Repentance

"You're not really sorry if you keep on committing the sin."

There is some truth to that.  A nine-yr-old isn't really sorry if he's just saying the words while inwardly plotting a way to keep on whopping his brother as soon as Mom is occupied elsewhere.  The car thief isn't really sorry when he's found guilty before the judge for one theft, while at that very moment his chop-shop is dismantling or disguising another dozen cars. 

But there's the gossip who intends to do better, who desires to do better, but who slips back into her old ways during the course of what started as a normal, pleasant conversation.  Or maybe there's an addict who does what he can to stay clean, but sometimes in weakness succumbs to the addiction.  The devil is quick to accuse: "See?  You're still committing the sin.  You aren't sorry.  That means you are impenitent, and there is no forgiveness for you."

It gets worse when the sin is failing to trust in the Lord with all your heart.  "You aren't trusting in Him?  You still sin?  Obviously you are not repentant.  Because if you were, you'd just knock it off and overflow with abundant trust, never struggling with sin again." 

Repentance means a person is turned from trusting in his own works to relying upon the Lord.

Hey.
Relying upon the Lord?

For what?

For good behavior?
For strength to stop sinning?
For wisdom and fortitude to do what is right?

Well, yes.  For those things too.

But mostly ...
for relying on His forgiveness. 

If repentance means making sure we Just Stop Sinning Already, then repentance is still about trusting in myself.  And that's really no repentance at all.

Korby Quote

"Jesus does not puke when He hears you or sees you."

 -- Ken Korby, 1992

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!

the absolution

Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."  And that rest is that He forgives your iniquity and remembers your sin no more.

Business-World Apologies

You've heard non-apology "apologies":  "If anyone was offended by what happened, then I want you all to know that was never the intention, and this has been over-exaggerated." 

Somehow, being in the Church, I always figured that apologizing meant that a person was taking the blame: "My fault, my own fault, my own most grievous fault."

And then you get out in the world.

Something came through at work recently.  We weren't exactly told to read it.  But it was made available, just like other materials, and proposed as suggested reading that would help us deal with customers.  The title was "Help Your Employees Learn to Apologize."  I was stunned.  An apology is NOT "accepting blame."  An apology IS "acknowledging the client's feelings."

So when I'm in a store and they're apologizing to me, it's not my imagination that I sense they're not really apologizing.

At least there are some places that

consider an apology something more 

than mere empathy.

Do Your Sins Pile Up?

Some Christians think that we commit sins, and then we go to confession or go to church or go to the Lord's Supper, and [zap] Jesus wipes away our sins.  And then we go about life, oops, here-a-sin, there-a-sin, everywhere-a-sin-sin.  So we're dirtied up, and we have to go to church to be cleaned up again, ... and the cycle repeats itself.

Pastor often tells us, "NO, that's not what it is."  If it were, that would mean our confessing was the thing meriting God's forgiveness.  Also it would be denying original sin, as if there were days (or hours) (or moments) when we could be spiffied-up and sin-free.  Also it would mean we could have no certainty about our salvation because we could never know whether we'd [oops] sin and then die before having a chance to Get It Fixed At Church (or at least in our personal verbal prayers).  Pastor likes to use an example from a M*A*S*H episode, where Frank Burns is jumping back and forth across the threshold of the tent's door, chanting, "I'm in.  I'm out.  I'm in.  I'm out."  Being in God's grace is not like that; it's not like we're covered by His forgiveness, and then are out, and then are back in after the absolution in the Divine Service, and then back out again next time we lose our temper.

Hearing "I forgive you all your sins" does not mean a pile of sins is erased, brought down to zero-level, before we start piling up sins again.  No.  Because of Jesus' blood shed on the cross, God sees utter perfection, holiness, righteousness, purity.  Going to confession or going to the Lord's Supper doesn't change our status in God's eyes.  What absolution does is to reorient our blind eyes from our navel-gazing, and open our eyes to see ourselves as God sees us, as He declares us to be.

"Funny" to Forgive Somebody?

One morning recently, as we were opening at work, somebody inadvertently left out a step.  Beep beep beep.  The alarm sounded. The security company phoned to determine whether the alarm was an accident or something alarming.  My boss answered the phone and jumped through the hoops to verify what needed to be proved.  She concluded with, "I'm sorry.  I forgot to ...." After her brief explanation, she listened for a moment.  And then she started chuckling.

When she got off the phone, she told us that he'd said, "Oh, I forgive you." 

She was amazed by that.  He'd said, "I forgive you."  That was really weird.  WHY would he say, "I forgive you"?  She laughed about that on-and-off for another 15-20 minutes. 



