Morning Rounds and Evening Musings

My Contemporary Anglican Theology class is reading Rowan Williams' Resurrection. It's a book about, um, the resurrection. And why it's important.

I was preparing to write my paper on one of the chapters this morning (which requires reading PAINSTAKINGLY slow!) and came across these thoughts:

"Confession is at once the acknowledgment of sin, the proclamation of faith and the praise of God...it is not needed by God (who knows the secrets of the heart), but it is offered as a witness and exhortation to the world. Confession displays the memory of sin as an occasion for the glorifying of God...to know oneself as a reconciled sinner is to know God as a reconciling savior."

I've never thought of confession in quite that way before--the asking for grace and forgiveness is itself the proclamation of God's grace, not just a device to make God happy and make ourselves feel guilty.