Confession and Absolution

Ok, so I'm reasonably sure that since I never update this anymore, no one reads this, but I'll put up my last newsletter article anyway since I think it may benefit someone, sometime. FYI, I've finished my work at Holy Cross since Donald Oldenburg accepted the call there, and I began serving as vacancy pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach last month.

Here's the article:

In Confession and Absolution we begin the Divine Service by acknowledging our standing before God. The nature of our relationship to God is characterized by our brokenness and inability to live up to God’s expectations for us, and God’s mercy on us and His forgiveness toward us. It is a microcosm of the two main doctrines of Christianity, Law and Gospel, applied to our lives.

Confession and Absolution have been an essential part of worship since the 1^st century. We read in the Didache (a book of the teachings of the early Christian church from about 70 AD): “Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life… On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure.”

In our confession, we admit that we break God’s Law through the sins of things we willfully do (sins of commission) and through the sins of things we are supposed to do and don’t (sins of omission). In a couple of the confessions from the Lutheran Service Book, we capture this thought by confessing that “we have sinned…by what we have done and by what we have left undone.”

John tells us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). This forgiveness comes to us in the form of the Absolution. Usually the pastor leading the congregation’s worship will speak the words of the Absolution, saying something like, “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The pastor uses the first person “I forgive you” because he is called and ordained for the purpose of standing in Christ’s place by the congregation. The Bible tells us that all Christians who are baptized are given the authority to forgive sins. Jesus illustrates this in Matthew 9, where He healed the paralytic and forgave his sins. The most amazing thing to the people there was not that the paralytic stood up and walked, but that God had given the authority to forgive sins to men (Matt. 9:8). Jesus makes it clear that He has given this authority to all men in John 20 when he says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you… Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (vv. 21-23).

This authority to forgive and retain sins is given to all who are baptized, but in a church the pastor is called to by serve the congregation as its shepherd, to lead them and care for them. This care includes giving forgiveness of sins in public, corporate worship and privately to individuals so that people may experience God’s mercy and grace breaking into our world from the spiritual realm. That is the way God works in the world, taking lowly and common things and making them the instruments of salvation. Our Lutheran Confessions help us to understand this: “It is not the voice or word of the man who speaks it, but it is the Word of God, who forgives sin, for it is spoken in God’s stead and by God’s command” (Augsburg Confession XXV.3).

Once that relationship between God and us is made right, we are ready to worship God with all our hearts, minds, and souls. We are freed from sin! Our souls are freed from death and the devil, sin has no more power over us! This is the heart of the message of the gospel, which we are called to share with all people.

We cannot give the Holy Spirit and faith to others, but we can declare them to anyone who is distressed on account of sin. If anyone believes, they have faith and forgiveness, which brings new life and salvation. This is how the kingdom of God spreads. May this word of forgiveness remain not only in our ears and on our tongues, but come into our hearts and break forth fresh as we share this forgiveness with others!