A friend of mine told me that they'd been taught in premarital catechesis not to say, "I'm sorry" and "That's okay."  They'd been told it would be more helpful to say something on the order of "I hurt you" or "I sinned against you" and to respond with "It's forgotten" or "I forgive you for Jesus' sake."

At our house and with my friends, we usually say "I'm sorry" and "That's okay."  Sometimes I feel guilty about that.  It's hard to say "I forgive you" not because the forgiveness is hard.  What's hard is the admission that, yes, what the other person did was just plain wrong and sinful.  It's easier when we act like it's not a big deal, when we sweep it away with "That's okay." 

I know people who are so good about saying "I forgive you."  I want to hear "I forgive you."  But saying it?

What I saw the other day makes me realize that there are two completely different meanings behind "I'm sorry."  One is contrition, and the only response is to forgive.  But most of the time in our country, "I'm sorry" is a polite phrase.  There is no sorrow or grief behind the words.  So "I forgive you" sounds bizarre, funny, maybe even insulting, to those who aren't sorry-from-the-gut when they say "sorry."

Demon Possession

"Can a Christian be demon possessed?"  I've lost count of how many times I've heard people ask that question.  And this week I heard a most awesome answer.

Christians can and will be attacked by the demons.  That's not possession; it's an attack.  A person may wonder if it's demon-possession.  It may feel the same.  It may appear to be the same.  But in the end, does it matter if we know whether it's an attack or possession?  After all, the remedy is the same thing: "Depart, you unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit!" ... and then the comfort of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus' sake is applied to the afflicted one.

How awesome is that?!

Penance and Prayer

 "So why would a priest give out the Lord's Prayer for punishment?"


-- Asked by Maggie today as we were reading chapter 37 in Ivanhoe, where the head of all the Templar knights was assigning penance to the guy in charge of the local group of Templars.  The penance was 13 Our Fathers at Matins and 9 at Vespers, plus six weeks fasting from meat.


Assigning prayer as punishment.  Excellent point.
Is praying really that distasteful, that you only do it when you're trying to ingratiate yourself with God?

Upon This Your Confession

In the Divine Service, after the congregation confesses sin, the pastor says, "Upon this your confession, I ... forgive you all your sins ...." 

There were times Pastor would be teaching, making the point that what instigates God's forgiveness is not our confessing but His love and mercy.  Pastor would ask, "Do you think God forgives you because you say you're sorry?"  You could tell from the way he asked the question that the answer was supposed to be, "Duuuuh.  NO!"  But it didn't seem like a no-brainer to me.  "Yeah," I would think or say sheepishly, "that was kinda sorta the impression I had."  Of course, I knew that God forgives sin for Jesus' sake.  But doesn't it depend on our being sorry too?

Oh, he would talk again and again about how my repentance doesn't cajole God into being forgiving.  And I do believe him.  (Do you detect a subtle "but ..." in there somewhere?)

Last night when he was talking about such things again, the liturgy came to mind.  "Upon this your confession ...."  That's what we hear, week after week.  I had tried to make sense of it for myself.  But last night, I finally asked.  And now I can finally say, "Duh!  Of course!!"

"Upon WHAT confession?"  In the confession we first confess that we are poor, miserable sinners who have offended God and deserved His punishment.  We are sorry for our sins.  But then what?  We beg "of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son Jesus Christ" that God would forgive.  And THEN Pastor says, "Upon this your confession ...." 

What confession is the basis for the absolution he's about to bestow?  Not "I'm a sinner and I'm sorry."  But the pastor forgives on the basis of the truth [that is, the confession] that God is merciful because of Jesus' death on on the cross.

Wow!  So all along, the liturgy has been saying just what Pastor had been explaining.  How 'bout that?

Private Confession and Absolution

From a discussion between Dr Korby and Todd Wilken:

We are accustomed to confessing our sins to God in privacy, and then we remind ourselves of His love and forgiveness. We think, "Who needs to go to a pastor?" However, God doesn't need us to tell Him about our sins; He already knows. But there is a humiliation in confessing to the pastor or to the Christian-brother instead of confessing to God in the privacy of our minds. (Don't let the word humiliation put you off. Even though it is indeed humiliating to be humiliated, remember that's what it is to be "humble." The words are related.)

What is the point of confession? So that we might hear the absolution! How does forgiveness come to us anyway? By the word of forgiveness!

We have it backwards when we are confessing sin for God's sake and then applying forgiveness to ourselves. We need to confess for our sake, so that we are ready to hear the word (from God's spokesman) which forgives us and which creates and vivifies faith.

