An important question

It was my privilege to receive a confirmation class into full membership in worship yesterday.  The ritual for that service is a beautiful thing.  It is not as familiar as some other liturgical materials because many of our congregations do not receive professions of faith as often as we would like.  As part of that order, the candidates join in the “Renunciation of Sin and Profession of Faith.”  That act includes the question:

On behalf of the whole Church, I ask you:

Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,

   reject the evil powers of this world,

   and repent of your sin?

I know of people who roll their eyes at this question.  “Spiritual forces of wickedness” and “evil powers of this world” strike them as being medieval.  The only vision they have of these forces and powers is of a red-suited, horn-headed, pitchfork-carrying caricature.  It is the cartoon character who, when faced with an ethical dilemma, finds a little angel on the shoulder whispering in one ear and a miniature devil perched on the other and offering contrary advice. 

I fall into the camp of, “If The United Methodist Church includes the terminology in its ritual, there must be something to it.”  This is not blind allegiance. Rather, it labels something that I cannot quite otherwise describe.  It is kind of like the wind.  I don’t so much see the spiritual forces of wickedness or the evil powers of this world as I see their result.  I see the misery that these influences bring into lives.  I see the chaos in the political and economic world.  I know what they can do.

So, it is important for the community of faith to “renounce” and “reject.”  In order to do that we must acknowledge.  So, to my skeptical friends I would say that the forces and powers want you to disbelieve.  They deeply desire that you see their presence as something that children and the simple accept.  That is how they get their toeholds. 

For myself, I renounce them and reject them.