The Lord’s Supper: The benefit and who receives the benefit

Posted on February 16, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Septuagesima

Small Catechism Review: The Lord’s Supper, part 2

Last week we considered very simply what the Lord’s Supper is. It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. It is bread and wine. And it is the body and blood of Christ. Bread, wine, body, and blood are all really present in the use of the Sacrament.

We should say a word about what the “use” is. It includes everything from the consecration—when the minister takes bread and wine and blesses them, according to the Lord’s command—to the distribution to the communicants, to the reception (the eating and the drinking) by the communicants. Throughout the use of the Sacrament, as instituted by Christ, it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine. Anyone who receives it receives, orally, bread, wine, and the Lord’s true body and blood. Apart from the use of the Sacrament, there is no Sacrament. It’s just bread and wine.

Knowing what the Sacrament is is essential. But so is knowing what it’s for—what benefit it gives and who receives the benefit. So our Catechism asks and answers those questions:

What is the benefit of this eating and drinking?

That is shown us by these words: “Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins,” namely, that in the Sacrament, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there are also life and salvation.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?

Clearly it is not the eating and drinking that does it, but the words that are there: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words accompany the bodily eating and drinking as the chief part in the Sacrament, and whoever believes these words has what they say and as they declare, namely, forgiveness of sins.

In the Old Testament, the body and blood of an animal sacrifice would make atonement for the sins of the Israelites, and those who brought the sacrifice would receive forgiveness from the priest who offered it. The forgiveness of sins was always the purpose for which sacrifices were brought.

But as the writer to the Hebrews says, it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Those animal bodies and their blood were shadows of the real thing, the body and blood of Christ, true God and true Man, given and shed once for all to make atonement, that is, to earn forgiveness for all sins. The forgiveness of sins—of all sins, of the sins of all people—was earned, once for all, through the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ on the cross. No other atonement can be made. No other price can be paid to earn God’s favor. That was it. That was the one. And it was perfect.

And just as those who brought sacrifices in the Old Testament often participated in them—either by eating the sacrificed food or by being sprinkled with the sacrificed blood, so those who come to the Lord’s Table participate in His sacrifice by eating and drinking it, so that we receive, again and again, the forgiveness that was earned at the cross.

When I say that “we” receive that forgiveness, I mean, as the Catechism says, all those communicants who “believe these words.” All communicants, even people who might inwardly be unbelieving and impenitent, receive the body and blood of Christ if they come to the Lord’s Table. But only believers receive the forgiveness of sins. As always, we are justified by faith, forgiven through faith, made acceptable to God by faith alone in Christ alone and in His promises given to us in Holy Scripture, not because faith is such a great work, but because faith lays hold of Christ. Here in the Sacrament of the Altar, faith specifically lays hold of Christ’s promise to give us the forgiveness of sins by giving us the body and the blood that were sacrificed to earn that very forgiveness.

Is the forgiveness we receive in the Lord’s Supper different from the forgiveness we receive in Holy Baptism or in the absolution or in the Gospel in general? No, the forgiveness is the same. But just as doctor might prescribe three different medications that work well together in order to  make you healthy and keep you healthy, so the Lord has prescribed preaching, and Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper to work well together for the spiritual health of the Christian, to strengthen faith, to firm up our resolve to walk according to the Spirit, and to give us a special, unique way to experience this communion with the true body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Cherish it, both for what it is and for the benefits it gives! Amen.

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Cherish God’s grace. Don’t despise it.

Posted on February 13, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Septuagesima

1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5  +  Matthew 20:1-16

Our religion is not a theoretical thing. To practice our religion, to be a Christian, is not about theoretically holding to certain doctrines or reciting certain words or going through certain motions on Sunday morning. Our religion is about knowing and cherishing the grace of our God and the forgiveness of sins that is ours in Christ, and then, as those who cherish God’s grace, devoting ourselves to showing that kind of grace to others. Now, cherishing God’s grace doesn’t mean His commandments have become irrelevant, or that sin is acceptable, or that good works aren’t necessary. But in today’s parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus shows us what it looks like to cherish His grace and what it looks like to despise it. Those who cherish God’s goodness and grace will remain in His vineyard, experiencing His goodness forever. Those who despise His grace will be cast out, regardless of how hard they’ve worked.

