The Forgiveness of Sins

Blood Pool (Installation), Jeffrey Mongrain, 2006. Plexiglas, 4 x 88 in. St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Columbia, South Carolina.

“Confession (1 John 1)” from the album Hiding Place by John Michael Talbot.

Poetry:

“Confession”
by George Herbert

O what a cunning guest
Is this same grief! within my heart I made
Closets; and in them many a chest;
And, like a master in my trade,
In those chests, boxes; in each box, a till:
Yet grief knows all, and enters when he will.

No screw, no piercer can
Into a piece of timber work and wind,
As God’s afflictions into man,
When he a torture hath designed.
They are too subtle for the subtlest hearts;
And fall, like rheums, upon the tend’rest parts.

We are the earth; and they,
Like moles within us, heave, and cast about:
And till they foot and clutch their prey,
They never cool, much less give out.
No smith can make such locks but they have keys:
Closets are halls to them; and hearts, high-ways.

Only an open breast
Doth shut them out, so that they cannot enter;
Or, if they enter, cannot rest,
But quickly seek some new adventure.
Smooth open hearts no fast’ning have; but fiction
Doth give a hold and handle to affliction.

Wherefore my faults and sins,
Lord, I acknowledge; take thy plagues away:
For since confession pardon wins,
I challenge here the brightest day,
The clearest diamond: let them do their best,
They shall be thick and cloudy to my breast.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

One point three gallons. That’s the amount of blood in the average adult male. It’s the amount needed for life and the amount without which a male body would struggle to function. One point three gallons comprised of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. One point three gallons designed and created for life by a God who also appoints the worth and value of that human life.

The first people with blood running in their veins, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and sin entered the world. This original sin, that I too inherit, distances me from the creator God– the Lord God Yahweh, who longs to be in relationship with his creation. My sin, like theirs, requires a blood sacrifice to cover it. In today’s first Scripture verse (Ephesians 1:7) we read that redemption and forgiveness of sins are found through the blood of Jesus alone. Jesus who, being fully God and fully man, contained one point three gallons of blood within his human body; blood shed for the forgiveness of sins. Blood shed for your sin and for my sin.

When I think about my own sin, all the specific sins and returning sins of my earthly life, I am appalled. I have tried to lock them away in ‘chests, boxes; in each box, a till’, but as Herbert writes in today’s poem, ‘...grief knows all’ – our conscience is riddled with guilt. We may try to distance ourselves from our sin; from our sin in general and from specific sin that wraps around us each and every day. However, in our own strength we are not able to permanently lock it away. Herbert writes that it is only ‘an open breast, doth shut them out.’ Only the honest confession of the sinner staring eyes wide open into the ‘blood pool’ of our Savior will begin to unlock the ‘boxes’ where we have hidden our sin and usher in forgiveness. Today’s second Scripture verses (1 John 1: 9-10) caution us against the pretense of locking away our sin and burying it so deeply that we con ourselves that we are in fact without sin. John tells us that in doing so we call our Savior a ‘liar, and the truth is not in us.’

In his artwork Blood Pool, Jeffrey Mongrain encourages us, once we have confessed our sins, to shift our gaze from ourselves to Jesus in whom we receive forgiveness. We are encouraged to confess the one in whom our sins are forgiven. Mongrain’s plexiglass installation at Saint Peter’s Church in Columbia, South Carolina, is to be found in front of the altar, depicting a marble, Last Supper. The Plexiglas pool, the equivalent of one point three gallons of blood, is the color of deep red wine reminding us of our Lord Jesus and his atoning sacrifice.

As we gaze into this pool and see the sculpture of the last supper mirrored in the high shine of the Plexiglass, and as we see the blood reflecting the wine and the wine representing the blood, may we confess our sins to the only one who is able to forgive them­––Jesus Christ who shed his blood so that we could be forgiven. Let us also confess the truth of sins forgiven through Christ alone to any and all who will hear us.

Prayer:

Holy Lord,
​​I have sinned times without number,
and been guilty of pride and unbelief,
of failure to find thy mind in thy Word,
of neglect to seek thee in my daily life.
My transgressions and short-comings
present me with a list of accusations,
But I bless thee that they will not stand against me,
for all have been laid on Christ…
(Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth).
Father, help us to walk daily in this knowledge. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray.
Amen.

Sian Draycott
Instructor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, please visit our website via the link in our bio.