Return to Sermon Archive  Return to Church Home Page

Text: James 5:13-20

Let me begin by reviewing the first four steps to recovery:

1) We admitted we were powerless over the effects of our separation from God and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2) We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3) We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

4) We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

And now I turn to Step Five which says, "We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."

Imagine the housewife who turns on the lights in the morning and sees mouse droppings on the cabinet. Furthermore, she may have discovered that something has been chewing on the package of crackers in the pantry. After she shudders and screams a bit, she will likely tell her husband that he has a problem. There are droppings on the cabinet!

To make this analogy fit my purpose, imagine that the housewife concludes that her problem is the droppings on the cabinet. She may clean these up, only to discover that they reappear the very next day. She may complain and grumble about the droppings. But is that her real problem? We all know it is not. Anyone would immediately know that the visible droppings meant there was a very real mouse, which is her real problem.

Her problem lies in what she never sees, not in what she does see in the day. She never sees the mouse which plays in her kitchen in the dark of night.

But it does take a certain degree of insight to recognize that the real problem is not what is on the surface. The problem is the unseen reality of the night. There is a mouse in the house.

That kind of analysis is the essence of Step Four where we conduct a searching and fearless moral inventory and discover the roots of our problems. We will never solve our problems dealing only with the symptoms, which appear in the light of day. We have to discover that there is a deeper, hidden problem and name it!

But now we come to Step Five, which reminds us that even though we have identified the deeper problem, we still have it. We have not solved the problem just because we have identified it.

In my analogy, the housewife may finally realize that her problem is not the droppings, and that her real problem is the fact that she has a mouse in the house. But she still has the mouse in the house!

In Step Five the housewife catches the mouse.

Now, we come to grips with our deeper problem by admitting our wrongs openly in order to deal with them effectively. We expose all our shameful secrets, embarrassing behaviors, and spoiled hopes. We admit the nature of our wrongs to God, ourselves, and another human being.

I think it was back in my seminary days that I first heard the expression, "That's like trying to hold four basketballs under water at the same time." Let's picture that scene in our minds. Two basketballs can be held under water with one in each hand. Three becomes a problem. And four is almost impossible. All our concentration and effort has to be devoted to making sure that none of them pops to the surface. All our faculties and all our energies are required to keep the basketballs out of sight and under the water. It's nearly impossible to do.

That is exactly what some of us are doing emotionally. We have secrets. We have shame. We have embarrassing behaviors. We have things we don't want anybody to know. And it places a heavy, heavy demand on us to keep all of these issues hidden from other people and politely out of sight.

Now imagine the relief when we can give up and just let those four basketballs pop to the surface. The secret is out, but it feels so good to have ended the struggle.

The Bible calls this confession. It is the act of admitting our wrongs. To confess is to acknowledge openly what we have discovered about ourselves in Step Four. In confession, we speak the truth about ourselves. We tell our story, that secret story that nobody else knows. We end the silence and the isolation. We put an end to all the effort devoted to hiding.

Proverbs 28:13 says, "No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." Concealing our transgressions will make us sick. There is the transforming and healing power of being completely honest.

1) First, we are to admit the exact nature of our wrongs to God. We confess to God all that we have worked so hard to conceal. But, of course, God already knows us. This is step in the process of living a life of humility, honesty, and courage.

David is the classic example of notable sin in the Bible. Everyone knows the sordid story of his affair with Bathsheba and his involvement in the murder of her husband. Remember that he thought his deed was done in secret and nobody knew. But then the prophet Nathan appeared at his door. The prophet told a little morality tale to which David responded with righteous indignation. He said the man who did this should be punished. And Nathan drove home the point of his analogy with the famous words, "Thou are the man!"

David's secret sin had been exposed, but one of the great qualities of King David was his ability to confess. Instead of denying or rationalizing, he immediately confessed. And his confession is beautifully captured in Psalm 51:

2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, 10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

David recognized right away his accountability to God. Romans 14:12 says, "So then, each of us will be accountable to God."

There is a suggested prayer for Step Five and it goes like this:

"Lord, I understand that you already know me completely. I am now ready to reveal myself to you openly and humbly - my hurtful behaviors, self-centeredness, and negative traits. I am grateful to you for the gifts and abilities that have brought me to this point in my life. Take away my fear of being known and rejected. I place myself and my life in your care and keeping." (The Twelve Steps: A Spiritual Journey, p. 101)

2) The second part of this step is admitting the exact nature of our wrongs to ourselves.