It’s Holy Week. Jesus has been upbraiding the Jews for their unbelief, and He’ll have much more to say before the week is done, demonstrating how they were given everything by God, and yet, when their God came to dwell with them in their midst, they didn’t recognize Him. They didn’t want a God like that. Then, one chapter before our Gospel begins, Jesus had an interesting exchange with a rich young Jewish ruler, the one who came up to Jesus entirely earnest, Good teacher, what good thing must I do to be saved? You remember what Jesus told Him? Basically, keep the commandments. And he said, I have kept them all! So Jesus told him to go sell all that he had and follow Jesus, and he would have treasure in heaven. And at that, the rich man walked away sad, because he wanted heaven, but he didn’t want heaven enough to give away his riches. Then, what prompted the telling of the parable of the workers, Jesus’ disciples pointed out to Him how they had left everything in order to follow Him, and He promised them that everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. There’s grace there, but there’s also a warning. When you start to focus on how much you’ve given up for Jesus, how much you’ve left, how hard you’ve worked—especially compared to other people, how little they seem to have given up, how little they seem to have worked—be very careful to remember that heaven is a gift of God’s goodness and grace, earned for you entirely by Christ. It’s not a reward for hard work or suffering. You’re still sinners who deserve only God’s wrath and punishment, and yet He doesn’t want to punish sinners. He wants to save them, at great cost to Himself, and to give them eternal life as a gift. So cherish His grace, and don’t despise it, thinking you’ve earned God’s acceptance or God’s heavenly blessings by how hard you’ve worked.

To illustrate that point, Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The owner, the master of the house, went out early in the day to find workers for His vineyard. He found some men standing in the marketplace and hired them, agreeing with them that he would pay them one denarius for the day’s work.

That’s like how God went out early to the Jewish people, at the time of Moses, and made a covenant with them to be their God and to give them the land of Israel, if they would live under the Law God gave to Moses and obey it. It’s also like how the Lord has called many Christians to do much and to suffer much for the sake of His kingdom, and we all agree, at the beginning, that heaven is worth any amount of sacrifice and suffering here.

Then the owner of the vineyard goes out a few hours later, still looking for workers, and he finds some and simply agrees to pay them “whatever is right.” And they go. No wage is set. No covenant is made based on a certain amount of work the workers must do. They’re left having to trust the master’s honesty, his righteousness, and his goodness. The same thing happens a few hours later, and a few hours later, and then a couple hours later, only one hour before quitting time. In each case, the owner agrees to give the workers what is right at the end of the day, and in each case, they are happy with that arrangement and go eagerly into his vineyard.

This is like how, when the Lord began His earthly ministry, He went out into the land of Israel and called thieves and swindlers, prostitutes and adulterers, people who had lived their whole lives as members of the Church of Israel, but who had never embraced the grace and love of God, who had lived openly contrary to His commandments, who hadn’t been “working in His vineyard” at all. And He called them by grace to repent and believe in Him, and when they did, He sent them into His kingdom to work, not as slaves, but as sons and daughters of God.

It’s also like how the Lord called the Gentiles into His kingdom. They had lived separated from God, each one going his own way, following his own path, his own religion, until the Lord called them through the Gospel to know the only true God, to repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. He promised to give them “whatever is right,” not based on the works they had done, but on His own goodness and mercy and faithfulness and righteousness. This is how the Lord has called everyone in the New Testament era. Some have labored more than others and suffered more than others and given up more than others, depending on when they were called and the circumstances of their calling. But all are called simply to trust in the goodness and righteousness of the God who called them, to do whatever work He lays out for them in His kingdom, and they all gladly go.

But what happens at the end of the day? The lord of the vineyard wants the first workers to be paid last. He wants the last workers hired to be paid first. So those who worked only one hour received a full denarius, and those who worked three hours received a denarius, and those who worked six hours and nine hours received a denarius. Imagine how happy they were, to receive a full day’s wages for less than a full day’s work. Imagine how appreciative of the goodness and generosity of the landowner.

Finally, the first workers stepped forward, the ones who had worked, if not the hardest, then at least the longest, thinking they would receive more, because they thought they deserved more. But each received the same as all the rest: the one denarius that they had been promised and that they had agreed to at the beginning of the day. And they grumbled and complained and were bitter and angry at the landowner, who then reminded them that they got exactly what they were promised, and that he had the right to do as he pleased with his money. He showed grace, he showed goodness, he showed favor to those other workers, and that’s really what bothered the first workers. They were jealous—jealous that, at the end of the day, the lord of vineyard handed out rewards based, not on works, but on grace, and that meant that all their hard work hadn’t earned them a penny. By grace those other workers had been rewarded, through faith in the goodness of the lord—not by works, so that no one could boast.

