The ridiculous part of the worship service

I’m not sure how well known this is, but as God’s people, we don’t actually confess our sins in a worship service so that we might be forgiven. As Arlo D. Duba writes in Reformed Worship:

We confess our sins because we know and have the assurance that our God is a gracious and forgiving God who, while we were yet sinners, sent Christ to die for us, received us in baptism, and for Jesus’ sake forgives our sins. So we dare to approach the throne of grace with confidence, not with fear. – (RW June 1999, p. 16)

Although it is rightly a solemn, introspective moment in the service, it is also a moment of celebration: Even as we confess our sins to God and one another – honestly owning up to our failures – we are assured that in Christ we are forgiven. Not “maybe forgiven” or “possibly forgiven if we’re lucky.” We are “assured” that God’s amazing, boundless, cleansing grace is for me and you. As The Worship Sourcebook puts it: “We confess sin in the context of the covenant Lord’s love shown to us through Jesus Christ” (p. 81).

Need I point out that this is the Lord who knows every single thing about you and me? He knows every nasty, secret thing I’ve ever thought. He knows every unethical scheme I’ve concocted. He knows every rotten thing I think I’ve gotten away with. He knows every ignorant, hurtful word I’ve uttered. This is the Lord who shows love and mercy to me in Christ!

It’s almost ridiculous that the great and perfect ruler of the universe chooses to call me one of His children. Yet that is the truth I claim every time a worship service includes an assurance of pardon following the confession of sins. Somewhere along the way, every genuine worship service and every true act of worship echoes with this Gospel, this Good News.
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