Bondage to Sin

Starter Prayer:  "God of perfect freedom, open spaces inside our minds, our hearts, and our memories, so we can just begin to be free.  Do not let me be hardened against anyone of your creatures, so that I cannot hear and respect their truth."  (From Wondrous Encounters by Richard Rohr)

"If you make my word your home, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  'We are descendants of Abraham and have never been the slaves to anyone! What do you mean by 'We will be free?'"  Jesus answered them, 'I tell you sincerely, anyone who chooses a dead-ended life and stops growing, is in sin, and that is slavery."  John 8:31-35 

At the risk of sounding nostalgic, I will say this -- I don't think any statement of confession describes our human condition better than:  

We confess that we are in BONDAGE to sin, and cannot free ourselves.  

I have heard many rationales for changing the language -- for the sake of more modern language, or for variety, or to avoid offending victims of oppression.  

I think we lost some of our understanding of our utter dependency upon the grace of God when we stopped our graphic prayer of confession.  Bondage is real.  Slavery is real.  And our inability to free ourselves or sustain open minds and hearts on our own is real.  The human condition will always be fettered in some way by the ego.  We will always be tempted to think that we can manage this or that darkness on our own and that we can ask God's help on an as needed basis.  

As long as we think that we "choose" to be selfish or greedy or lustful, we will think that we can simply will ourselves into transformed, converted beings.  

To be clear, we can certainly will to ignore God's loving desire to free us from suffering and to transform our hearts.   That is the dead-end that we can (and often do) choose.  But the moment we acknowledge that we are indeed trapped and that we carry with us chains composed of false impressions, assumptions and prejudices God begins to exert God's loving intent.  God takes the initiative and the bonds loosen.  We can step into the spaciousness of freedom in God's love, free to love and serve others in His Name.