Hopefully that brought to mind the Bible verses from Ephesians 2: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, lest anyone should boast. Now, that one verse, that one statement is cherished by some, and despised by others. It’s cherished by those who recognize that their works fall short of the glory of God. It’s cherished by those who know their sins, and the weight of their guilt has pressed heavy on them. It’s cherished by those who admit the truth: that they don’t deserve anything from God but wrath and punishment. And yet, God came along and gave His Son to be our Savior, to do all the work, all day long, that would serve as a valid substitute for our works. God gave His Son into death to pay for our sins, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, not by being righteous ourselves, but by God counting the righteousness of Christ to us through faith.

That same truth is despised by those who refuse to admit their sins and their utter inability to help themselves, who think they’ve done such good things for God, when, in reality, God views it all as filth if it was done apart from faith in His beloved Son. The truth of grace is despised by those who love their sins, too, because God’s grace isn’t given to those who view themselves as their own God, walking and living according to their own sinful desires. It’s given instead to those who look to Him as their God in humility and repentance. The truth of salvation by grace alone is despised by those who want grace for themselves but bitterly deny it to others. Such people who never learn to cherish the grace of God will hear that awful sentence from Him on the last day: Take what is yours and go. Because what is yours is imperfection, love of self and self-righteousness. What is yours is sin. But what is Christ’s—that is perfection, that is perfect love for God and man. His work is yours, if you want it. God’s grace is yours for the enjoying, if you will cherish it. Cherish God’s grace, and don’t despise it. And practice your religion accordingly. Amen.

 

 

 

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What the Lord’s Supper Is

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Transfiguration

Small Catechism Review: The Lord’s Supper

I told our catechism students earlier this week that we won’t actually spend all that long studying the Sixth Chief Part of the Small Catechism, the part on the Lord’s Supper. We’ll spend about a month on it, but that’s very little compared to the Second Chief part. We won’t spend all that much time on it, because the teaching of the Lord’s Supper is really very, very simple, because the words of the Lord Jesus concerning the Lord’s Supper are very, very simple. This evening we focus on what the Lord’s Supper is.

What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink. Where is this written? The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. Paul write: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples and said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’ “In the same way also He took the cup after supper, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, ‘Take and drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”

Countless books have been written on this simple teaching of the Small Catechism. Countless controversies have raged. The visible Christian Church is still divided largely over the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. What a shame! But it’s another example—not unlike the doctrine of justification—of the devil taking the clear words of God and blowing a cloud of smoke over them, as it were, so that people can’t see them clearly anymore. May God grant us His Holy Spirit to enable us to see through the smoke and the fog to the clear words of our Lord.

It’s the night on which He was betrayed, Maundy Thursday, the Thursday of Holy Week. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating the Passover, with the lamb and the unleavened bread, the dip made from bitter herbs, and the wine. They had finished the Passover meal itself. And then Jesus does something new. He takes the bread, gives thanks for it, breaks it, that is, divides it up, and gives it to His disciples, saying, Take and eat. This is My body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me. So, what is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is bread. No doubt about it. But is bread which the Lord declares to be His body. Which body? The very one that is given for you. Given where? How? Well, connecting it with what He says a moment later about His blood which is shed, it’s the body that was given into death on the cross. And finally, it’s the bread which is Christ’s body, which His disciples are to take from Him after He has blessed it, and eat it.

How can that piece of bread be the body of Christ? We have no idea, and we don’t try to explain it. We simply believe that it is, because He said, “This is,” and there is no indication in the text that “is” means anything other than “is.”

Then He takes the cup of wine, gives thanks, and gives it to His disciples, saying, “Take and drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” So, what is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is wine. No doubt about it. St. Paul rebukes the Corinthian Christians for getting drunk on it, so it can’t possibly be grape juice. But it is wine which the Lord declares to be His blood. Which blood? The blood of the New Testament which Christ shed on the cross. When Moses sealed the Old Testament with the children of Israel, it was sealed with blood. Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” So, too, the New Covenant or the New Testament is sealed with the blood of Christ, shed once on the cross, and now applied to the people of God, not by sprinkling, but by drinking. Not once, but “as often as you drink it.”