Relentless Accusations

Remember when Magdalena was caught in adultery (John 8)? The Pharisees wanted to stone her. Trying to trap Jesus, they asked Him what He thought of Moses' law. He responded that "he who is without sin cast the first stone." The men eventually all dropped their weapons and wandered away. Jesus asked Mary, "Does no one condemn you?" No one accused her. No one condemned her. Jesus assured her, "Neither do I condemn you."

Another time, we hear the story of the sinful woman who anointed Jesus. I think we can surmise, by looking at what history and the different Gospel accounts tell us, that this woman is Magdalena. (But it's not really critical at the moment whether we have her identified.)

In Luke's account of the anointing of Jesus (chapter 7), we hear of Simon's accusation. This woman is a scuzz. She ought not be touching Jesus. Why is He allowing this anyway? Doesn't He know?!!? We know how the story proceeds: Jesus' response is to teach Simon that he who is forgiven much loves much. We know that Jesus forgives the woman.

But, now, think about that for a minute. He forgives her. What did she do? I mean, hey, in the story, she is doing something good. What's she's doing needs no forgiveness. On the contrary! She is honoring Him because she loves Him. She is right smack-dab in the middle of a good work! And He says, "Your sins are forgiven."

Is the forgiveness irrelevant? NO.

Jesus has this idea that --in the face of accusations-- the solution is forgiveness of sins.

Even when you're not doing something bad.
Even when your sins are stale and old.
Even when you've already been forgiven.

"I forgive you."
Again.
And again.
And again.

Confessing Anonymously

The only thing most of us know about going to confession is what we see in the movies. Lutherans aren't real used to it. One of the things we see in the movies is the confessional booth. The person is supposedly anonymous; the priest cannot see who is confessing. (Of course, he may recognize the voice, but we're supposed to not notice that.)

Lutherans don't have confessional booths. Lutherans confess to the pastor who is sitting right there next to them, who can see who comes and goes, who can hear their voices. There is no anonymity.

Sometimes private confession is offered at conferences. At Higher Things conferences in the past, private confession was offered. I talked to some kids who really love that, and look forward to it. They love hearing the absolution spoken in the face of their out-loud confession of the sin that troubles them. Interestingly, though, some of those kids told me that they'd never confess to their own pastor -- he knows them. They want to confess at the conference, to a stranger, to someone they don't have to face next week, every Sunday, at every youth-group event for the rest of the year. They said things like, "Oh, what would Pastor think of me if he knew what I confessed??!!"

Something is missed when we confess anonymously. It is truly a blessed thing when we go to the pastor, exposing to him our most troublesome sins and our deepest regrets, and he forgives. He has heard the specifics of the pollution of our souls, and yet he continues to treat us just as nicely and warmly as he treats everyone else. He doesn't remember the sin we have confessed. He doesn't remind us. He doesn't change his attitude toward us. Everything is as if he never knew the sin. That's because it is forgiven; it is put away, as far as the east is from the west.

Sometimes a person continues to struggle with the same sin, and continues to go to the pastor, confessing how he cannot free himself from his sin, regretting his sin, wanting help and rescue, but still caught in that struggle of which Paul speaks in Romans 7. There is a lovely comfort that is found in NOT being anonymous. When the pastor hears the same sin confessed repeatedly, and still forgives, it is a sweet and lovely picture of the Savior who KNOWS our sin better than we do ourselves, and still yearns for us, still saves, still forgives unceasingly, still pours out Himself.

Why would anybody want anonymity in the confessional when instead they could have the comfort of forgiveness from one who knows them (really knows them with all their warts and blemishes) and still accepts them and loves them in spite of the sin?

Matthew 18:20

If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.

I have heard that verse used to assure people that it's okay if only a few show up for church services. After all, God is still there with them. And that's true.

I have heard that verse used to support social activities at church, like dartball or potlucks or an outing to the roller rink. That's just totally taking the verse out of context, where the "agreement" and the "gathered" is clearly about bestowing the absolution on the penitent.

Pastor said during prayers today that he has heard this verse used to claim that God's will was being done whenever the church voted on matters of carpeting or refinancing the mortgage or whatever.

What I'd never heard (until today) was that there are two people together in the confessional, and they agree. That is, they CONfess. The sinner agrees with God about his sin. The sinner agrees with God about His remedy for sin. The pastor obviously agrees with God because he's the one speaking God's message. And so "what they agree upon" --that is, the forgiveness applied to the sinner-- will be done for them by My Father in heaven. Jesus is surely in that place where confession is heard and the absolution is spoken.

