Confession is Cathartic

catharsis

/kthaarsiss/

• noun the release of pent-up emotions, for example through drama.

— DERIVATIVES cathartic adjective & noun.

— ORIGIN Greek katharsis, from kathairein ‘cleanse’.

Yesterday's sermons were a cathartic moment. Sometimes I come to a sermon with a "message" - with something I feel the need to say. Usually this produces anxiety before the time, if the message is a challenging word, and anxiety afterwards because I wonder how it has been received.

As yesterday approached I felt a strange sense of peace about my sermon on Confession. I felt that it would be a significant moment in my work here at St John's. Like in the midst of the weekly routine of work and preaching - going through the motions of Lent and the weekly lectionary - I stumbled upon a little piece of gold and was privileged to share the discovery. I felt peace because the challenge of my sermon yesterday didn't feel invasive. I wasn't planning to bear other people's hidden stuff, but rather preparing to bare a little of my own journey.

It makes me wonder how sermons and preaching, especially my own, could be improved by less focus on theory and ideas, and more focus on doing - on application...

And afterwards I felt a great sense of catharsis... a sense of calm about having "confessed". It's not that my confession revealed some embarrassing things about me - although for some people my revelation about Fear might have been embarrassing... Rather it was the sense of being known. I feel like i've laid my cards down on the table. The church knows my agenda, my concerns, my weakness and my insecurity. and they also know where my strengths and gift to this community might possibly lie...

it's a cleansing thing to confess... (to "say things how they are, as best you know them, esp. with regards to your self!" - my definition yesterday)