Monday after Trinity VIII - Devotion in semi-Exile

Lection for Monday after Trinity VIII
1 Samuel 17:48-18:9      Acts 27:9-26

A Brief Exhortation to Confession is the next portion of Luther's Large Catechism. Of course, this is not “confession of faith” confession, this is confession of sins. Confession is what it means to be a Christian.

Let us hear what Luther says.

Large Catechism 

A Brief Exhortation to Confession

{Here follows an exhortation to confession.  This section on confession was added first in the 1529 revised edition of the Catechism.  It was omitted in the Jena Edition of Luther’s works and in the German Book of Concord (1580), hence also in several later editions of the Catechism}

1] Concerning confession we have always taught that it should be voluntary and purged of the pope’s tyranny.  We have been set free from his coercion and from the intolerable burden and weight he imposed upon the Christian community.  Up to now, as we all know from experience, there has been no law quite so oppressive as that which forced everyone to make confession on pain of the gravest mortal sin.  2] Moreover, it so greatly burdened and tortured consciences with the enumeration of all kinds of sin that no one was able to confess purely enough.  3] Worst of all, no one taught or understood what confession is and how useful and comforting it is.  Instead it was made sheer anguish and a hellish torture because people had to make confession even thought nothing was more harmful to them.  4] These three things have now been removed and made voluntary: that we may confess without coercion or fear; that we are released from the torture of enumerating all sins in detail; finally, that we have the advantage of knowing how to use confession beneficially for the comforting and strengthening of our conscience.

5] Everyone knows this now.  Unfortunately, people have learned it only too well; they do whatever they please and take advantage of their freedom, acting as if they should or need not go to confession anymore.  For a person quickly understands whatever gives us an advantage and grasps with uncommon ease whatever in the gospel is mild or gentle.  But such pigs, as I have said, should not have the gospel or any part of it.  Instead, they ought to remain under the pope and submit to being driven and tormented to confess, fast, etc., more than ever before.  For anyone who will not believe the gospel, live according to it, and do what a Christian ought to do should enjoy none of its benefits.  6] What would happen if you wished to enjoy the gospel’s benefits but did nothing about it and paid no attention to it?  For such people we shall provide no preaching, nor will they have our permission to share and enjoy any part of our liberty, but we shall let the pope or his kind bring them back in subjection and coerce them like a true tyrant.  The rabble who will not obey the gospel deserve nothing but a jailer like this who is God’s devil and hangman.  7] To the others who hear it gladly, however, we must always preach – exhorting, encouraging, and persuading them not to ignore such a precious and comforting treasure that the gospel offers.  Therefore we also want to say something about confession in order to instruct and exhort the simple people.

8] To begin with, I have said that, in addition to the confession that we are discussing here, there are two other kinds, which have an even greater right to be called the common confession of Christians.  I refer to the practice of confessing to God alone or to our neighbor alone, asking for forgiveness.  These two kinds are included in the Lord’s Prayer when we say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” etc.  9] Indeed, the entire Lord’s Prayer is nothing else than such a confession.  For what is our prayer but a confession that we neither have nor do what we ought and a plea for grace and a joyful conscience?  This kind of confession should and must take place continuously as long as we live.  For this is the essence of a genuinely Christian life, to acknowledge that we are sinners and to pray for grace.

10] Similarly the second confession, which all Christians make toward their neighbor, is also included in the Lord’s Prayer.  We are to confess our guilt before on another and forgive on another before we come to God and ask for forgiveness.  Now, all of us are debtors to one another, therefore we should and we may confess publicly in everyone’s presence, no one being afraid of anyone else.  11] For it is true, as the proverb says, “If one person is upright, so are they all”; no one behaves toward God or the neighbor as he or she ought.   However, besides the sum total of our sin, there are also individual ones, when a person has provoked someone else to anger and needs to ask for pardon.  12] Thus we have in the Lord’s Prayer a twofold absolution: both our sins against God and against our neighbors are forgiven when we forgive our neighbors and become reconciled with them.

13] Besides this public, daily, and necessary confession, there is also the secret confession that takes place privately before a single brother or sister.  This comes into play when some particular issue weighs on us or attacks us, eating away at us until we can have no peace or find ourselves sufficiently strong in faith.  Then we may at any time and as often as we wish, lay our troubles before a brother or sister seeking advice, comfort and strength.  14] This type of confession is not included in the commandment like the other two, but is left to all to use whenever they need it.  Thus by divine ordinance Christ himself has placed absolution in the mouths of his Christian community and commanded us to absolve on another from sins.  So if there is a heart that feels its sin and desires comfort, it has here a sure refuge where it finds and hears God’s Word because through a human being God looses and absolves from sin.

