Guest Post: Confession #1

For the past couple of months, I have been studying a number of influential writers and poets across the linear plane of history in order to better understand authentic confession. The theory behind this study is that all of humanity is confessional. That is to say, you and me are confessors. Intimately tied to confession is a vision of the “good life.”

You will not meet someone who does not–whether they are aware of it or not–have an observation as to what is good and worthy of our lives.

The very fact that someone gets up everyday, brushes her teeth, reads romance novels, hates television, eats strawberry ice cream, loves summer rains, and only sings when nobody is around reveals or confesses what she believes is the good life. Her words and her deeds are her confessions of the good life.

In other words: Intertwined into the fabric of confessions is value and worth. For there would be no point in confessing if value was void. For lack of better words, people are windows through which we perceive what they value and their confessions of the good life. The person who recycles may be confessing that the earth has value. The photographer may be confessing that it is the moments in life worth capturing. The disciple of Christ confesses that he is Lord in word and deed. That is to say, if we are the body of Christ, what are his feet and hands doing? Are they feeding the poor? Healing the sick? Preaching of the restoration of all things through Christ (Rom 8; Col 1:20)? This, even though by no means exhaustive, is the Christian confession of the good life, and I would argue the good life.

Which leads me to my next point: God is in the business of justice. Now, I’m not talking about a Judge Judy-kind-of-justice where the judge yells a lot and declares a financial restitution to be paid to the plaintiff. I’m talking about a shalom or mishpat justice: “In the widest sense, it [justice] means to ‘put things right,’ to intervene in a situation that is wrong, oppressive or out of control and to ‘fix’ it…Mishpat [Hebrew for justice] is a qualitative set of actions–something you do…Possibly the nearest English expression to the double word phrase would be ‘social justice’…John Goldingay emphatically points out that the Hebrew words are concrete nouns, unlike the abstract nouns which English normally uses to translate them. That is, they are actual things you do, not concept that you reflect upon” (Christopher Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God, 256-57).

The scriptures come alive when we see the word ‘justice’ in this light, which has major implications for the Church. Since Christ, as the true Israel, established a cosmic justice (Rom 8), that is, he ‘put all things right’ through his body, and if we are the resurrected polis (body of citizens), how are we to “imitate him” (Eph 5:1) by further extending his mishpat?

What would recycling look like if we really confessed that “the earth is the Lord’s and everything thereof” (Ps 24:1; Gen 1)?

What about education if we enacted Jesus confession in our classrooms, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me” (Mk 9:37)?

Or Nuclear Physics–which deals with the study of matter and energy–juxtaposed to Paul’s letterto the Colossians: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:16-17)?

What about the stranger, orphan, or widow from Jesus’ reiteration of Leviticus 19:18: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:39; Mk 12:31-33). Also, what would farming look like from Leviticus 19: “’When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God” (v. 9-10).

And most importantly, as resurrected citizens, how well we love these things reflects how much we love God. Therefore, the earth is important, not because it is our Mother or Brother, but because it is God’s. The neighbor across the street is significant. Orphans and widows are precious in the eyes of God. The vocations we choose should have Christ’s mishpat as the nucleus sustaining and animating our lives. Where we live matters. Even eating and drinking is a sacred act of worship (1 Cor 10:31). As Christians, I believe, we are to be cultivators of culture. As cultivators, everything is to become cruciform, that is, it is to look like Christ.

This is the good life. This is God’s confession to his people.

(Questions or Thoughts? You can reach Michael at mgmcewen1985@gmail.com)

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