Maybe it’s because we have so many new members. Maybe it’s because our culture has been drifting away from its Judeo-Christian roots and so what people are hearing outside of church is increasingly at odds with what they hear inside. Whatever the reason, I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately.
Don’t get me wrong; I like it! It means people are seeking understanding, trying to grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures, wanting to grow in Christ and their relationship with the living God. Anselm of Canterbury famously said that the Christian life was “faith seeking understanding.” If I am getting more questions, it means that people are becoming more alive to who they are in Jesus Christ, and that is a good thing!
So, after talking to the church Council about how this increase in spiritual activity could benefit the whole congregation, we decided it would be good to restart my pastor’s blog, The Faith Conservationist.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to be tech-savvy to read it; I will be posting the same material here in the newsletter, but if you like to use the internet, you can easily subscribe to the blog so that you are notified every time I answer a question that was asked by you or a member of your church family.
Sometimes my answers will be short and to the point. Sometimes they will be longer, more nuanced, or even broken into several digestible sections when I think the question warrants that kind of response. However I answer the question, you can be sure that I trying my best to serve our congregation for our mutual upbuilding in Christ and for the sake of His glory!
If you have a question you would like to have answered wither on this page or in a sermon, send it my way (even anonymously)! You can call the office, send me an email, or drop your question into the new pastor’s suggestion box or offering plate; it will get to me, and I will answer questions when I have had time to pray, think, and if necessary, research the answer so I can give the most faithful answer possible. Questions will always be posted anonymously, so you never need to worry about being self-conscious.
To get us started, I am answering a question on confession and absolution from one of our members:
What is the Lutheran view on absolution? Like when we say public confession during worship and either you or Deacon Michael speak the words of absolution over us is that true absolution? How does that work? And is it the same if I would do a private confession with you? Do we use an examination of conscience to guide us, and are there different ones for different states in life? What happens if we show up for confession (a private one like the Catholics do) and can’t think of anything to say? Not that we think we didn’t sin, just that we can’t think of what to say. This happens often in my personal confessions.
Luther thought confession was so important that he wanted confession “counted” as a Sacrament, but was essentially overruled by the second generation of Lutheran theologians on technical grounds (the way they chose to define Sacrament). In any event, that confession both public and private has fallen on hard times in Lutheranism is relatively recent and completely a result of modern Christians buying into modernity’s view of human personhood rather than the Bible’s.
From a Lutheran perspective, what is most important to understand about confession/absolution whether public or private is the kerygmatic—the proclamational—nature of what is going on; Lutherans do not regard the pastor (or anyone else proclaiming the forgiveness of sins) as gatekeepers to God’s grace; that is assigned to the Church as a whole (which exercises this office by keeping Her teachings pure), not to individual people. In our theology the confessor is God’s chosen agent to minister to a believer in crisis; one who has fallen prey to their fallen nature because (at least momentarily) the false promises of the flesh seemed more real to them than the true promises of God and now, as a result, Satan accuses them and they hear the justness of his accusation. The confessor’s sacred responsibility is to proclaim the good news of God’s grace in Jesus to someone for whom that reality has become obscured. The absolution pronounced is a true absolution because it is just a message from God, and it becomes effective if it is trusted by the penitent for the exact same reason that the penitent is saved–because of their faith in Christ, not the (supposed) power of the confessor to bind or unbind their sins. In fact, in the Order of Private Confession in the green Lutheran Book of Worship, the pastor is actually required to ask the penitent whether they believe the words of forgiveness they are about to say come from God Himself before they are allowed speak those words, because otherwise those words will simply sound hollow to the penitent, potentially making their situation worse.
In fact, the “binding of sins” is simply the confessor reminding the impenitent person that they are in a state of unbelief or (more accurately to the NT Greek) unfaith/unfaithfulness and so in danger of damnation. So, the end of one of the absolutions from our mid-20th century hymnal reads like this: “I declare unto the impenitent and unbelieving, that so long as they continue in their impenitence, God hath not forgiven their sins, and will assuredly visit their iniquities upon them, if they turn not from their evil ways, and come to true repentance and faith in Christ, ere the day of grace be ended.” Just as with the Sacraments, it is the faith of the one receiving the Sacrament that makes it efficacious, not some “power” delegated by God to the confessor, especially by way of their ordination.
What authorizes a person to “preach” the gospel to the penitent is their own faith that it is true and their inclusion in the community of those who likewise believe through Baptism. If you were to come to me in a time of private confession, my authority as a pastor would be no greater than any other baptized person to remind you of the gospel’s promises, BUT (and it is a big but!), I have been trained in confidentiality and pastoral care as well as having the (incredibly humbling) experience of having heard lots of other confessions and so I see patterns common to all sinners emerging.
Lutheran confession is first and foremost the proclamation of God’s good news to one who needs to hear it, but it is also an opportunity for “the cure of the soul,” which is historically called Seelsorge. The penitent not only confesses to the pastor (or other Christian) but engages in conversation in an attempt to discover the underlying dynamics that drive them into sin and so struggle more effectively against them. Theoretically, any Christian can help with this process and spiritual friendship is widely attested to in the Christian tradition as being catalytic for our spiritual progress, but a pastor has more experience and training they bring to bear on the situation… for the sinner nervous to confess their sins, their professional training in confidentiality is also a tremendous help!
As for whether you need to worry about not having something to say when you come to confession, Luther gave very explicit instructions in this regard; DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. Since the point is not for the confessor to be an active agent in forgiving your sins, you don’t need exhaustively account for them all in order to be forgiven. The confessor’s job is to restore or strengthen your faith when you feel the justness of Satan’s accusations, which will happen when your conscience is well-formed by the Word of God through the Church’s regular ministry of preaching and teaching. In my own personal experience (I confess privately 3-4 times a year to another pastor), it is often reflection together about persistent emotions and/or thought patterns that are clearly out of alignment with God’s will that produces the most fruitful conversation with my confessor. To be honest, that is why I find the practice of personal confession spiritually helpful and have continued to engage in it for 15+ years.
Praise to you, O Christ!