Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today’s lesson from James speaks about communal activity amongst the body of Christ. One of the activities this letter calls upon us to do is confess our sins and pray for one another, for “the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much”—to quote the King James translation.

Now, I cannot claim to know how to confess my sins in community, so I need external examples to help guide the way. Two such examples come to mind, and I’ll share them here.

The first was attending something Eastern Orthodox Christians call “Forgiveness Vespers,” a service which kicks off Great Lent. I recall attending such a liturgy and I remember the very ritualistic way the entire assembled congregation formed two concentric circles, allowing each person to eventually speak individually with every other person. Each person would exchange forgiveness verbally with each other, bow profoundly to the other, and embrace. Can you imagine doing this with every other person at a church service? It’s a tremendously powerful experience!

The second example is music that allows us to collectively contemplate what repentance might “sound” like. Music powerfully allows us to embody an experience—to empathize, quite literally, with others in a communal activity. This is where I’m thinking of the end of Arvo Pärt’s Miserere, a setting of Psalm 51 and the Dies Irae text from the Requiem Mass. This last part of the work has text from the latter:

Rex tremendæ maiestatis,
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
Salva me, fons pietatis.

King of fearsome majesty,
Who gladly save those fit to be saved,
save me, O fount of mercy.

Miserere, Arvo Pärt (https://youtu.be/5fwKLWcutm0)

This music is a truly striking depiction of communal repentance that also manages to be deeply personal—and it is imbued both with profound sorrow and fundamental hope.

Yours in Christ,

—Justin