thoughts on the news of the day: yom kippur

hmmm…..

            Tonight at sundown the Jewish High Holy Day of Yom Kippur begins.  It is commonly called the Day of Atonement.  It is a day to ask for forgiveness from God and to be cleansed from all sin.  “For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you that you be cleansed from all of your sins before God” is from Leviticus 16:30 and this scripture passage gives the basis for Yom Kippur. 

            A Day of Atonement – a day when we ask for forgiveness for our sins. Wonder what it would be like if everyone took a day out of their life to acknowledge their sin and ask for forgiveness for it.  Roman Catholics have the sacrament of confession.  It is a private acknowledgement of wrong doings and has a prescriptive for atoning for those sins.  In the Presbyterian Church we have what we call a corporate prayer of confession during the Sunday morning worship service.  This is a time when we confess together the shortcomings of the larger world. 

            But what if there was one day set aside for the whole world – for people of all faiths and for people of no faith where we say, “I was wrong, and I need forgiveness in order to put my life back on track.”  What if friends, family, neighbors, and leaders of all kinds in our cities and in our world looked at their lives, their behavior and their policies and then asked forgiveness for them?   Wow!  What if?

            hmmm…..