And God's power breaks into life once more, and once more people aren't paying attention. They're looking backwards for something else, overlooking something new. If you stop trying so hard to prevent it, God will forgive your sins. God will break down your estrangement from God. Salvation, the Bible's great teaching insists, is not a reward for good behavior but purely a matter of God being true to the divine nature.
Ritual confession is a sometimes thing , seasonal, used on appropriate occasions.
Today's lessons tell of God's burning desire to come in and bind us together and draw us closer to him. The power to forgive sins, to erase barriers, has nothing to do with the words priests say after we confess our sins together. The forgiveness of sins lies in the power of communal love that trusts in God's determination to love I speak the absolution alone, yes. But I'm speaking on behalf of all of you when I do it. What I'm really saying is we're all here along with all your true and positive friends and relatives to knock a hole in the roof and, together, get you closer to God than you could get on your own.