Psalm 71:15

My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
and Your salvation all the day,
for I do not know their limits.
I will go in the strength of the Lord Yahweh;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

Well, I guess there's one thing good about the intense struggle with sin and doubt and fear and unbelief. A person discovers that he can never find the limit to God's salvation and righteousness.

I have heard stories about Pr Korby. His beloved students say that he made mention of the phenomenon of how a person would "get more sinful" as he continued to avail himself of the blessings of private confession. Hey, shouldn't it be making me more holy? But it doesn't seem to work that way. My sinful flesh seems to get stronger, I seem to be attacked more by situations in the world, and the devil just gets more persistent. Once upon a time when I asked my father-confessor about that, I wanted to know whether I really am getting more sinful, or whether it just appears that way to me. He said he thinks Dr Korby meant that, through private confession, we come to know our sin in a way which we didn't before, ... and that makes it seem to us that we are therefore becoming more sinful. It's not an actual increase in sinfulness, but an increased awareness of the depth of the corruption. Furthermore, in private confession, the word of forgiveness is preached into the sinner's ear ... and that isn't something about which the devil is going to say, "Okie-dokie, good plan."

But what happens then? We discover [even experientially] that there are no limits to God's salvation and righteousness. We learn more and more how corrupt we are; we see ourselves more and more as God would see our sin. And yet, His love never quits. It never fails. It is always bigger than our sin. Always. We can't find the end of it. I do not know their limits. We go in the strength of the Lord, because we sure ain't goin' in our own strength. We make mention of His righteousness, His only, because we learn more and more that we have no righteousness of our own, no, not even as Christians.

I do not know the limits of His salvation and righteousness.

Our God Is Not a Contritionist

So often we hear that we forgive those who are sorry. We forgive those who repent. It seems a logical corollary to the idea that a pastor would "withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant, as long as they do not repent." But forgiveness is not parceled out based on the sinner's repentance.

Yesterday's Bible story was about the golden calf (Exodus 32). Pastor pointed out that, on the mountain, God threatened the punishment the Israelites deserved. Moses interceded for his people and reminded God of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord reiterated that He would be faithful to His promise, that He would forgive His people. But what was happening at that moment? Were the people repenting? Were they saying how sorry they were that they'd made this idol? Were they putting the idol out of their midst and making sacrifices to the true God?

Nope. They were still reveling in their sin.

And yet, we see God's heart of love and mercy that yearns for them even while they are still despising Him. His love for us is because of what's in Him, not because of our sorrow over sin. And that's good to know.

Does He Remember?

A pastor vows at his ordination never to reveal the sins confessed to him. Luther says that a pastor is to "make his ears a tomb" to what he hears in the confessional.

There have been times when I've tried to speak with Pastor (maybe 10 minutes or a few days or a few weeks later) about a matter which I had referred to during private confession. He would respond, "I don't know WHAT you're talking about." Oh, yeah... right. He doesn't remember what he heard.

And yet,...
he's got a brain. He remembers. Sure, there are some things he doesn't remember. He practices forgetfulness. He prays for God's Spirit to put out of his mind the things he hears in the confessional.

But when he "remembers," is that a problem?

I've actually found that there is blessing in that too. When the pastor has heard the same confession over and over and over, when he repeatedly listens to the grief over the same iniquity, when he repeatedly forgives the besetting sin, there is some comfort in that he doesn't physically/mentally "forget." He knows me in my sinful condition. But he doesn't treat me any differently. He doesn't consider me any less a Christian. He doesn't demean me before others. He doesn't give away any hint of my sin.

But he knows. And what does he do with that knowledge?

He takes the opportunity during Bible class and sermons to say things in a way that will not distress me. He speaks words of comfort in his preaching that will assuage the guilt of me and other penitents -- while never revealing sin confessed to him.

If a person has a bad back and can't sit for an hour through Bible class, maybe the pastor would make sure that person has a padded chair, or that there's a spot near the back where the person is free to get up and walk around for a few minutes during class. If a person has poor eyesight, maybe the pastor will make sure a large-print Bible is available. The pastor uses his knowledge of our physical weakness so that he can serve the sinners in his care. His knowledge of macular degeneration or arthritis doesn't make him think less of his people.

In the same way, Pastor's knowledge of my sinful weakness doesn't make him think less of me. Rather, it makes it easier for him to take care of me and serve me and bring Jesus to me in my own particular struggles.

And isn't that a picture of God? God is omniscient. It's not like He's unaware of our sin. And yet He says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer 31).

