Being Reconciled: Penitence, Punishment, and Worship.
John Berkman
121026
A Reconciled and Reconciling People. When the community gathers for eucharist, we are admonished by the scripture to be reconciled with each other.
Who Needs to Repent and be Reconciled? Discovering Who We Are. Reconciliation presuppose 3 things.
- We both judge and are judged. judging is ubiquitous in our society. Inherent in judgment is punishment and retribution--literally paying back.
- We are a sinful people. Sin, in the scripture means a rupture of our communion with God and/or a kind of stain or sickness.
- Reconciliation of sinners requires repentance.
Eucharistic Reconciliation: Restoration and Transformation. The history of reconciliation in the church is reviewed. Originally, it was a very intentional setoff acts, and was only available once in a life time. That lead to people doing penance on their deathbeds. That all worked well until Christianity became a state religion with nominal Christians and the practice began to wane. In the 5th century and following, the practice of confession, tariff penance" started in the British Isles and spread to Europe. Eucharist has always been central in the practices of penance in the church.
The Practice of Eucharistic Reconciliation: Punishment in Theological Perspective. (121029) This section examines the influence of Christian practices of reconciliation has had on modern practices of punishment. A couple of differences.
- In Christian punishment, the penitent is actively involved, accepting some form of punishment. In civil punishment, the person being punished may not be active and may not be repentant.
- Penitence is associated with sin (breaking God's law) and punishment is associated with crime (breaking society's laws).
There are striking similarities between monastic incarceration and contemporary punishment models.
Punishment has both reformative and retributive goals. Monastic punishment was aimed at the good of the sinner and reconciliation of the whole community. That should be the goal of civil punishment as well. In this light, capital punishment is simply not consistent with a Christian view of punishment.