“Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Lk 19:8). Zacchaeus made extraordinary financial amends. We can’t even publicly say we’re sorry.
COVID-19 was a stress test for the church, and our church body, the Lutheran Church–Missouri
Synod (LCMS), failed it miserably. According to the December 2020 issue of Reporter, “Only 15% of LCMS congregaons held in-person church services on Easter Sunday.” That means 85% of churches were closed on the high feast of The Resurrecon of Our Lord. Because large churches are in the mix, it’s likely that more than 85% of LCMS members were locked out of worshiping at their own churches. It was undoubtedly a me of uncertainty, yet decisions were made. And those decisions, made at the congregaonal level, took on a corporate reality, since the vast majority of our churches shared in locking doors.
At the recent 2025 Mid-South District Convenon, a resoluon, originally tled, “To Hold a Day of Fasng, Prayer, and Repentance for the Response to the 2020-22 COVID-19 Pandemic,” failed 73 to 84. But even before the majority rejected its content, its final resolve calling for corporate repentance was amended—or beter stated, was excised. That was aer a number of delegates spoke in opposion to the resoluon because it was “pouring salt on old wounds” and burdening the consciences of individuals who had already gone to their confessors for forgiveness. In addion, a point of informaon that congregaons only ever received mere guidance—which le each congregaon to navigate the pandemic on its own terms—suggested there was no corporate nature to what occurred. The essence of the overture was guted. And that was that: even if we acknowledge sin, repentance is a thoroughly private mater, only guardedly extending to more than one person, and certainly not reaching between congregaons, circuits, or districts.
Does the LCMS recognize corporate repentance? Scripture atests to both Israelites and Genles repenng in aggregate (Neh 9:1ff; Jon 3:6), while Daniel and Nehemiah prayed for the enre people, including themselves (Neh 1:4ff; Da 9:1ff). As it relates to the pandemic, one view denies any benefit to corporate repentance, instead asserng probable harm, because we don’t know who has repented— hence, a designated day of repentance would burden consciences. We might extend this logic of nescience to the congregaonal level, urging preachers to refrain from calling hearers to repentance for [fill-in-the-blank sin], since a hearer may have already been forgiven for [fill-in-the-blank sin]… just to make sure, it might be best if we relocate the Absoluon to the end of the Divine Service.
Another view holds that corporate repentance can be acknowledged by those who have already been forgiven so as to make a unified, public declaraon with those who remain unrepentant. It’s even conceivable that an assembly made up enrely of forgiven sinners could make a unified, public declaraon of past repentance as a means of clarifying the truth and their future intent. The benefit to be gained is a public confession on the scale of the public sin. A call to make such repentance is found when God commands Ezekiel, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols” (Ez 14:6). Did God, the knower of all hearts, unduly burden consciences in “the house of Israel”? Or did He convey corporate repentance as salutary when circumstances rise to the level of naonal confession? We’re reminded of the Lutheran Witness issue from 1918 with an arcle by Rev. Richard Jesse, who writes, “Only last May our Chief Execuve called upon the naon to observe a day of fasng, humiliaon, and prayer”—did President Wilson burden consciences? Or was he one of many presidents who proclaimed such days because corporate repentance is God-pleasing and directs the body toward unity of mind?
The saints who were locked out of church know what happened. The faithful who were denied the Lord’s Supper remember. But even more, the church and the world at-large witnessed it all. G. K. Chesterton asked, “How can it be more important to teach a child how to avoid disease than how to value life?” That’s exactly what the LCMS openly taught, while the Lord’s brother writes, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (Jas 1:18). Some steadfast congregaons kept the doors open, but corporately, we were closed. You could visit a grocery store or a liquor store or a laundromat, but not an LCMS church. It may be true that every other Chrisan denominaon also locked their doors. It’s probably true that every LCMS pastor knows a sin is not excused because others commit said sin. Sll, we hear the common self-jusfier: “We did the best we could with the informaon we had.” Do good intenons cover a multude of sins?
All of this points to the deeper issue of our inability as a church body to look at ourselves in the mirror. Not since Seminex has there been a circumstance that so widely affected the LCMS, yet we connue to deny the corporate nature of the response—public sin requires no public apology, especially when commited by the collecve. In fact, we made a concerted effort to do just the opposite when Today’s Business (Proposed Resolutions 2023) directed us to “Dra a resoluon on the many posives of the LCMS response to COVID” (p24). No doubt, leading up to the 2026 Synod Convenon, many will say that the pandemic has passed its expiraon, yet Daniel and Nehemiah prayed for mercy over past corporate sin far more than five years into exile. Others will say the pandemic was already dealt with when Synod agreed in convenon in 2023 that the Third Commandment is sll in force (Res 4-06), although we grant ourselves the license to “suspend public gatherings” “in Chrisan freedom” (Res 1105). Out of everything we resolved, we never resolved to not let 85% church closures happen again… so the pandemic was never truly dealt with. Whether saints show up to church is one queson; whether saints are denied in-person worship by their own church is another.
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty recently posted, “Sorry to bring up a sore subject that all of us would prefer to forget—I rarely post on this anymore—but we sll have neither acknowledged nor come to terms with what we did during covid. Therefore, I can only conclude that we are doomed to repeat those disastrous mistakes” (htps://x.com/AaronKheriatyMD/status/1932230205340619071). He’s right. Unless we corporately repent out loud and corporately commit to the worship of God out loud, we’ll see the same outcomes next me. We missed the opportunity to lead American churches of all denominaons in 2023—hopefully we seize it in 2026.
Pastor Greg Bauch
Ascension Lutheran Church
Madison TN
Christian News 