I don't have to hide my sin from God. In fact, when we cover up our sin, we suffer for it. (See Psalm 32.) In the same way, confessing sin before the pastor will not result in having our noses rubbed in it, nor getting "instruction" in how to "be better," nor having the pastor look down his nose at us. Confession before the pastor teaches us in an experiential way how God's "head knowledge" of our sin fits with the truth that He does NOT remember our sin.

Prevention

If you feel a sore throat coming on, you can suck on zinc-&-C lozenges. If you feel a cold sore coming on, there's Abreva. If you can tell that you're starting mastitis, you interrupt the progression of the illness by clearing the schedule, taking a nap, using moist heat, and nursing a lot. With a cold, you start chugging orange juice and home-made chicken soup, and popping echinacea capsules. When a boil starts, you reach for a slab of garlic to tape onto the spot.

But what is the preventative measure when a person feels a bout of depression beginning?

1 Kings 19:11-12

The OT reading recently was the story of Elijah escaping from Ahab after the Baal/Yahweh showdown at Mount Carmel.

"The Lord was not in the wind. ...
The Lord was not in the earthquake. ...
The Lord was not in the fire."

But there were all those times God did send wind and earthquakes and fire, like the Flood and other judgments. And even times when the Lord was IN the wind and the earthquakes and the fire. Think of the wind at the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 14). And the earthquakes and fire at Sinai (Ex 19). And the fire at the calling of Moses (Ex 3) and when Aaron's sons burned the off-limits incense (Lev 10).

So it's not that God is never in the wind and the earthquake and the fire. But the comfort is that God comes looking for us when we run away, puts up with our pity parties, and assures us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church (no matter what it obviously looks like). The comfort is in the still, small voice of the word of God's forgiveness and God's faithfulness.

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

O faithful love that shepherded through faithless years;
Forgiving love that led us to Your truth;
Unyielding love that would not let us turn from You
But sent us forth to speak pardon and peace. (LSB 558)

Words Given

I am trusting Thee for power;
Thine can never fail.
Words which Thou Thyself shalt give me
Must prevail.

Are the words given to me
words put into my mouth?
Or words put into my ear by someone else's mouth?

And does anybody else find it interesting that God's power is found in the words given to us (presumably the words planted into our ears by our preachers, and not "given to us" to speak)?

Pastoral Care Companion

Thursday morning I walked into the Bible class room and saw a little book in Pastor's hands and exclaimed, "THAT is what I want to look at!" He immediately offered me his copy of Pastoral Care Companion, but first I had to attend to duties, putting away bunches of groceries for the wedding and other preparation for the reception. Eventually I got my hands on the book, and I had 30 minutes to soak it up before class started.

This book is awesome! I mean, it is almost unbelievable in the tools provided for spiritual warfare.

One of the things I have achingly been missing in LSB is the collects and the proper prefaces. Both of those -- plus the Beichtafel (questions designed to show one's sin in preparation for private confession or going to the Supper) -- are included in the Pastoral Care Companion. So I'm thinking that it may not be an inappropriate book for laymen. For pastors, the book is also a portable agenda, with the funeral rites, the wedding rites, and other Services he may need to have handy when away from church.

But the reason I couldn't put the book down on Thursday was the section with resources for various situations. (Phooey -- that sounds so vague.) For each situation it's got appropriate Bible passages, psalms, prayers, and hymns. Situations are as varied as rejoicing at the birth of a child, struggling with infertility, a run-away child, persistent grief at the loss of a loved one, difficulty dealing with changes in life, considering suicide or abortion, periods of anxiety or depression, and so much more. This book will be a tremendous reference for pastors who think, "Now what am I supposed to do? How can I bring God's word to bear on this situation for my troubled sheep? How do I help them???"

When Pastor finally managed to pry the book free from my hands, he spent the first half of Bible class bubbling over to the group about the book. He said he wished for two things with regard to this book.

First, he hopes pastors will begin using the book for their own personal prayers. There is so much in the book about family life and one's daily work and about struggles with doubts & worries & fears. If the pastor is using this in his daily prayer life, he himself will be edified. But there will also be the resultant benefit that the pastor will know what's available in the book, and he will begin to learn how to use it to minister to his people's needs.

Second, Pastor said he hopes that the Pastoral Care Companion will be something used in the confessional. In the private confession rite in the hymnal, it says after the absolution that the pastor will know additional passages with which to comfort the troubled conscience. Well, what happens when the pastor doesn't know what to say? What happens if he knows which Law to apply, but knows it's time for him to shut up with regard to speaking the Law, and needs to speak Gospel? The Pastoral Care Companion will put God's Word into the mouth of the pastor so that those sweet words from Jesus will go into the ear of the penitent.