Dear Congregation

I have the privilege of getting to read a lot, in fact, it is part of my expected job responsibilities. I am well aware of the privilege and joy of that. But, I do confess, that sometimes I can get in a bit of a rut where I read a lot but get impacted by very little. It is like my finite brain and extremely restricted heart only has so much bandwidth for new information and so, at a point, it just begins to flow over me.

That was clearly the case this summer when I read Tyler Staton’s book: Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools. I enjoyed it, but I wasn’t as deeply impacted by it as some others (who had recommended the book to me) had been. This last week though, I felt the need to revisit it. I was feeling discouraged by sin, my own, and the sins of some around me. Sin was doing its thing, causing chaos, and it had me pretty down. I remembered that there was a chapter in Staton’s book on sin and confession that had been pretty helpful and so I decided to revisit it, and I was really glad that I did. The Lord met with me at my desk, and reminded me of some deep truths.

And so, while it isn’t my regular habit, I wanted to summarize (or just quote) six of Staton’s thoughts below. I hope and pray that the Lord uses them to encourage you as much as they encouraged me. All quotes are taken from chapter 4 which is titled, Search Me and Know Me.

1. In Hebrews 4:15, Jesus is described as a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. The word that we have for sympathize is the compound word sympatheo which could be most literally translated as “co-suffer.” Staton says, “That’s how Jesus deals with our sin. He suffers with us - suffers the consequences of our thoughts, actions, and disordered desires; suffers the subtle agony of hiding and pretending and presenting a preferred self that traps us in perpetual insecurity; suffers the estrangement from God we willfully choose by managing a sin pattern we’ve grown tired of confessing rather than bringing it into the light of his inexhaustible love.”

2. This image of Jesus being drawn to us in our weakness like a magnet is something that will stick with me for a long time. “Jesus is nearest to us in our weakness, not our strengths. Our hearts, corrupted by sin, are like the poles of a magnet that push away, ever resistant to grace. Jesus’ heart, uncorrupted, works exactly the opposite way.” 

3. If Jesus is the great physician (and He is) then we need to be able to come to Him with an accurate understanding of the severity of our symptoms. “To confess is to say, I want to name my symptoms, completely and comprehensively, because I want healing, completely and comprehensively.”

4. Staton quotes Eugene Peterson who says, “God does not deal with sin by ridding our lives of it as if it were a germ, or mice in the attic. God does not deal with sin by amputation as if it were a gangrenous leg, leaving us crippled, holiness on a crutch. God deals with sin by forgiving us, and when he forgives us there is more of us, not less.”

5. This one really got me.
   “One of the biggest mistakes we’ve made in the modern church is to reimagine spiritual maturity as the need to confess less. The unspoken assumption is, ‘As I ascend in relationship with God, I confess less because I have less to confess.’ True spiritual maturity, though, is the opposite. It’s not an ascension; it’s an archaeological dig as we discover layer after layer of what was in us all along. Spiritual maturity means more confession, not less.”

6. Lord, make this true of us as a community.
   “A maturing community is a confessing community - not a church without sin, but a church without secrets.”

Beloved friends, fellow sojourners … if you are sick with sin, then please run to the great physician and confess to Him your great need.  We will never be a community without sin, but let’s live with the freedom of people who have no need for secrets.

The music this week is very different. It was sent to me by a friend after I preached on Revelation 1 and the apostle John getting reunited with his old friend, Jesus. It tells that story. Enjoy.

REUNION ON PATMOS // 'Ballads of the Revelation'

See you Sunday.
Ross