If you drive through Carabelle FL, you might notice that the city of Carabelle proudly touts the honor of having “the World’s Smallest Police Station.” This police station is nothing more than an old style telephone booth like Superman used to change in before the advent of the iPhone destroyed payphones.

Another little box that has gone out of fashion is the Roman Catholic confessional. Sure, we see it in movies all the time, but if you visit a modern Roman Catholic church you’ll be hard pressed to find one. Instead, they have gone to “reconciliation rooms,” that are oftentimes built into the plan of the church itself. This doesn’t mean Roman Catholics don’t confess their sins privately to a priest anymore, it just means the little box isn’t as visible a symbol of that practice as what it used to be.

You might think that like phone booths and confessional boxes, Lutheran individual confession and absolution has similarly gone of out style. I think I would agree with you. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t still exist. If you look in your copy of Luther’s Small Catechism, it is right there in the 5th chief part: Confession and Absolution. If you read that chief part, you’ll notice that it assumes a private confession and absolution with a pastor, including what sins we should confess to a pastor.

I happen to have just renewed my practice of private confession with a brother pastor (my old confessor moved and we had issues connecting our schedules). For about 45 minutes we take turns having a frank discussion about our sins using the “Individual Confession and Absolution” rite in one of our hymnals. Each of us confesses generally to all sins, even those we are not aware of, and then we start with the line, “what troubles me particularly is….” and we tell each other about those sins. Then the person hearing the confession does this great thing: he says that I’m forgiven. He tells me that Jesus loves me, that He died for me, and that He has canceled my debt and freed me from sin. 

This is great news, because like you, I can let Satan get in my head. I can pretend that my sins “aren’t that bad” and so I don’t really need to confess them, just do better. I can also pretend the reverse, that my sins are so bad Jesus wants nothing to do with me. Confession points out that both of those things are a lie of Satan. Now, you can get the good news in the general confession we do on Sunday, no doubt. But there is something about doing it out loud and one on one that calls out Satan’s tricks really effectively. 

By the way, you don’t even need to do this with me. Our Lutheran Confessions confirm that two Christians can assure one another of the Gospel (Smalcald Articles, 3.4). Sometimes, it is just good to say it out loud, to hear it spoken to you out loud, and to push back on Satan’s lies. If you’re ever interested in taking this step of faith, I’m happy to hear your confession and assure you of the Gospel. It might not be out in the open like phone booth, but it’s always available to you.

In the meantime, if you’re not looking to take that step of faith, simply remember the take-away I mentioned above. Confess your sins in our general confession in a way that calls out your sinful self on that stuff it is trying to minimize or maximize, and then receive the Good News of Jesus Christ as if it were spoken directly in your ears and heart (because it is).