Confession

Sermon for the Presentation of Our Lord

Small Catechism Review: Confession

Before we get to our Catechism theme, let’s say a word about the theme for today’s celebration. It’s 40 days after Christmas today. 40 days after an Israelite woman gave birth to a male child, she was to take an offering to the priest, either a lamb and a turtledove, or two turtledoves if she couldn’t afford a lamb, and he would make atonement for her flow of blood from childbirth, and she would be clean. So Mary and Joseph went to the temple in Jerusalem to make the required offering for Mary’s purification, and also to present her firstborn Son to God as belonging to Him. Now, the Israelites normally redeemed their firstborn son with an offering, but St. Luke only mentions the offering for Mary, not any for Jesus, and that is probably significant, because Jesus was not bought back from God the Father to live a normal life. He was consecrated to God the Father for life, and He would be the one to redeem all the sons of men from sin, death, and the devil.

Then there was that famous encounter in the temple with Simeon, one of the few Israelites who was consciously waiting for the Christ to be born, who had been informed by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Lord’s Christ before he died. Somehow, the Holy Spirit guided Simeon to recognize baby Jesus for who He was, and also inspired him to speak or sing that famous song we know as the Nunc Dimittis.

We sing it at the end of our Sunday service, and appropriately so, because in the Sacrament of the Altar that we’ve just celebrated, our eyes have seen His salvation, too, the very body and blood of the Son of God, who redeemed us by His blood shed on the cross, so we’re also ready to “depart in peace.” And it’s because of our faith in that redemption that we dare to approach God at the beginning of the service to make confession of our sins.

And so we come to Fifth Chief Part of our Small Catechism on Confession.

Confession consists of two parts. First, that a person confesses his sins. Second, that a person receives the absolution or forgiveness from the minister, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that his sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.

Now, the first confession a person makes is really in connection with Holy Baptism, and Baptism itself is the first absolution a person receives. The baptized believer walks and lives in that forgiveness every day of his or her life.

What about the sins a believer sadly falls into every day, all the time? What about the sinful nature that is always with us, always desiring the wrong things and sometimes successful in getting us to do or say or think the wrong things? As long as a person remains penitent and believing, those sins don’t remove the forgiveness of sins that was given to us in Baptism. They don’t remove a person from God’s kingdom.

But how can a person be certain he is penitent and believing? What about the sins that weigh heavily on the heart of a believer? Well, just as a doctor examines a patient to diagnose his physical condition, so the minister is charged with diagnosing the spiritual condition of a person, and the same word of Jesus that gives ministers the authority to forgive sins the first time through Holy Baptism also gives them the authority to pronounce forgiveness repeatedly to the baptized believer.

But the minister can’t just assume that repentance is there in a person’s heart. Christians sometimes fall into sins that they are not sorry for, that they intend to keep committing. We call those “mortal sins,” deadly sins. So the sinner who is sorry for his sins confesses his sins to the minister, and his sure hope for forgiveness in Christ, and his intention not to go on living in sin. Then the minister knows that this is a person whom he ought to absolve.

Now, our experience with this is almost exclusively in that public, Sunday morning setting, where a group of Christians makes a general confession of sins, and a general absolution is pronounced to everyone, “upon this your confession.” You’re all familiar with that. Of course, there’s nothing to stop any visitor, any atheist, or even an impenitent Christian from simply saying those words, without meaning them, and from thinking that the absolution applies to him as well. That’s one of the downsides of a public confession. In an attempt to avoid any confusion, let me share with you the words of a public confession and absolution that Martin Chemnitz suggested back at the end of the 16^th century, adding a very explicit warning to the end:

I, a poor sinner, confess to God, my heavenly Father, that I have sinned gravely and in many ways, not only with coarse outward sins, but much more with innate inner blindness, unbelief, doubt, despair, impatience, pride, evil desires, greed, secret envy, hate, discontent, and other sins; that I have in many ways, with thoughts, with actions, words and works, transgressed the most holy commandments of God, as my Lord and God recognizes in me, and I sadly cannot entirely recognize. They grieve me and cause me sorrow, and I yearn from the heart for God’s grace through His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and ask that He would grant me His Holy Spirit that I may amend my life.

