Newsletter Worship Whys: Confessing the Truth

Church newsletter pastoral column for St. Peter Lutheran Church, Greene, Iowa, for January, 2020. First of a series on “Worship Whys” exploring why we do the things we do in worship. Read part 2 & part 3.

Worship Whys: Confessing the Truth

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 
– Jesus in John 8:31-32

Happy New Year! As I write this column in mid-December, Christin and I are eagerly awaiting the birth of our child. Hopefully, by the time you read this, he will either be here, or his arrival will be imminent! Once he’s here, I’ll be taking several weeks of parental leave as we adjust to our new normal as a family of three.

While I’m gone, there are several area pastors available for pastoral care – contact the church office if you would like to visit with someone. We also have some excellent guest preachers lined up in my absence. I look forward to seeing you in church when I get back.

For the next several months in this space, I want to explore some of the elements of worship. Worship is at the heart of the Christian life. Worship is our core activity as a church, and it grounds everything else we do. As a community of believers, we gather each week to give thanks for what God’s doing in our lives and world, and to hear again and again the fresh message of God’s love for us. Fed in worship, we are sent out to share the good news of God’s love in our daily lives.

With all that said, sometimes worship can seem like just going through some motions because “we’ve always done it that way.” The language we use in church can be different than our everyday speaking. For worship to be meaningful, it’s worth exploring, “Why do we do that in worship?”

For this first column in this series, the key word is confession. Confession is about admitting something to be true. It’s the same word as when a criminal owns up to committing a crime. It’s about being honest with God and with ourselves. We confess two times during worship services.

First, we begin each time of worship by confessing our sins. Sometimes we use traditional language from the hymnal, and other times the wording is more modern and contextual, but either way, we’re admitting who we are as sinful people. We state publicly that we are captives to sin, that as Paul puts it, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15) We admit the truth that we can’t save ourselves, no matter how hard we try. We need a savior.

Then we hear the words of absolution, declaring the truth of what God has done for us. Because of Jesus, your sins are forgiven. You are set free from your bondage to sin. You are loved.

Later in the service, we confess our beliefs, typically using the language of the Apostles’ Creed. These ancient words declare the truth about who God is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is the Creator of the cosmos, of all that is. Jesus is God in the flesh who came to live among us, died to save us, and defeated death by rising again. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence active in the world.

In concise language, the creed tells about what God has done, and our confident hope that God will continue to act. While the language of the creed is not found in the Bible, it’s a simple summary of the truth of God’s Word that has served as a baseline to unite the church for centuries. As God’s gathered people, we declare our belief that these statements are true. This is what we believe.

-Pastor Daniel Flucke