How can the wine in the cup be the blood of Christ? We have no idea, and we don’t try to explain it. We simply believe that it is, because He said, “This is,” and there is no indication in the text that “is” means anything other than “is.”

What’s that? Human reason says it makes no sense? Who cares? What’s that? Jesus uses metaphors in other parts of Scripture. “I am the Vine; you are the branches.” Yes, and then He always goes on to explain some spiritual truth based on that earthly image. Not here in the Lord’s Supper. In what way is His body “like” bread? In what way is His blood “like” wine? There is no analogy. There is no comparison. There is no representation. Is simply means is.

Does the rest of Scripture agree with that interpretation? Well, what does St. Paul say? The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? How can you have a communion—a sharing in or a participation of the bread and the wine with something that is absent? Something that is not there? And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, St. Paul accuses those who eat the Supper unworthily as sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. How can you sin against His body and blood if His body and blood are absent?

Roman Catholics agree that Jesus’ body and blood are present in the Sacrament of the Altar, but they philosophize about the bread and wine vanishing, so that it now only appears to be bread and wine. The Evangelicals simply believe in the Real Absence of the body and blood of Jesus in the Supper, claiming that the bread and wine (or other drink) simply represents Jesus’ body and blood. And the Calvinists craftily claim to believe that there is a “spiritual presence” of Jesus’ body and blood, but that it’s not at all connected to the bread that is eaten or the wine that is drunk. It’s received only by faith, they say, not orally, not with the mouth, so that an unbeliever who happens to receive the Lord’s Supper doesn’t receive anything at all but plain bread and plain wine.

We Lutherans teach the Real Presence of Jesus’ body and blood with the bread and wine. We stick with the simple words of Scripture, and we leave it to others to deny it or twist it or philosophize about it. We will stick with the simple words of the Lord, and be content to know that He wishes to give us His very body and blood to eat and to drink. As for why He gives it and the benefit we are to receive from it, that we will cover in the next two weeks, if the Lord is willing. Amen.

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The glory of Christ is the hope of the Church

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

2 Peter 1:16-21  +  Matthew 17:1-9

We always end the Epiphany season with this climactic celebration of the Transfiguration. There are two reasons. First, the other revelations of Christ’s glory—His miracles and His teaching—were certainly evidences of His divinity, but never for a moment did Jesus Himself appear to be anything but a lowly human being; those other epiphanies were all building up to this ultimate, visible revelation of Jesus’ glory to three of His disciples. Here in the Gospel, here on the Mount of Transfiguration, we’re finally given a glimpse of the glory that is Christ’s by nature and by right. Secondly, we’re about to follow Jesus toward the cross in our annual observance of Lent, where we’re going to lose sight, for a while, of the truth of Jesus’ glorious divinity, where we’re going to observe His glory in choosing humiliation, pain and death in order to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil. The Transfiguration gives us a glimpse of the heavenly glory that belongs to Jesus at all times, even when He appears weak and a failure. And if it belongs to Him, then it will also belong to us who have been baptized into Him and who remain faithful until the end.

So, first of all in today’s Gospel, know the glory that is Christ’s.

Jesus took just three of His disciples up onto the mountain with Him for the Transfiguration: Peter, James, and John. That tells us something: you didn’t have to see this glorious event in order to be one of Jesus’ followers, or even to be one of Jesus’ apostles. It was enough that three disciples should be witnesses of it. After the resurrection, Jesus gave them permission to tell the others about it. That was enough.

We may ask, why these three? These three were often the ones chosen by Jesus to witness certain miracles or certain events. We don’t know why, but we can guess at it a little. Peter would stand up as a leader in the Church. James would be the first martyr of the twelve apostles. And John would outlast them all, being forced to watch as the hatred of the world was poured out on the rest of the apostles and on the young Christian Church. It would be good for these three to have a special revelation of Jesus’ glory.

They went up on the mountain, and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

This is the glory that no one would have ever guessed by looking at Jesus. He normally looked “normal,” like any man. He wore a normal man’s clothes—not even the clothing of the rich, much less clothing that was white as the light. He talked with normal men—even with the outcasts and the sinners. He certainly didn’t normally go around talking with the sainted prophets.

