“The Absolution We Treasure” Sermon for Basics of the Christian Faith Series, Aug. ‘17

1.                               Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  Martin Luther said that he wouldn’t exchange private confession “for all the wealth of the world.”  In the message from God’s Word today, we consider this treasure of private confession and absolution, which our Lutheran Confessions call a Sacrament.  The message is entitled, “The Absolution We Treasure,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                               In an episode of the TV Series “Columbo,” Peter Falk visits a woman who has been sleeping with one of her husband’s staff.  The detective quietly asks her how some of her husband’s crystal goblets got into her lover’s apartment.  Her husband is a four star general, and the glasses have four stars on them.  She protests that they were a gift to the man.  Columbo stands silent, just looking at her.  She becomes insulted.  She won’t listen to such accusations.  She begins to leave the room.  She glares at Columbo as she says, “You know the way out.”  The detective shuffles and says, “Oh, there’s just one more question.”  He draws a small toothbrush out of the pocket of his raincoat.  It’s shaped like a lipstick holder, and Columbo has found it in her lover’s medicine cabinet.  Instantly, the woman’s shoulders sag.  She sighs.  The charade is over.  Guilt.  Getting caught.  You know the feeling.  We all do.

3.                               Some people today believe that “going to confession,” is more a Roman Catholic practice than a Lutheran one.  Actually, for many years the practice of private confession and absolution was used in Lutheran congregations.  People burdened with guilt found peace and comfort by confessing to their pastor those sins that weighed on their consciences and by receiving from him the personal assurance that God had indeed forgiven them in Christ.  As the Apostle Paul wrote, “What I have forgiven…I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake.” (2 Cor. 2:10).  Then, a few hundred years after Martin Luther, the Enlightenment spread across Europe (1700-1825).  This movement emphasized the natural goodness of human beings and held that with the right environment and education people could almost be perfect.  It believed that human beings have the ability to turn this world into a paradise.  Who needs a God with this view of humanity that man is naturally good?  Who needs a Savior when a person thinks this way?

4.                               A large number of pastors joined in on this, even Lutheran pastors.  They minimized the human need for God.  Many even ridiculed the doctrines of sin, repentance and divine forgiveness.  By the early 1800’s these ideas had spread and been so widely accepted that they began to change the piety of the church.  Even the practice of private confession and absolution began to fall out of disuse in the church.  So, until 200 years ago, the practice of private confession and absolution was widely used in Lutheran congregations.  Lutherans considered it an important part of their walk with Jesus.  Many regard it as a sacrament; it fits our Lutheran definition of a sacrament in every way but one--there are no visible elements.  One of our Lutheran Confessions, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Art. XIII says, “The genuine sacraments, therefore are Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and absolution (which is the sacrament of penitence), for these rites have the commandment of God and the promise of grace, which is the heart of the New Testament. 

5.                               If we think of confession and absolution as admitting our sins to God and to those who we’ve offended and seeking forgiveness for our wrongs, we must acknowledge that confession and absolution aren’t optional.  They’ve never been.  Our entire life as God’s people revolves around the fact that we’re sinners in need of forgiveness from God and from one another.  The New Testament urges God’s people again and again to admit our faults to one another and to forgive one another.  James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

6.                               God forgives our sins on account of the shed blood of Jesus, not because we confess or reach a certain depth of sorrow over our sins.  We’re forgiven by God’s grace in Jesus alone.  And in private confession and absolution the pastor in the person of Christ (2 Cor. 2:10) assures us that it’s Christ’s forgiveness we received.  It’s nothing of our own doing.  How can this be?  Because our Lord Jesus has promised it.  Remember His words to His disciples after His resurrection in John 20, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”  Private confession and absolution are far more than counseling with a prayer and a few spiritual words.  We face Christ Himself and from Him full forgiveness for our sins and the peace that accompanies that forgiveness. 

