I am currently in the midst of writing
the portion of the forthcoming Lutheran
Service Book Handbook that will deal with all forms of Confession and
Absolution in Lutheran Service Book. The following a slightly expanded form of the
first in a series of four church newsletter articles about private confession
that I am writing for my congregation:
It has been noted by a number of
scholars that the Lutheran Reformation began at the confession stool. Although we associate the Ninety Five theses
with the issue of indulgences, those indulgences were in fact part of the
larger medieval belief and practice called penance, and penance was tied to
confession.
At the beginning of the sixteenth
century Christians were expected at least once a year to make confession in
preparation for receiving the Sacrament of the Altar (usually at Easter). Christians were also expected to confess when
there was the danger of dying because of illness, childbirth, or dangerous
travel; when there was someone available to absolve and it was doubtful the
opportunity would occur again in the next year; and when they about to receive
the other sacraments. However,
confession was not considered to be something repeated on a regular basis
except among monks and very pious lay people (the strong link between regular confession
and Roman Catholic piety is a product of the Counter Reformation). In Martin Luther’s Augustinian monastic order
he was required to confess once a week.
In confession the priest sat on a
chair in the chancel (the confession chair) and the person confessing kneeled
before him (the confessional booth was not invented until the second half of
the sixteenth century). The person was
required to make a complete confession of sins in order to have a valid confession. By the late medieval period the Church had
developed the teaching that absolution forgave the guilt of sin before God.
However, because God had been offended there was still a temporal penalty that needed to be paid.
This temporal penalty was called penance.
If a person did not complete the penance, the absolution was no longer
valid. Therefore priests were taught to assign a very small penance (prayer,
fasting and alms were the most common).
However, this meant that the vast majority of the penalty was still owed. Indulgences, paying for masses and going on religious
pilgrimages were some of the ways that this could be addressed. Whatever had not been taken care of during
life, then had to be dealt with by time in the purifying fires purgatory.
In the Reformation, Martin Luther
rejected confession and penance as it was practiced by the medieval
Church. He recognized that the idea of doing something to placate God was a
rejection of the Gospel and God’s grace.
He understood from his own experience that the requirement for a
complete confession was not only impossible, but also was torture for the
conscience.
However, Luther did not in any way
reject confession because of the absolution that was spoken. He viewed this as a unique and comforting
application of the Gospel. And so Augsburg Confession article XI says,
“Concerning confession they teach that private confession should be retained in
the churches, although an enumeration of all faults in confession is not
necessary. For this is impossible according to the psalm [19:12]: ‘But who can
detect their errors?’”
In addition to this kind of
confession, there was since the ninth century A.D. a general form of confession
in the medieval Church. The medieval
Mass was in Latin. However, after the
sermon there was a brief “service” in the language of the people. It included a general confession (called the
Offene Schuld) and an absolution that was based on the form originally used in
private confession around 1000 A.D.
When the Lutheran Reformation was
first introduced into an area, the practice of confession in its medieval form was
abolished. Then, after time had passed (sometimes as long as a decade), an evangelical
(Lutheran) form of confession was introduced. Lutheran churches practiced a new
form of confession in which people did not attempt to enumerate all sins and
only confessed those they knew and felt in their heart. Then the absolution was
spoken. Christ spoke through the pastor
in absolution and having forgiven the sins, there was nothing more for the
person to do! In addition, when a person went to confession, Lutherans also
used this time with the pastor first as an opportunity for examination –
catechesis in the faith. The pastor
made sure that the individual understood the Catechism, and especially about
the Sacrament of the Altar. This was a
time of teaching, and was an important tool for catechesis in the early
Lutheran church. The Augsburg Confession
states: “Confession has not been abolished by the preachers on our side. For
the custom has been retained among us of not administering the sacrament to
those who have not previously been examined and absolved” (XXV.1-2).
All Lutheran churches had private
confession and people confessed before communing. This took place after Vespers on Saturday
(usually between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m.) and also on Sunday morning before the
Divine Service (this time was supposed to be reserved for the aged, pregnant,
handicapped and inhabitants of outlying villages, but others also came). In addition to this, some churches also
retained the general confession which could be found either at the beginning of
the service or in its traditional position after the sermon. This was the
practice in the sixteenth and most of the seventeenth century. We must understand that while the Sacrament
of the Altar was offered every Sunday, this does
not mean that individuals communed every Sunday. In fact the Church Orders regularly provided
the instruction for the situation: “If there are no communicants.” Church Orders also provided exhortations that
were to be addressed to the people by the pastor when there were no
communicants.
