Freedom through Confession

Homily for May 10, 2026
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
John 14:15-21

In 2023 in Roswell, New Mexico, Tony Peralta confessed to murdering his landlord in 2008, fifteen years previously.  Driven by guilt, Peralta said that he was “tired of covering it up” and “tired of living with my life”and wanted to put things right by confessing and serving a sentence.  He was convicted and has begun his jail time.  

Shon Pernice for years insisted that he had not committed a crime.  “I blamed my victim, rationalized my wrongful actions, and minimized my horrible transgression,” Shon wrote for the Prison Journalism Project (Sept 29,2021).  One day a priest came to the prison where he was serving a twenty-year sentence for murder, and a staff member urged him to make his confession. “It was the first time I spoke, without justification, minimizing, or blaming, a genuine confession to the murder,” Shon wrote.  Afterwards, “in a prison visitation room,surrounded by other inmates, I wept… The emotional levy that had held back… my guilt and pain was now broken… I felt a rebirth as that dark spot on my soul was gone.”

Former police detective and now pastor Brian Wharton of Palestine, Texas, tells how Robert Roberson, now on death row, is never far from his mind. “Why,” he asks?  “Because I helped put him there, and he didn’t deserve it.” In 2002, Roberson was wrongfully accused of shaking to death hist two-year-old daughter, and Wharton was the investigating detective.  “The system failed Robert.  I failed Robert,” he says.  And, “this case has been a burden on my heart and on my spirit.”  Wharton now advocates for his release.  At present, the Texas Court of Crime Appeals has stayed Roberson’s execution (NY Times, July 30, 2024).

I want to get back to Tony Peralta, Shon Pernice and also David Wharton, but first – as a point of contrast to John’s Gospel, from which we heard this morning – legal thrillers and whodunits.  

I save legal thrillers like Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent or whodunits like Tana French’s Into the Woods for vacation because, the more I read them, the more I need to finish them, like, tonight.  The constant element of danger, the unrelenting suspense, the surprising plot twists, the “ticking-clock” scenarios and the complex moral decisions needing to be made now build up tension such that I find myself craving the satisfying “hit” of the denouement and the tensions finally resolve.  

If thrillers and whodunits build suspense and heighten tensions as the novel progresses, John’s Gospel does the opposite.  Though the arc of John moves towards a murder (Jesus’ crucifixion), contrary to thrillers and whodunits, rather than speed up as the story moves forward, the pace of John slows.  Instead of becoming more tense, John becomes more calm.  In John there are no surprising plot twists, no complex moral decisions, no suspense, and – unlike thrillers and whodunits, which thrive on it – in John there is no fear.  In John Jesus moves calmly and resolutely toward what John calls his being “glorified” on the cross.

It could be that John grows increasingly more serene even as Jesus goes toward the cross because, as John writes in this morning’s Gospel, “another Advocate,” the “Spirit of truth,” is coming, and John wants to give his readers a sense of the Holy Spirit’s peace.  Or perhaps John’s Gospel grows more serene even as Jesus approaches the crucifixion because John is trying to invite calm into a distressed community.  Jerusalem and its temple – so dear to John’s community – have been destroyed, and John’s community of Jesus-believing Jews is in deep conflict with non-Jesus-believing Jews.  Or I wonder… Given that for John Jesus is as the High Priest walking through the Temple to make Atonement on the Day of Atonement (Jesus walks past the table of showbread – “I am the bread of life;” he walks past the golden lampstand – “I am the light of the world;” he walks by the altar of incense – Mary anoints Jesus’ feet, and “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (12:3) – [given that for John Jesus is as the High Priest walking through the Temple to make Atonement,] perhaps John’s Gospel becomes more serene and peace-filled because John wants to convey to his community the peace that comes from Jesus having made atonement for our sins.

I suspect all three possibilities play a role in John’s Gospel growing more calm and peaceful as Jesus approaches his crucifixion.  But this morning I want to focus on the last possibility, of John becoming more calm and peaceful because John wants to convey to his community the peace and calm that come from Jesus having atoned for our sins.

All three men whose stories I mentioned – Tony Peralta, Shon Pernice and Brian Wharton – speak of the weight with which their guilt burdened them – “I’m tired of covering it up,” Peralta said; “This case has been a burden on my heart,” Wharton said.  And though all spoke of the relief that “atonement” brought to them, Pernice perhaps puts it most poignantly:  “In a prison visitation room, surrounded by other inmates, I wept,” he said.  “The emotional levy that had held back… my guilt and pain was now broken… and I felt a rebirth as that dark spot on my soul was gone.”

This Lent and Easter as we have been making our way through St. John’s Gospel, I wonder if you’ve noticed within you the peace that Jesus, especially in these latter chapters of John, offers.  A peace not as the world gives, but only as Jesus can give.  As you look within and make your way into your inner “Temple,” into your “Holy of Holies,” who is the Jesus you find there? What is he like?  What feelings do you notice when you allow him near?

For John and his community,the Jesus they found brought joy and peace – “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you,” Jesus told his disciples, “and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11).  “Peace be withyou,” the risen Jesus told his disciples – twice – when he appeared to them (John 20:19, 26).  Because John’s community believed that Jesus had atoned for and forgiven their sins, they could lay down sin’s weight and burden and know the peace and joy of the risen Lord.

Each Sunday in the Eucharist,we are assured of Jesus’ atonement for us, how “he destroyed death, and made the whole creation new.”  Jesus’ joy and peace waits for us in the sacrament of the Eucharist.  And did you know that we in the Episcopal Church have the sacrament of Reconciliation (commonly called “Confession”)?  As you look within, should you (like Brian Wharton) notice “a burden on your spirit,” and should you (like Tony Peralta) be tired of “covering it up,” and should you (like Shon Pernice) long for rebirth and for the removal of a “dark spot” on your soul, know that the opportunity for sacramental Reconciliation is available. Talk to me or James or Sharon.  We– but even more than we, Jesus – wants you to know that you are forgiven, wants you to live free from burden, and wants you to know his joy and peace.