But here, for a moment, Jesus shows His three disciples how not normal He really is. He is God, and He is surrounded by the great believers of the past. Moses is a witness for the Law. Elijah is a witness for the Prophets. They all had been pointing to this Man, to Jesus the Christ, who had to come into the world as a Man, and live, and die, and live again in order to make atonement for the sins of the world and to bring His atonement to sinners through the Gospel. These famous Old Testament prophets were faithful to God in life, and even now they were not dead. They were alive and shared in the glory of Christ.

 

 

That brings us to our second point this morning: Knowing the glory that is Christ’s, remember the glory that awaits the Church.

Moses grew up around pagans in the palace of Pharaoh. He murdered an Egyptian at age 40, was exiled for 40 years, then spent the next 40 years trudging through the desert leading a stubborn and disobedient people who kept him from entering the Promised Land. He died right there on the edge of Canaan. Elijah spent his entire ministry opposing the wicked kings and queens of Israel, confronting the idolatry of Israel, feeling like he was all alone in the world as a believer in the true God who had promised to send the Christ one day. For as great as these men were in their day, for as great as the miracles were that they performed, neither of them saw days of peace on earth. Both of them were sinners who lived in hope—hope of a future peace, a future glory, a future without the evils of this world surrounding them and pressing down on them at every moment, a future in the presence of God.

God shows us in the Transfiguration what the outcome was for them. They were not disappointed. They obtained the blessed crown of life. They shared in the glory of Jesus. They were able to look back on the story of this world as those who had already read to the end of the book. They know that it all ends well for Christ and for the people of Christ.

Here God gives us a vision, a picture of our hope as Christians. This is what we have to look forward to: blessed conversation with Jesus in glory, separated forever from the filth and from the insanity of this world, freed from our sins and failures, free from having our souls tormented by the horrific wickedness in which this world seems to be drowning. Jesus and His apostles were not joking when they taught us to long for that day when He returns. The more you feel the weight of the world’s wickedness pressing down on you, the more hope the Transfiguration offers, because not only is this the glory that awaits those who persevere in the faith until the end, but this glorious Jesus is even now reigning in the midst of man’s wretchedness, somehow turning the course of this hate-filled world to benefit His holy Church, so that we and many others may reach the glorious finish line.

That brings us to our third and final point this morning. What to do now? Very simply, listen in humility until the glory is revealed.

Peter wants to stay on the mountain: Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. We can sympathize with Peter. Just six days earlier, Jesus had told him and the other disciples that His path and theirs was the way of the cross. But the Father knows the disciples have to go back down the mountain. The Transfiguration has been a blessed reprieve in their journey; they haven’t reached the finish line yet.

So what are the Father’s instructions? He speaks from the bright cloud: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him! Listen to My beloved Son!

But, but, Jesus had told His disciples just six days earlier that He would have to suffer and bear the cross! That they, too, would have to suffer and bear the cross for His sake! Yes, says the Father. Listen to Him! It’s true! He must suffer and die, and you must deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow Him. The path of the cross is painful and deadly to your flesh, but it’s the only path that ends in glory and in life. So hear Him! Listen to Him! That’s the only way you’ll be able to walk the path of the cross.

We, too, would love to be in heaven already. We might wish that we didn’t have to face another day in this world (and if you don’t wish that now, I promise, you will before the end comes). The world is crumbling. We’re losing our rights. We’re losing our freedoms. Children are being murdered, on both sides of the womb. The borders are being breeched. Sex trafficking is going on all around us. We’re literally surrounded by a world that has openly abandoned God. And the Christian Gospel has been reduced to a still small voice in the world.

Yes, yes, I know, says God the Father. Now here’s what I want you to do. Hear Him! Listen to My beloved Son! I give Him to you as Savior from sin and as Ruler at My right hand. Listen to His Gospel when it is preached! Really listen! Really work at paying attention! And when you feel like you’re immersed in the world’s raging and in the devil’s temptations, let the words of My Son rise up in your ears and in your hearts above the chaos and let them drown out the world below!

