One of the towering marks of this age is the absence of guilt. Not many people would deny that startling fact. Some are pleased that guilt has been dethroned; others see it as a bad sign.

The absence of guilt is one of the reasons that it is difficult to talk about repentance. If there is no feeling of guilt, the need for repentance is greatly minimized, if not extinct.

A few years ago, I was involved in experimental worship. I tried many innovative ways to enable worship to be more experiential and less stilted. At one such service, I invited those in attendance to write down something they would like to repent. The worshipers were then instructed to seal the slip of paper in a small envelope provided by the church, and to address it back to themselves. The envelopes would be returned t…