I grew up with a sense that being a Lutheran meant that I subscribed and agreed to what the Lutheran Church taught was the Christian Faith. I like to think – and still do – that I’m not blind or naïve about these teachings because the foundations are Scriptural and they acknowledge the whole Scriptural landscape to present a message from God to comfort us sinners, people who live in this world of fear and injustice, haves and have-nots, cruelty and so much more with the Good News for God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness through Jesus. Where God is clear, I can be clear; where the message isn’t detailed enough for my liking, then I trust that God has revealed what I need to know and I leave things with God. Where the message is clear but I struggle with it or the world says the message is wrong in some way or outright, then I seek to understand God’s Word not to make it fit what I might want but to hear what it is saying. Because the heart of our confession is saying what we believe to be true and why and saying that something else is not true and why.

At Wittenberg at the International Church Relations Conference last week, there was a paper on Luther’s understanding of confession (of the Faith) which, I thought, was very good. It reminded us that the Christian Faith is more than ‘Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so’. Such words can hold us – maybe especially in the dark night of the soul – but they are only the opening words when someone asks us about what we believe or what we believe about this or that. We should know the words to say next and why we say them.

What the paper at Wittenberg reminded me was that as important as my confession of Faith is – to me – saying it to myself helps me – and to others – saying it to others gives opportunities for the Holy Spirit to continue his work – what is more important is Jesus’ action of confessing us to the Father! Judgement Day is not us turning up wondering what will happen based on our words and deeds but is always about comfort and redemption for we will then see what we have been hearing all our life at each Absolution, each Baptism, each Holy Communion – that our sins are forgiven, that we are ‘in Christ’, and that Jesus’ death on the cross – while we were still sinners! – is God’s great confession of his grace and mercy – his actions towards us.

This truth is at the heart and it shapes the Christian’s Confession of Faith. What we say is not unimportant! We are declaring Christ and his cross, repentance and suffering, faith, hope, and love in a way that is clear and precise so that people may be comforted. And yes, where we don’t hear such confessions from other disciples of Jesus then we remain true to the truth of God’s Word – speaking the truth in love. We don’t expect the world to welcome such messages – after all the world, our sin, killed Jesus – but the Gospel is the message the world – each person – needs for peace and security, hope and love.

Today we observe The Festival of All Saints to remind us that being a disciple of Jesus in this world is about living in a foreign land confessing the Faith. At times, that confession or witness involves more than words – when the world says, ‘Do you really believe in your Jesus?’ or when the world treats Jesus’ followers as Jesus was treated. When troubles come, our words may be silenced, our lives may end earlier than we would prefer but each day is lived in Jesus’ confession of us before the Father and Jesus never leaves us. Jesus concluded his teaching from the Upper Room to just before his prayer and then arrest in Gethsemane with these words, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 ESV).

GS