Did you and your friends ever form a club when you were growing up? Perhaps you draped blankets over the couches in the basement to serve as your clubhouse, and to get in everyone had to speak the password. Well heaven is a club like that. Only those who know and speak the password will get in. You’re expecting me to say that the password to heaven is “Jesus.” And you’re right, sort of. But just saying the name of Jesus won’t get you into heaven any more than having a key to a locked door will get you in if you keep the key in your pocket. Fortunately our Lutheran liturgy, that is, the way we approach God in worship, teaches us how to properly make use of the name of Jesus. We do that in the part of our worship called the Confession & Absolution. Let’s learn more as we continue our sermon series on Lutheran Worship.
Last Sunday we learned about the Invocation. Those are the words the presiding minister speaks after the opening hymn: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Those words remind us of where we are (in the presence of a holy God; we’re in his house), and they also remind us of who we are (baptized children of God who can approach God with joy and confidence). But just as children in Canada must take their dirty shoes off after they have stepped inside the house, so we Lutheran children of God also pause after the Invocation to shed that which has dirtied us in the previous week. We leave behind our sins through Confession & Absolution.
The Confession that we spoke this morning from the Service of the Word (Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal) started like this: “Merciful Father in heaven, I am altogether sinful from birth…” Did you notice how we confess what we are before we even confess what we did? The Lutheran church is unique in this regard. The few other church bodies that do regularly include a confession of sins in their worship don’t begin by acknowledging this spiritual reality that we are sinful from birth, sinful even from the time we were conceived (Psalm 51:5). But why acknowledge this? Because it reminds us that going to church is not like going to an open mic down at La Crema (a local coffee shop). There you show up eager to show off the songs you have worked hard to learn. But when we come to worship, there should be no showing off – no reason to say, “Hey Lord, did you see all the good things I did this week? Aren’t you glad I’m on your team?” To combat such an attitude the Apostle John said in our text: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
“Well no, Pastor. I would never claim to be without sin. Nobody is perfect, but at least...” But at least what? You’re not as bad as others? Remember, this part of the liturgy is called the Confession not the Comparison. Did you notice how John used the first person plural when he said, “If we claim to be without sin…”? He did not say, “If they claim to be without sin…” Likewise in our liturgy we stated: “In countless ways I have sinned against you and do not deserve to be called your child.” When I approach God during the Confession, my mind should be on me. I should be thinking about how I have sinned and failed God and my neighbor – not about how others have sinned against me and how I hope they’re asking God’s forgiveness. If I think this, then I ought to start my confession by repenting of not having forgiven others!
Yes, we are sinful from birth and what’s worse, we are never shy in proving it! That’s why we confessed this morning: “In countless ways I have sinned…” It’s our practice here to pause after we speak the Confession to privately confess specific sins. Your confession might go something like this: “Lord, I really messed up again this week. When I became frustrated with the world, I didn’t bother to ask for your help. And when that help came from you (even though I hadn’t asked for it), I didn’t stop to thank you. I also struggled with gossip again and I kept entertaining dirty thoughts…” We sin so much in a week that the fifteen or so seconds of silence we take won’t be enough to confess all of our sins, as if we could even remember them all!
But some would say: “You Lutherans are too hard on yourselves!” King David, however, wouldn’t agree. This was, after all, the man who turned his confession of sins into poems (psalms) for everyone to read! David did this because he tells us: “…a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17) God wants us to approach him with humility. He wants us to be like that tax collector in Jesus’ parable from Luke 18. This man would not even look up to heaven but beat his chest ashamed of the sins he had committed. Reminding ourselves in the Confession that we are “altogether sinful from birth” helps us approach God with humility.
Satan, on the other hand, would love nothing more than for us to take our sins lightly because when we minimize our sin, we minimize the importance of Jesus. It’s only those who know they are sick who will seek a doctor to help them. That’s what the Confession leads us to do – to consciously acknowledge that we have a problem.
The Lutheran liturgy also makes it crystal clear that the solution to our problem of sin is faith in Jesus. This is how we stated that truth earlier in our service: “But trusting in Jesus, my Savior, I pray: Have mercy on me according to your unfailing love. Cleanse me from sin, and take away my guilt.” How is God going to answer such a request for cleansing forgiveness? Will he say, “Oh, not you again”? Or “You did what?” No, this is our heavenly Father who has invited us to approach him. This is our God who has promised to forgive those who humbly confess their sins. As John said in our text: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God is faithful. He will do what he has promised to do: forgive each and every sin no matter how many there are or how “big” those sins may seem to us. In this way God is better than anti-bacterial soap. That kind of soap claims to cleanse you of 99% of the germs out there. Well God does better than that; he cleanses us from all sin.
And how exactly does he do this? After we have confessed our sins the presiding minister says, as I did this morning, “God, our heavenly Father, has forgiven all yours sins. By the perfect life and innocent death of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has removed your guilt forever…” It’s only through Jesus that we are cleansed from sin. One reason I’ll be happy to get back into our church is so that when you hear me speak the words of the Absolution, as they are called, you will be able to look behind me and see the cross towering above us all. That’s God’s exclamation mark on the words of the Absolution. You can believe me when I say that your sins are forgiven because of everything that Jesus did for you. God took the pure blood of Jesus that flowed from the cross and scrubbed us clean of our sins. He then removed those sins from us forever like a dirty handi wipe that you throw in the trash never to see it again.
You don’t of course have to wait until Sunday morning to confess your sins. You can do that daily, even hourly in your prayers to God. You can even confess your sins to one another and assure each other of God’s forgiveness. Of course I don’t want to give the impression that you will not be forgiven unless you first ask for forgiveness. What I mean is it’s not your confession that earns forgiveness; it’s God’s promise of absolution through Jesus that grants forgiveness. The Apostle John spoke these comforting words in the verses after our text: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1). If I should keel over with a heart attack right now, I’m confident one of you would call 911 on my behalf. You wouldn’t stand around wringing your hands upset that I was unable to call for help myself, and so nothing could be done. Likewise when we sin we can be confident that Jesus, our Savior, speaks on our behalf. He reminds our heavenly Father (as if he needed reminding) that those sins have been paid for.
Of course that doesn’t mean we can sin as much as we want. Such is the attitude of someone who has rejected Jesus, and therefore rejected his forgiveness. But I don’t have to live in fear that, because I hadn’t confessed all my sins the moment before I died, I won’t go to heaven. No. Salvation comes through faith in Jesus, not through my confession of sins.
And yet confession and absolution is vital for every Christian – just as breathing is vital for every human being. For with the Confession I breathe out my sins. And with the Absolution I breathe in the eternal-life- giving forgiveness Jesus won for me at the cross. Refusing to confess my sins would be like holding my breath. I can’t do that for any length of time without hurting my body. So look forward to the Confession & Absolution. Rejoice that you don’t have to make excuses for your sins or try to hide them from God. He knows them all anyway, but what’s more, he’s already paid for them through the blood of his Son Jesus. Embrace this truth as the Lutheran liturgy invites you to do! Amen.
SERMON NOTES
In what sense is confessing one’s sins like taking off your shoes before entering a house?
With the Confession we state what we are (altogether sinful from birth) before we state what we did. Why is this a good practice?
(Not referenced directly in the sermon.) List at least four people from the Bible who set a good example for us when it comes to confessing sin.
Why is it good that we are saved through faith in Jesus and not through our confession of sins?
Respond: Since Jesus already forgave my sins, I don’t need to ask for forgiveness.