This may sound odd because we should already know the exact nature of our wrongs. But sometimes we struggle with denial.

Did you ever try to deceive yourself? I think many of us try. I did once.

During the summer between my junior and senior year in high school, I attended the Minnesota Outward Bound School. We spent two weeks learning wilderness skills and canoeing, and two weeks on a long canoe trip up into Canada.

One of the training events consisted of a mile run and a three mile canoe race. Our tribe had divided into teams of three and were assigned to certain canoes. But when the day of the race occurred, I happened to have far outpaced any of my teammates in the mile run. I was there at the end of the run with three other fast runners. There we were waiting for our canoe partners while others were pushing their canoes into the water.

Someone suggested that we not wait and that we who were the fastest three go ahead and take a canoe. I caved in. And we paddled our hearts out that day and came in third place overall.

But the rest of our teammates came in dead last because they didn't know where their teammates were. They were waiting for us, and we were already far out on the lake.

I distinctly remember telling myself that I would only remember that I came in third place in the big race. My written journal contained nothing about how I had let down my canoe partners. I thought to myself, "Years from now I will only remember that I came in third place." But as you can see, I still remember it as one of my moments of great failure.

Sometimes we try to deceive ourselves. 1 John 1:8-9 says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Step Five forces us to confront our own sinfulness. We have to look ourselves in the face and admit our wrongs. Many suggest that we literally sit in front of a mirror, take a long look at ourselves and speak out loud. We need to make sure we are not in denial about the reality of our wrongs.

Living in isolation has been a way of protecting ourselves from further hurt. Step Five is our pathway out of isolation and loneliness, a move toward wholeness, happiness, and a sense of peace. It is a humbling experience to be totally honest.

3) The third part of this step is admitting the exact nature of our wrongs to another human being.

Perhaps this is the most difficult part of this step, but the most important part. We can confess to God and confess to ourselves and still believe that our secret is safe. But when we take the risk of confessing to another human being, we can be under no delusions about our secret. Now somebody knows.

Confession to another person provides special healing and wholeness and releases the grip of hidden sin. According to Scripture, we have God's promise of healing when we confess our sins, faults and shortcomings to another person and when that person responds by praying for us.

James 5:16 says, "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed." We finally find release from the grip of hidden sin.

The question is, "Who will we share our inventory with?" In AA groups, a sponsor is assigned to this task. Many people in recovery groups become very proficient at handling these intimate confessions. And this often becomes a very powerful and transforming experience.

Notice that this is not a public confession, it is a private one. This is not a public testimony which glorifies all the bad things we have done. Sometimes public testimonies cross a line in this way.

It is very important to choose the right person, a person who will keep confidences. We must choose someone we can trust, someone who will understand, someone who will encourage and not condemn us. This is the work of confession.

My recovering friend told me about his experience with Step Five and described it as the most amazing experience of his life. He said he truly brings about humility. He described the scene at his sponsor's house as if he were reliving that moment. He said his sponsor said an amazing prayer inviting God to be a part of that conversation. And then he poured out the awful truth about himself. He said he was 100% honest.

Perhaps the most amazing part of his experience was the message he felt from God. The very next day was Sunday. When he went to church, he couldn't believe his ears when the pastor preached a powerful sermon on "The truth shall set you free." That's what Step Five is all about.

In Matthew 10:26-27 Jesus says, "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops." When we keep our failures secret we give them power over us. When we tell them to someone else, we take that power away.

"Imagine a house that had been shut up for several years. A blanket of dust covers everything. Signs of decay abound: cobwebs in strings like party decorations. Stuffy and stale odors of mildew and mold. Unrecognizable knickknacks on the dust-covered mantle. Forgotten and faded pictures on stained walls. Eerie feelings that hover like ghosts from years gone by. We can't wait to open all the doors, to pull back all the drapes, to vent the shut-up rooms. We turn on every light and expose each darkened, dusty corner. We watch the light of day sweep out the demons of darkness and shadow."

"Our lives are like closed-up houses. All our shameful secrets, embarrassing behaviors, and spoiled hopes lie hidden from view. The air of our lives is stale because we have been afraid to open the door and windows to anyone else lest we be found out, rejected, or shamed. Step Five is our emergence. When we admit the nature of our wrongs to God, ourselves, and another human being, we are opening the doors and windows of our lives." (The Twelve Steps: A Spiritual Journey, p. 97)