Confession is one of the hardest and most healing things a person can do. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins" ( 1 John 1:9 ). Yet confession can also be twisted, either by being delayed until it is forced out of us, or by turning it into public shaming. These two stories about confession, retold in our own words, come from very different centuries. One is the true story of a twentieth-century art forger who confessed only when he had to, and then could not get anyone to believe him. The other is about how early Irish Christianity, often linked with St Patrick, changed the way the church heard confession. Each ends with a takeaway for preaching or reflection. Stories in this post: The Confession Nobody Believed: Han van Meegeren St Patrick and the Mercy of Private Confession ──────── ✝ ──────── The Confession Nobody Believed: Han van Meegeren In the 1930s, the Dutch painter Han van Meegeren felt humiliated by critics who said he had...
Sermon stories for preaching and faithful living