Visits and the Keys

Greetings in Christ,

Out with the old and in with the new! Through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, God reveals the following to us: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Cor. 5:17). What kind of new creation are we? Those of us with faith in Christ are God's righteous people - people of redemption, renewal, and reconciliation. As the new year begins, God is providing Calvary with new opportunities to rejoice in our redemption, be renewed in our identity in Christ, and be reconciled to God, each other, and others in our lives. For a while, I have been able to introduce myself as Calvary's "new Pastor." More recently, I have been introducing myself as Calvary's "relatively new Pastor." In March, I will celebrate two years of serving as your Pastor. Indeed, I was already preaching here regularly two years ago, as you were praying over and contemplating who you would call to be your next Pastor. I have gotten to know the congregation as a whole fairly well over these past two years. However, I have not gotten to know many of the individuals of the congregation. The members I know the best are the elders, parish planning members, and the members I have visited at hospitals, or as shut-ins. As part of my desire to know and serve the individuals of the congregation better, I have had Marsha begin scheduling "well visits." My goal with these visits is simple – to get to know the individual members of the congregation better, and to provide the opportunity for you to get to know me. These visits will also provide you with the opportunity to raise any faith questions you have. How often do you have the opportunity to spend 30 minutes or more one-on-one with a pastor to ask anything you want? On that note, you don't have to wait for Marsha to call to schedule a visit with me. Feel free to call into the office to have Marsha schedule a visit. I have already conducted about half a dozen or so of these visits. They have been a great joy to me, and seem to be very well received by all of the members so far. I have learned far more about these individuals than a 3-5 second handshake at the end of service each week affords me. It has given me the opportunity to provide non-urgent pastoral care to some. I anticipate that for some, this will prove to be a very significant opportunity to receive much needed pastoral care that they may have otherwise gone without. With this in mind, I want to turn our attention to a subject we don't talk much about in the Lutheran Church: Private confession and absolution (forgiveness). I have had a few members (including elders) ask that I speak to the congregation about private confession and absolution. Recently, we have been studying this on Sunday mornings, as we have been going through Luther's Small Catechism. Confessing your sins privately to your pastor is not something that is required by Scripture. However, confessing your sins, and hearing the words of absolution spoken directly to you as an individual is a great gift God has given to His Church. It is meant to be a blessing for the easing of burdened consciences. Many Lutherans don't realize that private confession and absolution is a thing that we offer in the Lutheran Church, but it most certainly is. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, after calling those of us in Christ "a new creation," Paul goes on to proclaim the following: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. This message that we have been entrusted with is the message of absolution through Christ. We are to encourage each other not only to confess our sins but also to seek the message of reconciliation in Christ Jesus, our Savior. If you have faith questions that have been bothering you, I encourage you to come speak with me. If you are burdened with a guilty conscience and would like to find relief, please come speak with me. Share your burden of sin with me, and I will do what you have called me here to do; I will speak as Christ's ambassador the very Word of Christ – the message of forgiveness and reconciliation in His name. I will help you carry your burden to the foot of the Cross so that you may lay it down at Jesus' feet, and be renewed in the righteousness of God. For as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." May God bless you with all His good gifts in the new year that you may be renewed each day in God's righteousness through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Living forever, now,

Pastor Michael James Grannis