Forgiveness without bondage (cont'd)...

‎"If you will listen, the lacerated and despairing heart will tell you that we doubt Godʼs goodness and power; we doubt Godʼs justice. We doubt Godʼs promises. We doubt Godʼs love. We live in fear and self-loathing. We live as captives to idolatry, misbelief, unbelief and despair and are routinely propelled towards other great shame and vice. Great hope and healing are given if you donʼt regard the individualʼs story as a sad autobiography, but instead, hear it for what it really is: a confession. Seize the opportunity to respond to a genuine and repentant heart by acknowledging that they are right to speak of such things for they are speaking the truth about sin. Speak a Word of absolution; give Christʼs own life and hope and holiness to the suffering soul before you. In a world seeking transcendence and transformation, the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is unparalleled. In the Word of absolution we are given new life, our baptismal identity is renewed and we are mindful anew of what it is that God has done for us in our Lord, Jesus Christ."  (p. 15)

This is what Dr. Beverly Yahnke wrote in her paper I mentioned in the previous post on forgiveness without bondage. In this quote from  When Death Seduces the Living, she is speaking to pastors regarding those regarding parishioners with melancholy.

As I stated before, her words, her explanation of what lies beneath the confession of emotions and thus the need for the Word of Absolution to be given...freely...is applicable to all deeply wounded parishioners. The point of her paper is that those struggling with darkness are in need of spiritual care, in addition to psychological care. It is not up to the pastor to decided what the parishioner needs to heal psychologically, but to focus on what the parishioner needs to heal spiritually. It is not up to ANYONE to understand why forgiveness is asked for, either directly or indirectly, but instead to give it.

So much of a discussion on Facebook (beginning yesterday and crossing over into today) regarding giving absolution to someone who confesses struggling with sexual abuse became focused on what possible sin could there to forgive. However, by denying that person forgiveness because you believe he or she does not need it or because you think hearing they are forgiven might harm her or him down the road is harming the person right then. And you are standing in a vocation that is not yours.

Trying to assign sin to one of the Ten Commandments before giving absolution is really placing law upon forgiveness, placing bondage on forgiveness.  So also is bondage in trying to explain to a parishioner which part of his or her confession is "absolvable" because it is his or her sin and which part is not "absolvable" because it is the fruit of the sin of others against the person.  That is confusing vocations of psychology and spiritual care. The point is that if someone asks for forgiveness, you should not place conditions upon that forgiveness or withhold it because you do not understand his  need, her anguish.

Again, Dr. Yahnke talks about how the struggling person speaking of emotions and such is really speaking of the struggle of unbelief.  But if you must have more specific examples before you would grant forgiveness, someone who has been sexually abused might be struggling not merely of the weight of the sin committed against her, against him, but also the sin of:

• hating your body
• not believing God's word about your body
• keeping secret (lying by omission) about what happened
• hating your abuser; wishing him ill
• not forgiving your abuser
• struggling to believe the promise of being made clean/pure
• wanting to harm yourself over what happened; harming yourself in response to what happened
• struggling with anger at yourself, your abuser, those who failed to protect you, God...

Or as Pastor Lehmann put it:

If a rape victim confessed guilt and shame over being raped to me, I wouldn't interrogate them so that I could force them to tell me all the salacious details. I don't necessarily need to know whether they're confessing their feeling of sexual arousal, hatred of the rapist, or inclination to suicide or anything else. I need to know that they are burdened and tell them that Jesus has taken those burdens to the cross and destroyed them there.

Dr. Yahnke also added to the discussion the following, which confirms the need for forgiveness without any type of bondage to laws about what should or should not be confessed, what is or is not sin:  

Daily we sin much and guilt is a horrible burden to bear. I have observed individuals who suffer greatly because they've been told that their thought or choice or behavior wasn't "really" a sin...and that no absolution was required. When a pastor disputes one's reason for guilt or shame, there is no comfort, there is no proclamation of the Gospel and the soul seeking care departs with sadness and shame. The forgiveness of sins is the centerpiece of individual care for the soul; the pastor hears one's confession and one's repentant heart and he speaks the Holy Word of absolution. Misbelief, unbelief and despair as well as other great shame and vice saturate many personal narratives shared in pastoral care conversations. A pastor listens carefully, explains that speaking such truth repentantly before God is, indeed, a confession and speaks the Word of forgiveness. Unabsolved sin - real or imagined is cause for despair.

All throughout our Confessions, the authors speak of the anguish soul, the sinner struggling with doubt and despair and confusion and guilt and unbelief.  Always, mention of the anguished soul is accompanied by the need to give them the Gospel, the forgiveness and healing of the sweet, sweet Gospel...whether that comes in speaking the Living Word, washing them in the waters of Holy Baptism, placing Jesus' very body and blood into their body, and/or speaking the Word of Absolution.  With the latter, in our Confessions and in Luther's Exhortation to Confession, there is a clear refrain that speaking forgiveness soothes, comforts, assuages, heals, and brings peace to the anguished soul.  

This is exactly why the Church retains Absolution and places no need to even list the sins that are felling the parishioner seeking forgiveness.  As Luther explains...the point of absolution is not what you speak to the pastor, but what the pastor speaks to you.  He is not granting you his understanding, his forgiveness.  The pastor is speaking, is granting, the very forgiveness of Jesus Christ, the one who understands you fully for through Him you came into being and in Him you are forgiven.  He is merely serving as the hands and mouth of your savior.

In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God. 

He was in the beginning with God. 

All things came into being 

through Him, 

and apart from Him 

nothing came into being 

that has come into being. 

In Him was life, 

and the life was the Light of men. 

The Light shines in the darkness, 

and the darkness 

did not overcome it.

 ~John 1:1-5 

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!