Confession: Most Protestants are inclined to say that confession is Catholic and stop there. Or we hear it said, “Confession is good for the soul.” Even then, we are likely to hear it like Roman Catholics^[1], to suppose it means that we are to recount our sins. We don’t need confession in our church! Or do we?

Paul gives us a model for confession of the faith in the Book of Romans. Recall that this book is a letter of introduction to the church in Rome. How does he make his introduction? With a confession of faith!

It is important to note here that Paul does not confess his sins in our lesson today. He begins by referring to the Word of faith (v.8b). Salvation, he says, comes as we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead (v.9). One who believes is said to be justified, and one who confesses is saved (v.10). Citing Isaiah 28:16, Paul notes that no one who believes will be put to shame (v.11). No distinction between Jew and Gentile can be made, he adds. The Lord is lord of all and generous to all (v.12). Paul then cites Joel 2:32 (applying its reference of Yahweh to Jesus); he states that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v.13).

We have other examples of Paul’s version of confession in our other assigned Bible lessons. The first lesson includes a confession of faith of the Hebrews (in Deuteronomy 26:5-9). In the gospel, we hear Jesus confessing his faith (quoting scripture) in response to the devil’s temptations (in Luke 4:4,8,12).

It is clear that confession in this biblical, catholic sense is about faith, the faith of the Church, not just the confession of sins. The Apostles’ Creed and The Nicene Creed are examples of confessing faith like Paul, the Hebrews, and Jesus did. They are summaries of scripture. (Note: If the preacher is of a Lutheran or Reformed background she/he might note that the denominational founders in the Reformation era even formulated confessions, which to this day govern the teachings of the denomination.)      

Just to recite the creeds (or the denominational catechisms) is not to be involved in confession. You and I only really confess when we know what we’re saying and believe it. Keep that it mind the next time you recite the creed. The next time you have that chance, don’t just recite it — confess it!

Certainly, confession needs to be in harmony with the whole church. If what you say is just your own private opinion, it is not a confession of faith you offer. An authentic confession of faith expresses the church’s faith! This is such an appropriate concern for us to consider here at the beginning of Lent. Because in its origin, Lent was a period of instruction in what the church believed, so that those being baptized on Easter (the day of Baptism in the early church) would adequately be prepared to confess the faith on that day.^[2]

We need this kind of confession of the church’s faith especially today. We need it to counter the loneliness and self-serving individualism which is growing in America today. We are living in a world in which a sense of loneliness is growing in America (especially since the 1980’s). A 2016 Harris poll indicated that 72% of us say that we are lonely.^[3] We even do our religion more and more on our own. That’s why although the number of Americans not religiously affiliated is growing (23% according to the Pew Research Center), 9 in 10 Americans still believe in God (Gallup polls report).^[4] A number of social analysts think that this a function of the new American way of doing business in America, the demand for flexibility, reinvention, and openness to change. The point is that with this new set of management mantras, there is no “long term.” And no long term corrodes trust, loyalty, and commitment. But strong ties, by contrast, depend on trust and long association. As business undermines these values, it is only natural that the message to the labor force is that “you’re on your own.” That’s precisely the message and value system you take into your personal life too. Add to that that the millennial generation has been raised with the ethic of putting yourself first and being good to yourself, and you can understand why so many of us are inclined to go our own way, to go it alone when others are tying you down.^[5]

No doubt, we need an antidote to the rampant “do it my way” ethos of today. Confession is that antidote. For when you confess, you are confessing not just your faith, but the faith of your fellow-members, the faith of all your deceased Christian ancestors, the faith your great-great grandchildren (God-willing) will have, the faith of this congregation’s charter members, the faith of our denomination’s founders, the faith of the first followers of Jesus. You don’t stand alone when you confess the faith!

An authentic confession of faith gets you and me away from the loneliness and self-serving individualism of our day, because you’re confessing not just your faith, but the faith all those before you and those to come. A communal confession unites us together in a way that can critique all these individualistic trends.

Another by-product of our loneliness and individualism seems to be that we do not trust each other much, especially not our leaders. You know the numbers. As recently as 2017, Gallup found only 18% of us really trust lawyers (business leaders not much higher), members of Congress 6%, less than 1 in 2 Americans trust clergy (44%), and cops only have a 58% trust level. As we confess together over the years we come to feel that we are kin in hearts and minds. We come to trust each other. (I also am more likely to forget about myself, as I come to focus more on the content of my confession and on these who share that confession.) The result: social solidarity! The walls of suspicion start tumbling down when you share a common faith, or at least when your neighbor has the same job as someone with whom you share a common faith and trust.

The other-directed dimensions of confession promote more activity in the front part of our brains (the prefrontal cortex). It seems that when that happens it stimulates the secretion of the amphetamine-like pleasurable brain chemical dopamine. As we’ve noted previously, dopamine feels good.^[6]Confession is good for the church, good for society, and nurtures happy believers. That happiness, that joy, even gets better when you realize what it is we Christians confess, what Paul confessed.

Paul makes clear that his confession is about justification by grace through faith (vv.10,13). What we do, our works, are not what determines whether you are saved. Martin Luther made this so clear:

It follows, then, that a Christian must not believe that we are justified by an other righteousness. Let all works by which we aim to gain righteousness and all our own merits depart, because we are built upon the foundation not by doing works but by believing. Therefore let every godly man terrified by sin run to Christ as the mediator and propitiator, and let him leave all his own works behind.[7]         

What all this implies, Luther went on to say, is that

Believing in him [Christ] is the thing. It is useful and gives the power that we have from this: that neither hell nor the devil can take us and all others who believe him captive nor can they do us harm.^[8]

We can, John Calvin once said, “rest with a sweet confidence in God...”^[9]

The focus on the grace of God and that that is the only way we’re saved defines what confession is. At least that is what the famous ancient African theologian (a great influence on the first Protestants and Catholicism’s number one theologian to this day) Saint Augustine thought. He wrote a book called “The Confessions.” Here is how he defined confession:

For when I am wicked confession to You [O Lord] means being displeased with myself; but when I am good, confession to you means simply not attributing any goodness to myself.^[10]

Both Saint Patrick and Martin Luther said something like this too. First Patrick:

So now I commend my soul to you my most trustworthy God on whose behalf I am carrying out a mission, for all my humble status, but because he has no respect for persons he has even chosen me for this post that I should be among his lowest servants.^[11]

And then Luther adds:

For confession is the principal work of faith by which as man denies himself and confesses God and thus he both denies and confessed to such an extent that he would deny his own life and all things rather than affirm himself. For in confessing God and denying himself he dies.^[12]

Confession is about not attributing too much to yourself and giving all the credit to God!

To confess the faith in this Protestant/Catholic way gives confidence and joy. Temptation and despair don’t have a chance when we have renounced our own goodness. A confessor of the faith does not face the problems of life alone, and so he or she does not even have to be the one to fight these traits. When you are a confessor, the whole Body of Christ and God himself in the Holy Spirit is right there with you to stand up to all the evil. A confession of faith reminds us that we are totally dependent on God, and that he will take care of all our problems. Against that, temptation and despair are bound to wither away! Meet your trials this week with a confessed faith. And yes in the big picture of life they will all wither away, for collectively and in face of God — they ultimately have no chance.