Necessary Roughness

Two years ago to the day, I wrote an article about the first time I attended private confession, in Houston. Coincidentally, earlier this evening I thought about some of the things I like about corporate confession and absolution.

By corporate confession I mean the first part of a Divine Service, whether the congregation acknowledges that we are sinful and desire God’s mercy. An example is found here (PDF). Corporate confession is an every Sunday thing in most Lutheran churches. With my particular congregation also bringing in Matins and other orders of worship on non-communing Sundays, corporate confession isn’t used as much.

Corporate confession offers benefits including, but not limited to:

An immediate reminder of why we’re in church. A visitor encountering corporate confession and absolution gets the crux of Law and Gospel within the first 10 minutes of Divine Service.

The magnitude of our problem. Temporal and eternal punishment is serious stuff. This is why it is better to lose life or limbs rather than fall away from the faith. This is why doctrinal disagreements are often intense.

The sequence of events in our salvation. Before we could do anything for God, God had to save us. We don’t offer something up to God, who would look down at our altar, consider our sacrifices worthy, then bless us.

Egalitarianism. A horrible distortion of reality in the left-hand kingdom, in the right-hand kingdom it is literally a Godsend. Whether you are hundreds of thousands in debt or writing your fifth best-seller (or both?), you are a sinner. You need a Savior. You are forgiven. There are not different levels or classes of forgiveness. Everyone is a publican.

An acknowledgment of reality. The spiritual warfare of the past week has left its casualties. We have committed unknown and unadmitted offenses that would rob us of the crown of life. The flesh is still weak. Corporate confession and absolution is inoculation against hypocrisy and self-delusion. We are still in the world.

Only in the harsh light of confession does absolution make sense. We have need of the Physician who strengthens our faith with Word and Sacrament. Confession and absolution is catechesis and evangelism, in preparation for the feast to come.