7.                               The contrast between may and must spells out the critical difference between a relationship with God based on His grace and one based on our own anemic efforts.  When specific sins bother us, our Lord invites and commands us to confess them to Him.  For the comfort of our souls we may also confess our sins to our pastor and hear from God, through the pastor, the words of absolution.  What a privilege our Lord offers us!  And what a tragedy if we turn it into a new command, a “religious work” by which we think we can manipulate our Heavenly Father into loving us a “little more.”  How bad do our sins have to be before we can “bother the pastor” with them?  In God’s eyes, no sin is “less” or “greater” than the other.  Anytime we find ourselves troubled by a guilty conscience, we can make use of the means of grace our Lord has made available to us for resolving guilt--private confession and absolution.  No sin is “too big.”  No sin is “too petty.”

8.                               God wants each individual one of His children to know that His love for us is unconditional.  None of our sins stands between us and Him.  None of our sins can separate us from Him.  No number of sins can take away His love that cause Him to bring us into His family.  Our Heavenly Father paid the highest price possible to redeem us, to buy us back from sin and Satan, hell and death--with the life blood of His one and only Son Jesus.  He wants you to cling with complete confidence to that gift of redemption you have received by His grace through faith in Jesus.  When your heart longs for the assurance of His love, know that your God longs even more to give it to you.  And one way He has chosen to do this is in absolution.

9.                               The assurance of forgiveness comes to us in various ways.  As we remember our Baptism each day, as we come to the Lord’s Supper, as we read God’s Word and hear it taught and preached.  God comes to touch us with His grace through all these different means of grace because our need is so great.  We thank Him for all of them, and we humbly receive His love through all of them.  Sometimes people think of self-examination before Communion is a substitute for private confession and absolution.  But, the practice of private confession and absolution is really a separate and unique act in in its own right, not necessarily connected with the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

10.               Certainly someone who receives God’s absolution from the pastor will want to commune the next time the Lord’s Supper is celebrated.  But just as we don’t pit Baptism against Holy Communion, neither do we see self-examination before Communion as competing with private confession and absolution.  All believers need a continual flow of God’s grace into their hearts and lives and our God meets this need in a variety of ways.  God’s people aren’t to be coerced to practice private confession any more than they are to be browbeaten to go to Communion.  But, when we see what comfort God offers to us in His absolution, we gladly receive these blessings from Him.

11.               Luther once wrote, “I will let no one take away private confession and would not exchange it for all the wealth of the world, for I know what strength and comfort it has given me.”  Our feelings, especially if we’ve never practiced private confession and absolution, can’t be an accurate barometer of our need for it.  Few babies relish the vitamins their Mom offers them.  Few teens welcome the limits Dad imposes when he sets a curfew.  Few students beg their professor for more tests or for longer term papers.  But, when most babies begin to eat solid food, they crave bananas, apple slices, or honey graham crackers filled with vitamins.  Often teens come to value the discipline of a curfew and find creative ways to use “Dad’s rule” to resist the pressure their friends put on them to get involved in all kinds of sinful activities.  University students can find themselves fascinated with the subject matter presented by their professor to the point that they exert more effort and energy than the course they’re taking actually requires.  In the same way, you may never have felt a need for personal absolution.  You may never have thought about going to your pastor to confess your sins to be assured of God forgiveness.  Maybe, if you’ve thought about confession and absolution at all, you’ve viewed it as “too Catholic,” or even as a little weird.

12.               If so, pray about your Lord’s will for you.  Examine your heart and be honest with God about anything that stands between you and the gifts He wants to give you through His personal assurance of forgiveness.  Pray about the strength that God makes available to His people through His Word of absolution.  Meditate on the help He wants to give you in your struggle with temptation, with sin, with Satan.  As Luther once said to those willing to throw out private confession, “I know the devil well.  If you had known him as well as I, your would not have thrown private confession so quickly to the wind.”   

13.               Columbo always corners the criminal.  Our sins always catch up with us, too.  As Moses once told God’s people in Numbers 32:23, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”  Guilt.  Getting caught. You’ve all been there.  What a relief then to know that when our own charade ends, when our shoulders sag, when we sigh in shame, our God holds us close to Himself in Christ.  What a relief to hear His word, “Take heart, my son, my daughter, your sins are forgiven!”  What a relief to hear His word, “Receive the forgiveness Christ won for you by His passion, death, and resurrection.  By the command of our Lord Jesus Christ I, a called and ordained servant of the Word, forgive you your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Lutheran Worship, p. 311).  Amen.