after them. She never found them, or the baby, but instead embraced a different mission, leaving a gift in the stocking of every sleeping child she encountered on her journey just in case they were the baby Jesus.
So, on the morning of Epiphany, Italian children wake to treats in their stockings, a gift of La Befana, but also a reminder. . .
You never know where, or in whom, you will meet Jesus.
Be mindful of that, and you’ll find you have much less to confess.
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