During this period the practice became
one in which individuals usually spoke a memorized formula of confession that
had been provided by the Church Order of that area and taught by the
pastor. A great challenge was the lack
of time: especially on the occasions of the great feasts, pastors faced the
challenge of hearing confession from hundreds of individuals in the larger
cities. Wherever people desired to
receive the Sacrament regularly (such as the Leipzig of Bach’s day), pastors
struggled to hear confession from all who wished to commune. This left little
opportunity for the teaching that was intended in the examination. While these
problems did exist, “confession piety” was a central feature of Lutheranism. Confession, the confession chair,
absolution, the power of the keys and the confession of sin occupied a large
space in prayer and hymn books of the period.
However, during the last forty years
of the seventeenth century Pietism complained that private confession did not
allow for the heartfelt spiritual discussion with the pastor that it believed
was necessary for people to be built up as "real" Christians. With its great emphasis on a personal and earnest confession, Pietism tended to elevate the confession over the absolution. Because it did not emphasize doctrine, Pietism did not view catechesis as a goal in confession. In order to accomplish the purposes of Pietism, pastors
instituted the practice of “announcing” for communion at the pastor’s study on
a day during the week. Pastors began to speak absolution to people at the
Saturday Vespers in a group. Eventually
the Vespers became a confessional service in which a general confession and
absolution prepared people to receive the Sacrament (this confessional service
is the source of the Rite of Corporate Confession and Absolution in Lutheran Service Book). For a time in many places,
private confession and the confessional service existed side by side. The inevitable result was that the practice
of private confession declined.
During the eighteenth century,
Rationalism rejected those things that reason could not understand. The very idea of sin was dismissed and
theologians rejected the idea that a pastor could speak absolution in Christ’s
place and stead. It was in this
environment that regions of Germany began to abolish private confession
altogether.
The practice of nineteenth century
German Lutheranism that immigrants brought with them when the LCMS was founded involved
announcement to the pastor during the week (often Friday) and then attendance
at a confessional service on Saturday before receiving the Sacrament on
Sunday. It must be recognized that at
this time, the Sacrament of the Altar was often only celebrated four times a
year.
Private confession never completely
disappeared from German Lutheranism, even if it became rare. During the
nineteenth century in Bavaria, the pastor Wilhelm Loehe worked to re-establish
the use of private confession alongside of general confession. Many of the pastors who helped found the
Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod were trained and sent by Loehe. LCMS pastors continued to defend the practice
of private confession against those shaped by American Protestantism and also
against charges that it was “Roman Catholic.”
Beginning around the middle of the
twentieth century the practice of announcing for communion along with the
confessional service in preparation for receiving the Sacrament began to diminish
and eventually disappeared in most areas.
Instead, the general confession at the beginning of the Divine Service
became the sole form of confession before reception of the Sacrament. The low tide of private confession in the
LCMS began in 1943 when the synodical catechism did not even include Luther’s “Short
Form of Confession” (nor was there a rite for private confession in The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941). There was no guidance about what the practice of private confession looked like.
However, things began to change in
1969 when the Worship Supplement provided
a rite of private confession that was modeled on Luther’s “Short Form of
Confession.” Lutheran Worship (1982) then included a rite of private confession
based on Luther’s “Short Form of Confession.” This "Short Form of Confession" was again included in the 1986
synodical translation of Luther’s Small
Catechism, and appeared in the 1991 synodical explanation of the Small Catechism. The Rite of Individual Confession and Absolution
based on the Luther’s “Short Form of Confession,” is also included in our
current hymnal Lutheran Service Book (pg.
292). These resources have been used by pastors in the effort to renew the
practice of private confession in the LCMS during the last thirty five years. Many pastors today make regular confession to
another area pastor and receive absolution.
Lutherans have retained private
confession and absolution because it is a uniquely comforting means of
receiving the Gospel. As the Apology of
the Augsburg Confession puts it:
It is well known that we have so explained and extolled the benefit of absolution and the power of the keys that many troubled consciences have received consolation from our teaching. They have heard that it is a command of God—indeed, the very voice of the gospel—so that we may believe the absolution and regard as certain that the forgiveness of sins is given to us freely on account of Christ and that we should maintain that we are truly reconciled to God by this faith. (Ap. XI.2).
Next: The Blessings of Private
Confession
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