What we do here in the Church, what we confess, what we believe, what we focus on seems increasingly irrelevant to and at odds with the daily life we have to live in the world. This here hardly seems real. But the Transfiguration reminds us that the opposite is really true. This here—the preaching of the word of Christ and the administration of the Sacraments of Christ—is what’s real and what’s eternal, while the antics of society will soon be over and done. Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus says, but My words will never pass away. So hear Him and see to it that His words bring you back to the reality every day, not just on Sundays. As Peter wrote in the Epistle, we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

The day will surely dawn when we see the glory of Jesus with our eyes, when the hope of the Church is fulfilled. Until that day, hear Him in humility and keep your eyes trained on Christ crucified, who, by His death, has purchased for you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, who, by His glorious resurrection, has conquered death, and who, by His word and Sacraments, will strengthen and preserve you in the faith, so that one day, with your own eyes, you will see Him and join Him in His glory. Amen.

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Confession

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Presentation of Our Lord

Small Catechism Review: Confession

Before we get to our Catechism theme, let’s say a word about the theme for today’s celebration. It’s 40 days after Christmas today. 40 days after an Israelite woman gave birth to a male child, she was to take an offering to the priest, either a lamb and a turtledove, or two turtledoves if she couldn’t afford a lamb, and he would make atonement for her flow of blood from childbirth, and she would be clean. So Mary and Joseph went to the temple in Jerusalem to make the required offering for Mary’s purification, and also to present her firstborn Son to God as belonging to Him. Now, the Israelites normally redeemed their firstborn son with an offering, but St. Luke only mentions the offering for Mary, not any for Jesus, and that is probably significant, because Jesus was not bought back from God the Father to live a normal life. He was consecrated to God the Father for life, and He would be the one to redeem all the sons of men from sin, death, and the devil.

Then there was that famous encounter in the temple with Simeon, one of the few Israelites who was consciously waiting for the Christ to be born, who had been informed by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Lord’s Christ before he died. Somehow, the Holy Spirit guided Simeon to recognize baby Jesus for who He was, and also inspired him to speak or sing that famous song we know as the Nunc Dimittis.

We sing it at the end of our Sunday service, and appropriately so, because in the Sacrament of the Altar that we’ve just celebrated, our eyes have seen His salvation, too, the very body and blood of the Son of God, who redeemed us by His blood shed on the cross, so we’re also ready to “depart in peace.” And it’s because of our faith in that redemption that we dare to approach God at the beginning of the service to make confession of our sins.

And so we come to Fifth Chief Part of our Small Catechism on Confession.

Confession consists of two parts. First, that a person confesses his sins. Second, that a person receives the absolution or forgiveness from the minister, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that his sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.

Now, the first confession a person makes is really in connection with Holy Baptism, and Baptism itself is the first absolution a person receives. The baptized believer walks and lives in that forgiveness every day of his or her life.

What about the sins a believer sadly falls into every day, all the time? What about the sinful nature that is always with us, always desiring the wrong things and sometimes successful in getting us to do or say or think the wrong things? As long as a person remains penitent and believing, those sins don’t remove the forgiveness of sins that was given to us in Baptism. They don’t remove a person from God’s kingdom.

But how can a person be certain he is penitent and believing? What about the sins that weigh heavily on the heart of a believer? Well, just as a doctor examines a patient to diagnose his physical condition, so the minister is charged with diagnosing the spiritual condition of a person, and the same word of Jesus that gives ministers the authority to forgive sins the first time through Holy Baptism also gives them the authority to pronounce forgiveness repeatedly to the baptized believer.

But the minister can’t just assume that repentance is there in a person’s heart. Christians sometimes fall into sins that they are not sorry for, that they intend to keep committing. We call those “mortal sins,” deadly sins. So the sinner who is sorry for his sins confesses his sins to the minister, and his sure hope for forgiveness in Christ, and his intention not to go on living in sin. Then the minister knows that this is a person whom he ought to absolve.

Now, our experience with this is almost exclusively in that public, Sunday morning setting, where a group of Christians makes a general confession of sins, and a general absolution is pronounced to everyone, “upon this your confession.” You’re all familiar with that. Of course, there’s nothing to stop any visitor, any atheist, or even an impenitent Christian from simply saying those words, without meaning them, and from thinking that the absolution applies to him as well. That’s one of the downsides of a public confession. In an attempt to avoid any confusion, let me share with you the words of a public confession and absolution that Martin Chemnitz suggested back at the end of the 16th century, adding a very explicit warning to the end:

I, a poor sinner, confess to God, my heavenly Father, that I have sinned gravely and in many ways, not only with coarse outward sins, but much more with innate inner blindness, unbelief, doubt, despair, impatience, pride, evil desires, greed, secret envy, hate, discontent, and other sins; that I have in many ways, with thoughts, with actions, words and works, transgressed the most holy commandments of God, as my Lord and God recognizes in me, and I sadly cannot entirely recognize. They grieve me and cause me sorrow, and I yearn from the heart for God’s grace through His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and ask that He would grant me His Holy Spirit that I may amend my life.

