Confession and Anti-Liturgy

In his Trinity House lectures on liturgical theology, Jeff Meyers called attention to the anti-liturgy of Genesis 3. Yahweh shows up in glory, meets Adam and Eve, gives a little sermon, kills animals to make skin tunics. The finale is not happy: Adam and Eve are excluded from the garden. There is no feast.

What’s missing is confession. Instead of admitting sin when Yahweh arrived, Adam defended himself by blaming Eve. Aaron did the same later when Moses confronted him about the golden calf, and Saul when Samuel came in the spirit of the day to confront him about the Amalekites. Both Aaron and Saul respond with anti-confessions, and the results are not encouraging.

There are positive examples in Scripture. Isaiah sees the Lord in glory and is undone. Here above all, if we try to save our life we lose. The way to preserve life is to join John, who falls down as a dead man when he sees the glorified Jesus.

Confession is not optional. It’s the difference between liturgy and anti-liturgy, the difference between a proper and an improper response to the Lord’s arrival, His advent.