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Holy Trinity
Please, Thanks, and Sorry
By Canon John
Three things a child is taught to say from early on: (1) please (2) thank you (3) sorry. These are needed not just to get through childhood, but to succeed in life. Adults, we should also remember to say please, thank you and sorry.
These simple words are needed in order for us to relate to one another – if we are to get along with each other – and to God, to be in right relationship with him.
All three are present in our worship, either at special moments or mixed in throughout, and especially, in a formal way, when (1) we say please in our Intercessions, (2) we say thank you in our Eucharist and (3) we say sorry in the Confession.
Advent is a season of hope and expectation, and of penitence. The liturgical colour, purple as in Lent, is also penitential.
This morning, let’s focus for a while on penitence. Grace Rawlins once at a team meeting, when I spoke of the need for penitence, said ‘oh, don’t be dolorous!’ I’ll try not to be that. But Advent a good time to think about ‘sorry’.
Our question, now, is why say sorry to God?
The clue to start is in asking, why say sorry to anyone? We’re talking here about genuinely saying sorry because you are truly sorry! There are other uses of saying sorry, which are more about putting the other person down:
- Sorry, I’ll say that again!
- Sorry, but you’re wrong on that!
- Sorry, but you missed the point!
Instead, think of sorry as in:
- Sorry, I was wrong.
- Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.
- Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.
Good reasons for saying sorry are that it clears your conscience, you don’t have to go on worrying, you’ve got it off your chest, it’s no longer on your mind. This then gives you a clean sheet, making you ready to start over again, to be open to rebuilding the relationship, to stay positive.
It’s the same with being sorry – penitent – before God: if we start with confessing our sins, we can then move on to worship him without our selfishness in the way. ‘Here I am to worship’ we sing: yes, but it’s not all about me!
This is why in our Sunday service, the Confession of sin comes early on – at St Mark’s in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’.
But there is a deeper reason, taking us beyond these helpful everyday ones, for saying sorry to God: he knows you and he loves you.
If you’re in line at the post office and you knock somebody’s elbow and they’re a complete stranger, you apologize out of politeness.
If you upset a friend or loved one by saying something hurtful, there’s so much more involved. You really need to say sorry and to mean it.
If it’s against God that we’ve sinned, we’ve really got to work on it! He’ll know if we’re just going through the motions of saying sorry.
And as he is our God and we are his sons and daughters forever, our relationship with him is the most important of all to work at.
Most vital of all, when we say sorry to God and he forgives us, as it is his promise to do, his forgiveness is absolute, unfailing.
We have his Word for it. I don’t just mean the in the words of Scripture, or the words in this service which are called the Words of Absolution – but His Word. This is the Word of God which was in the beginning with God; the Word that was made flesh, which came among us full of grace and truth, in the person of Jesus Christ.
Our forgiveness is written in his blood, the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the world’s sin.
So, when we come into the close presence of God we have no sins to hide, no pretensions, no excuses, we need to have truly discarded these. And if we haven’t, they will be burned away by the fire of his love.
Saying sorry to God and receiving his forgiveness makes us free: free for a purpose:
- Free to be channels of his peace through our intercession and the acts of love that spring from it.
- Free to praise and thank him with our whole heart – no holding back – and to know life in all its fulness.
It’s with these thoughts that I wish you ‘A happy and blessed Advent!’