Then the Absolution:

The Almighty God has had mercy upon you and, through the merit of the most holy suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, He forgives you all your sins. And to all of you who truly repent and, through the Gospel, place all your trust in the sole merit of Jesus Christ and intend to order your life according to the commandment and will of God, I, as an ordained minister of the Christian Church, announce the forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. However, I say to all the impenitent and unbelieving, on the basis of God’s Word and in the name of Jesus Christ, that God has retained your sins against you and will surely punish them.

So much for public confession. There is certainly a place for it in our service, as long as you’re thinking about and meaning the words you say week after week.

In most of the Church’s history, including that of the Lutheran Church, there has also existed private confession, where a Christian goes to his or her pastor or priest, and confesses his or her sins, so that the pastor knows that this person individually recognizes his sins, is sorry for them, believes in Christ Jesus for forgiveness, and intends to mend his ways. Then the minister knows, this is a person whom God commands me to absolve and forgive in the name of Christ.

There’s certainly a benefit to that, to private confession. Actually, more than one benefit. First, it allows a Christian to reflect on specific sins, to recognize specific faults in one’s words, in one’s behavior, in one’s attitude, even in one’s sin-tainted personality, so that a person knows what he or she needs to work on, with the help of the Holy Spirit, what he or she needs to be conscious of in one’s daily life, what one needs to amend or change.

Another benefit of it is the assurance that, when the pastor speaks the absolution, it isn’t just to everyone else in the room. It’s to that individual, as the pastor hears the penitent confession, the faith in Christ, the faith in Christ’s promise to forgive sins through the voice of His called servant, and the sinner’s intention to mend his ways.

Luther offers a neat little model of what making private confession to the pastor might look like. (I won’t read through the whole thing. I encourage you to open your catechism later and read through it.) Luther offers some basic questions a Christian can ask himself, to examine himself. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, master, mistress, or servant? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you hurt anyone with words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent or careless, or caused any harm? Then he offers a scenario of the dialogue between the pastor and the one making confession.

I, a poor sinner, confess before God that I am guilty of all sins. In particular, I confess before you that … I am sorry for all this, and I ask for grace. I will mend my ways. Then the minister should say: God be gracious to you and strengthen your faith! Amen. Do you also believe that my forgiveness is God’s forgiveness? Answer: Yes, dear pastor. Then let him say: As you believe, so may it be done to you. And I, by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Amen. Go in peace!

Now, if a person had fallen into mortal sin—that is, unrepented, willful sin—but then is brought to repentance by the Word of God, and he then confesses his sin and receives absolution from the pastor, then with that absolution he is brought back into the kingdom of God from the kingdom of the devil. But if a person has not fallen into mortal sin, but is simply confessing the daily sins of weakness of all Christians, then with that absolution he is confirmed in faith within the kingdom of God, comforted with yet another word of forgiveness for faith to cling to, and fortified with the Holy Spirit to truly go away refreshed, renewed, and empowered to change the things that were sinful and hurtful.

And finally, Luther writes that for those whose consciences are heavily burdened or who are troubled and afflicted, a father confessor will know well how to comfort them with other passages [of Scripture] and stir up their faith. Yet another advantage of private confession. An actual conversation can take place between the pastor and his member with specific advice and counsel from God’s Word.

We don’t have a confessional booth for this purpose, as Roman churches often do, but, as I’ve said before, if at any time, anyone wants to schedule a time for private confession, my office is just as good a place as any for such a conversation to take place.

Whether the confession and absolution are individual, or general in the Sunday morning service, our Lord has given us this gift of the ministry and the opportunity to confess our sins, not only to God in prayer, but to the man whom He has placed among us to hear and to forgive sins on earth, even as God promises that He is thereby forgiving those sins in heaven. Give thanks to God for this gift, and use it often! Amen.

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