15] Note, then, as I have often said, that confession consists of two parts.  The first is our work and act, when I lament my sin and desire comfort and restoration for my soul.  The second is a work that God does, when he absolves me of my sins through the Word placed on the lips of another person.  This is the surpassingly grand and noble thing that makes confession so wonderful and comforting.  16] In the past we place all the emphasis on our work alone and were only concerned whether we had confessed purely enough.   We neither noticed nor preached the ver necessary second part; it was just as if our confession were simply a good work with which we could pay off God.  Where the confession was not made perfectly and in complete detail, we were told that the absolution was not valid and the sin was not forgiven.  17]  Thereby the people were driven to the point that everyone despaired of confessing that purely (which was, of course, impossible), and no conscience could feel at peace or have confidence in the absolution.  Thus they made the precious confession not only useless to us but also burdensome and bitter, to the manifest harm and destruction of souls.

18] We should therefore take care to keep the two parts clearly separate.  We should set little value on our work but exalt and magnify God’s Word.  We should not go to confession as if we wanted to perform a magnificent work to present to God, but simply to accept and receive something from him.  You dare not come and say how upright or how wicked you are.  19] If you are a Christian, I know this well enough anyway; if you are not, I know it even better.  But you must do it for this reason: to lament your need and allow yourself to be healed so that you may attain a joyful heart and conscience.

20] No one needs to drive you to confession by commanding it.  Rather, we say this: Whoever is a Christian, or would like to be one, has here the reliable advice to go and obtain this precious treasure.  If you are not a Christian, and desire no such comfort, we shall leave you to another’s power.  21] Hereby we completely abolish the pope’s tyranny, commandments, and coercion, for we have no need of them.  For, as I have said, we teach this: Let those who do not go to confession willingly and for the sake of the absolution just forget about it.  Yes, and let those who go there relying on the purity of their confession just stay away from it.  22] We urge you, however, to confess and express your needs, not for the purpose of performing a work but to hear what God wants to say to you.  The Word or absolution, I say, is what you should concentrate on, magnifying and cherishing it as a great and wonderful treasure to be accepted with all praise and gratitude.

23] If all this were clearly laid out, and along with that if the needs that ought to move and induce us to confession were clearly indicated, there would be no need for coercion or force.  Their own consciences would persuade Christians and make them so anxious that they would rejoice and act like poor, miserable beggars who hear that a rich gift of money or clothes is being given out at a certain place: they would hardly need a bailiff to drive and beat them but would run there as fast as they could so as not to miss the gift.  24]  Suppose, now, that the invitation were changed into a command that all beggars should run to the place, with no reason being given and no mention made of what they were to seek or receive there.  How else would beggars go but with resentment, not expecting to receive anything but just letting everyone see how poor and miserable they are?  Not much joy or comfort would come from this, but only a greater hostility to the command.

25] In the same way the pope’s preachers have in the past kept silence about these wonderful, rich alms and this indescribable treasure; they have simply driven people together en masse just to show what sort of impure and filthy people they were.  26] Who was able under those conditions to go to confession willingly?  We on the contrary, do not say that a person should look to see how full of filthiness they are or should reflect on their condition.  Rather we give this advice: If you are poor and miserable, then go and make use of the healing medicine.  27] Those who feel their misery and need will no doubt develop such a desire for confession that they will run to it with joy.  But those who ignore it and o not come of their own accord, we let go their way.  However, they ought to know that we do not regard them as Christians.

28] Thus we teach what a wonderful, precious, and comforting thing confession is, and we urge that such a precious blessing should not be despised, especially when we consider our great need.  If you are a Christian, you need neither my compulsion nor the pope’s command at any point, but you will force yourself to go and ask me that you share in it.  29] However, if you despise it and proudly stay away from confession, then we must come to the conclusion that you are not a Christian and that you also ought not receive the sacrament.  For you despise what no Christian ought to despise, and you show thereby that you can have no forgiveness of sin.  And this is a sure sign that you also despise the gospel.

30] In short, we want nothing to do with compulsion.  However, if anyone does not hear and heed our preaching and warning, we shall have nothing to do with such a person who ought not have any part of the gospel.  If you are a Christian, you should be glad to run more than a hundred miles fo confession, not under compulsion but rather coming and compelling us to offer it.  31] For here the compulsion must be reverse; we are the ones who must come under the command and you must come in freedom.  We compel no one, but allow ourselves to be compelled, just as we are compelled to preach and administer the sacrament.

32] Therefore, when I exhort you to go to confession, I am doing nothing but exhorting you to be a Christian.  If I bring you to this point, I have also brought you to confession.  For those who really want to be upright Christians and free from their sins, and who want a joyful conscience, truly hunger and thirst already.  They snatch at the bread just like a hunted deer, burning with the heat and thirst, as Psalm 42:1 say, 33] “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.”  That is, as a deer trembles with eagerness for a fresh spring, so I yearn and tremble for God’s Word or absolution and for the sacrament, etc.  34] In this way, you see, confession would be taught properly, and such a desire and love for it would be aroused that people would come running after us to get it, more than we would like.  We shall let the papists torment and torture themselves and other people who ignore such a treasure and bar themselves from it.  35]  As for ourselves, however, let us lift our hands in praise and thanks to God that we have attained to this knowledge and grace.