Witches and confessing to iPhones...

I saw a news story the other day that reflected the desperation of both our economy and of our spirit. I am pretty sure it was in Salem Massachusetts...one of the major witch centers of the world...where witches were being called on and were busy blessing houses and removing negative energy so that they would sell. Now, this says several different things to me. Immediately it says this homeowner is not a Christian and secondarily they are desperate for some kind of presumed blessing which will potentially cause their house to sell. I feel quite certain this is a “self made” man or woman who believes that their own power to create magic has failed and they have sought a higher power...a witch. I am at a loss how someone could actually believe this and be able to operate in any reasonable manner in the world. It's absolutely ludicrous to believe in something so absurd but people do believe in this and worse. Rabbits feet...horseshoes...four leaf clovers...and more. In Proverbs 11:25 it says, "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." When you're generous to others, God is going to be generous with you. As a Christian, it is obvious to me that unless I'm obeying God in the matter of following Him, God doesn't give me any actual guarantee to meet my needs. God is not obligated to meet any of my needs if I'm not obeying what He's told me to do. God says we can short circuit the power and the promises in our life. And certainly if you are not even plugged into Him in any manner then you have created an impossibility. That only leaves you one option...you're on your own. Honestly, to me that would be a very frightening prospect and selling a house would be the least of my worries. Plain and simple...God desires two things. He desires us to be in a close intimate relationship with Him and He desires our total dependence on Him. Do we depend on people we do not trust? Yes, we do and what happens? We get let down and disappointed. Our dependence on God is linked to our trust in Him. And that trust is linked to faith. The more faith we have in God, the more dependent we will be on Him. And the more surrendered in child like dependence, the more He takes care of us. So, there lies the problem...aside from the obvious. No trust in God...no relationship...no acknowledgment of Him as the risen savior and no faith except whatever we are able to do in our own power. It's called self reliance... and it seems to me, an unimaginable way to live. So, speaking of crazy and unimaginable things being important in peoples lives in a wrong way...I've got a doozie here...the new Apple “Confession: A Roman Catholic App”. Honestly, I thought it was a joke or a prank when I first heard about it. Nope...for $1.99 you could own it and not be left in the confessional booth sharing secrets with your priest. Yep...it was true and even blessed and approved by the Catholic church. It has been recently reported in the The Washington Post, last week, that a whopping 45 percent of Catholics never bother with going to confession and that only about a quarter of them go at least once a year. It seems that the up close and personal touch is what makes the confession of our sins so awkward and infrequent. So, this is the perfect sacrament/app for those who enjoy a more impersonal approach. To begin you enter your personal data...uh, creepy... and then answer a series of questions. Once completed, then you press the finish button which brings up a random spiritual quote from some long dead Catholic saint along with a lists of prayers and the Acts of Contrition based on your specific sins. Just so you know, I'm sure Apple probably reports the big sins...So, let me get this straight...I'm confessing my sins to an Apple device and it's doling out my punishment. I really never was too keen on the idea of a priest being a middle man between me and God before now and I am even less keen on the idea of it being an iPhone. Have we really just come to the point that we think this is ok? I will share a letter written in response to a news article dated February 16, 2011, in the La Canada Valley Sun from Flintridge California...

As a Protestant, I'm not going to have much favorable to say about an application that perpetuates what I believe to be an error at its root. Biblical confession is a matter of believers mutually sharing spiritual difficulties and leaning on one another for support to overcome them (James 5:16). It isn't about going into a box and revealing lurid details of your dark side to a guy behind the curtain. I’ve always wondered about priests that sit listening to endless confessions about masturbation and petty crime, afterward retaining the knowledge of every unsavory aspect of their parishioners’ lives. While I'm sure they generally view this information as a sacred trust, it has been used against people in times past by those in authority, including the priests themselves (no offense to the thousands of ethically well-behaved). The go-between nature of priestly confession also contradicts the Gospel message of direct access to God with direct forgiveness, since the only mediator between God and man is Jesus Christ, according to Scripture (1Timothy 2:5). Adding yet another middle-link in the equation seems all the more convoluted. Now, instead of interacting with fellow Christians, let alone a mediating man in black, there’s this passionless piece of programmed plastic that spews random quotes from dead saints like a Magic 8-Ball. This, after putting in vital information that could be hijacked or stolen, and once again, used against you. Imagine confessing to illicit thoughts or secret illegalities only to have them discovered by someone who gets a hold of your phone. Yikes!
I do believe that every advance in technology should be utilized for the sake of Christ, and there are already daily devotionals, Bible reading programs and other things available for Christians to use. But whether composing a Catholic iPhone confession will live beyond this app’s current novelty, we’ll see.

Rev. Bryan Griem
Montrose Community Church

So, witches and iPhone apps and any other foolish thing you choose will come and go and I think it's very obvious that God has boundless grace and mercy and even a sense of humor. But sometimes I just feel like His patience has got to be wearing thin...I know mine is...
For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.2 Corinthians 4:17-18