W. C. Fields once said, "I have spent a lot of time searching through the Bible for loopholes." Haven't we all? Today's Old Testament text reminds us of the urgent necessity of confronting our failures, foibles and follies, and confessing our sins before God.

It has been called the "Urge to Purge." Or even "Psychic Bulimia." Confession, it seems, is now seen less as something good for the soul and more as something good for publicity. These days any casual flip through a magazine is likely to reveal at least one carefully crafted, simulated, shocking exercise in celebrity self-expose. Movie stars, musicians, politicians, government officials, stockbrokers and bankers are all rushing to confess their addictions, weaknesses, foibles and faux pas and the more bizarre and pathetic the behavio…