THE PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND THE ASSURANCE OF PARDON

Traditional psychotherapy was based in part on the assumption that many of people’s difficulties resulted from traumatic events that were repressed – pushed out of one’s conscious awareness.  Therapy consisted in bringing these memories to conscious awareness so they could be dealt with.  Insight was highly valued as the means of this growth.  I knew a psychoanalyst who used hypnosis to try to help people remember repressed material.

Contemporary psychotherapy views things differently.  Inner growth results primarily from the relationship with the therapist.  With that growth comes an ability to confront pain and trauma from one’s past.  It is then that one develops insight.  So instead of insight producing inner growth, insight follows growth.

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In many churches, the worship service includes a prayer of confession which is printed in the bulletin or in the hymnal.  Speaking the words of this written prayer hopefully elicits feelings and reflections that help people confront the darker aspects of their own inner realities.

Then follows an assurance of pardon, spoken by the pastor, assuring the people of God’s love and forgiveness.

This process is similar to that of traditional psychotherapy.  Just as healing follows insight, forgiveness follows confession.

But the Reformed tradition in theology sees things differently.  Conversion begins with God’s redemptive activity in the depth of one’s inner self.  Forgiveness is part of this.  Based on this foundation of forgiveness and inner strength, one is able to confess. 

Just as in contemporary psychotherapy, insight follows healing, in a spiritual sense, confession follows forgiveness.  “I can confess because I have already been forgiven.” Confession is God’s gift to us, rather than our gift to God.

This means that in the worship service, the Assurance of Pardon should come first, followed by the Prayer of Confession.

If this is done, then the traditional Prayers and Assurances would probably need to be rewritten.  Here is one possibility:

Assurance of Pardon:

We have the assurance of our Heavenly Father that though we are unworthy, we are valued; though we have hurt people, we are forgiven; though we have violated our own integrity, we are accepted.  There is nothing we can do or say or think or feel or remember that will alienate us from God’s love through Jesus Christ, our Savior.  So we may confess with openness and with courage:

Prayer of Confession:

In the fragile honesty of this hour, we would open our hearts to You, O God,

and also to ourselves, to see things about ourselves that are hard to acknowledge. 

We have been obsessed with status in its many forms, and with the passion to be approved; we have closed our eyes to the impact of our behaviors – things we have done, and especially things we have not done; we have not been true to ourselves or to You.  As You have forgiven and accepted us, we ask that the newness of life that is ours may flourish anew. 

In the name of Christ, Amen.