Thursday of the Tenth Week After Trinity

August 13, 2026Today's Reading: Catechism: What is Confession?Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 31:1-13; 1 Corinthians 7:1-24“…Our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.” (Small Catechism- Confession)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.The Lutheran Service Book says on page 292 (in red ink): “If you are not burdened with particular sins, do not trouble yourself or search for or invent other sins, thereby turning confession into a torture. Instead, mention one or two sins that you know and let that be enough.”We’re big fans of the healing Jesus, the feeding Jesus—and these are super neat things, for sure—but this same Jesus is the dying Jesus, the blood-shedding Jesus, the merciful, forgiving, life-bringing Jesus. When it comes to this Jesus, the forgiveness of sin… well… that’s a little harder. If you’re blind, everyone knows it; you don’t have to level your pride or have your ego crushed. Sinners are prone to hide stuff… to cover it up. And it’s that covering up that prevents us from hearing the Word of God: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” (Matthew 9:6)We love the Jesus who feeds and heals, but when our Lord says that forgiveness is bestowed to us on account of Jesus through the pastor who gives the medicine of immortality—the forgiveness of sins that makes us alive again—that would mean admitting to another person that we’re not doing well, and it would mean that only Jesus can do something about what’s killing us.We’re not perfect; we say THAT all the time. We haven’t kept the Ten Commandments, but it’s hard to say with St. Paul, “Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24) We can confess sin—it’s that body-of-death part that’s true—but it’s the second part, receiving forgiveness, that’s so hard. Dead bodies must be given to; only God can do that. So we must ask: “What kind of God are we dealing with?” The God who’ll squash us like a bug? Or… is He the slow-to-anger and abounding-in-steadfast-love God? The God Who comes and dwells in the stinky mire of this fallen world to give us the cure for the sin that makes us blind, deaf, lame, and dead?” He’s exactly that God, as Luther writes: “Absolution is the Word of God spoken by the mouth of man. It is not the word of man, but of God Himself.” (AE 35:14)In the Name + of Jesus. AmenWe pray: Grant us, O Lord, we pray, to trust in Thee with all our heart; seeing that, as Thou dost always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so Thou dost not forsake those who make their boast in Thy mercy made known chiefly in the forgiveness of our sin; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.