When the news broke in January that the treasurer of the synod had confessed to embezzling funds from the synod, the first question that many asked was “can he pay it back?” In the law this is called “restitution” which is often ordered by the courts when a crime involving money or property has been committed. The perpetrator is ordered to pay it back, or pay for the damage, as the case may be. This is the law’s attempt to make things right again for the victim. It is my sincere hope that the former synod treasurer will pay back what he took. If he does, he can make things right financially with the synod. What he cannot do is restore the trust that people had in him. That is forever shattered.
This whole incident started me thinking about confession, forgiveness, sin, punishment, and restitution. Before the Reformation, the church generally taught that a valid confession of sin required three things before forgiveness could be granted: sincere contrition (contritio cordis), a spoken confession (confessio oris), and satisfaction (satisfactio operas). The last one involved either restitution or some other deed that in some way compensated for the sin that was committed. Who can ever forget Kristin Lavransdatter, in Sigrid Undset’s great novel of that name, making a harrowing winter pilgrimage over the Dovre Mountains to the cathedral in Trondheim with her firstborn son in her arms as an act of contrition for conceiving the child outside of wedlock with a married man? She was told to do this as part of her penance. She had to balance her bad deed with a good deed, or so she was told.
The Lutheran reformers abolished the satisfaction part of confession, holding that confession should consist of only two parts: the confession spoken by the penitent and the absolution spoken by the confessor. The purpose of this change was to make clear to the penitent sinner that “ we receive everything by grace.” (Luther’s Small Catechism) There is absolutely no way the sinner deserves or earns the forgiveness of sins from God. The only acceptable act of satisfaction for sins was accomplished by Jesus on the cross and is given as a free gift to the one who has faith in Jesus. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:23-35 makes this clear. The servant was forgiven his debt by his master and never asked to pay it back. Unfortunately he did not show the same kindness to his fellow servant.
The reformers were right to make this change because it conforms to the Bible. And yet, the natural human instinct is to ask “what can be done to make things right?” when seeking forgiveness. A sincere confession of a sin against another human being would lead the sinner to try to make restitution if it is possible. Unfortunately, many sins cannot be made right because they are not as simple as a mere theft of money. In those cases the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant teaches that Jesus expects unconditional forgiveness. In the Lord’s Prayer he taught his disciples to pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
In a famous incident in the life of St. Francis of Assissi, a woman came to him and asked forgiveness for gossiping about her neighbor. She asked what she could do to make it right again. St. Francis said that she should place a goose feather at the door of each house in the village and come back the next day. When she came back the next day he told her to gather back all those goose feathers. She said that it would be impossible to get them all back. He said to her that it was just as impossible to recall the words of gossip she had said about her neighbor. She was going to have to accept forgiveness and know that she would have to live with the consequences of what she did for a very long time. Her words would float around the village for years to come, and there was little she could do about it except say she was sorry.
In the case of the synod treasurer, the synod staff has pledged to make every effort to recover as much of the money that was taken as possible by every means possible. They have also pledged to put in place all the safeguards against this kind of theft that they can. These are entirely appropriate things to do, but they should not be seen as diminishing the church’s teaching on confession and forgiveness. As Lutherans this church still stands on the Lutheran understanding of confession and forgiveness as found in the Catechism and the Augsburg Confession – and the Bible.
February 22 is Ash Wednesday, the church’s great day for confession of sins. While sorrow over sin is real and sometimes intense, faith in the unmerited and unconditional forgiveness that God offers in Jesus Christ our Lord is yet more powerful. It is with grateful hearts that we confess our sins to God, knowing that divine forgiveness is real and complete.