Then the Absolution:

The Almighty God has had mercy upon you and, through the merit of the most holy suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, He forgives you all your sins. And to all of you who truly repent and, through the Gospel, place all your trust in the sole merit of Jesus Christ and intend to order your life according to the commandment and will of God, I, as an ordained minister of the Christian Church, announce the forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. However, I say to all the impenitent and unbelieving, on the basis of God’s Word and in the name of Jesus Christ, that God has retained your sins against you and will surely punish them.

So much for public confession. There is certainly a place for it in our service, as long as you’re thinking about and meaning the words you say week after week.

In most of the Church’s history, including that of the Lutheran Church, there has also existed private confession, where a Christian goes to his or her pastor or priest, and confesses his or her sins, so that the pastor knows that this person individually recognizes his sins, is sorry for them, believes in Christ Jesus for forgiveness, and intends to mend his ways. Then the minister knows, this is a person whom God commands me to absolve and forgive in the name of Christ.

There’s certainly a benefit to that, to private confession. Actually, more than one benefit. First, it allows a Christian to reflect on specific sins, to recognize specific faults in one’s words, in one’s behavior, in one’s attitude, even in one’s sin-tainted personality, so that a person knows what he or she needs to work on, with the help of the Holy Spirit, what he or she needs to be conscious of in one’s daily life, what one needs to amend or change.

Another benefit of it is the assurance that, when the pastor speaks the absolution, it isn’t just to everyone else in the room. It’s to that individual, as the pastor hears the penitent confession, the faith in Christ, the faith in Christ’s promise to forgive sins through the voice of His called servant, and the sinner’s intention to mend his ways.

Luther offers a neat little model of what making private confession to the pastor might look like. (I won’t read through the whole thing. I encourage you to open your catechism later and read through it.) Luther offers some basic questions a Christian can ask himself, to examine himself. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, master, mistress, or servant? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you hurt anyone with words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent or careless, or caused any harm? Then he offers a scenario of the dialogue between the pastor and the one making confession.

I, a poor sinner, confess before God that I am guilty of all sins. In particular, I confess before you that … I am sorry for all this, and I ask for grace. I will mend my ways. Then the minister should say: God be gracious to you and strengthen your faith! Amen. Do you also believe that my forgiveness is God’s forgiveness? Answer: Yes, dear pastor. Then let him say: As you believe, so may it be done to you. And I, by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Amen. Go in peace!

Now, if a person had fallen into mortal sin—that is, unrepented, willful sin—but then is brought to repentance by the Word of God, and he then confesses his sin and receives absolution from the pastor, then with that absolution he is brought back into the kingdom of God from the kingdom of the devil. But if a person has not fallen into mortal sin, but is simply confessing the daily sins of weakness of all Christians, then with that absolution he is confirmed in faith within the kingdom of God, comforted with yet another word of forgiveness for faith to cling to, and fortified with the Holy Spirit to truly go away refreshed, renewed, and empowered to change the things that were sinful and hurtful.

And finally, Luther writes that for those whose consciences are heavily burdened or who are troubled and afflicted, a father confessor will know well how to comfort them with other passages [of Scripture] and stir up their faith. Yet another advantage of private confession. An actual conversation can take place between the pastor and his member with specific advice and counsel from God’s Word.

We don’t have a confessional booth for this purpose, as Roman churches often do, but, as I’ve said before, if at any time, anyone wants to schedule a time for private confession, my office is just as good a place as any for such a conversation to take place.

Whether the confession and absolution are individual, or general in the Sunday morning service, our Lord has given us this gift of the ministry and the opportunity to confess our sins, not only to God in prayer, but to the man whom He has placed among us to hear and to forgive sins on earth, even as God promises that He is thereby forgiving those sins in heaven. Give thanks to God for this gift, and use it often! Amen.